Everyone Seems to Know But Me

In all of my classes this term, the professors ask the following for introductions:

• What is Your Name?
• Where You Are From?
• What Term Are You In?
• What Type of Law Do You Want to Practice Upon Graduation?
• What is Your Favorite Novel?

The first three are easy. It's the fourth question that stumps me.

Most students blurt out the answer without hesitation. Some are proud that they want to be a personal injury attorney or a litigator. Others pronounce with excitement that they want to work in bankruptcy; corporate mergers and acquisitions; or oil and gas law. Even more are thrilled that they want to be prosecutors or public defenders. They all seem to know what they want.

I hate to say it, but I just don't know what I want to be when I grow up.

Sure, I want to practice law. But I'm just not sure what type of law. Different areas of the law appeal to me. So I guess saying that I want to do Transactional / Civil Rights / Administrative / Real Estate / Contracts / Mediation is a bit of a stretch? To be honest, I'm the type of person that I won't really know what type of law I want to practice until I actually do the job in real life.

Right now I'm leaning towards being a solo practitioner with possibly a focus on mediation, mental health law, and juvenile law. Or I'm leaning towards working for the government in an administrative law capacity. I've also thought about working in immigration law. But if you've read some of my earlier posts, you'll notice that I change my mind...frequently.

Maybe I should just toss a dart and go wherever it lands. It's a whole lot easier to do that than to figure out exactly what type of law I want to commit to.

Of course, part of my choices will depend on what the economy looks like when I graduate.

On a side note, my answer for the last question - what is your favorite novel - is also, "It depends." I always rotate my answer on that one when asked. But here's a few that changed the way I look at the world:

• Skinny Legs and All by Tom Robbins
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (actually, anything she's ever written)
• Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
• Kindred by Octavia Butler
• Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang
• Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach
• The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff

Maybe the reason I can't decide what I want to be when I grow up is because my preferences are so varied, just like my book preferences.