My dad once said to me, “Choose a career you love, and you will never work a day in your life.” I believe that if a person has a passion for his or her job they will be more successful.  I want a job that can support my family in the future, but one I can also enjoy doing. Although I excel in math subjects, I always had a passion for law-related fields. Ever since I was a little girl, this field has always stuck out to me in some way. Law first sparked my interest when I was younger, and I use to watch Law and Order, a television show relating to law, with my mom. After I would watch an episode, I would get a big head and argue with my mom over everything right down to what color socks I should wear to school the following day. As I got older, guidance counselors were constantly telling me I needed to start thinking about my future. The only thing I can see myself as is a lawyer. I decided to do some research. Starting last summer, I have been in contact with a District Attorney’s Assistant to familiarize myself with the career to make sure it was what I thought it was.

Last summer, I had job shadowed a District Attorney’s Assistant that works at the Lackawanna County District Attorney’s Office. I truly can see myself in this career and my parents can as well. They told me they could tell this was the career for me by the way I was talking about the day I spent with my new role model; I got to spend a day in the life of an Attorney. Before I could start my day, I had to sign a confidentiality paper.  After that, I was taken to the office and had to read over some of the cases to familiarize myself with them. I was given an enormous stack of packets to read. The stack was at least two inches thick, I wondered how I can possibly get done reading them in one day. I was nervous about it being too much work at this point, but when I started reading the packets that consisted of the crime that they had committed, and their previous criminal records, I suddenly became more intrigued by the way the legal system worked. I flew through the stack of papers in a little amount of time, because I was so interested. I got to meet some lawyers, police officers, and even the judge because I got done reading my papers before it was time to meet with clients.

At this time, I had to go back to the room called central court, where the judge was and get ready for clients to come in. They clients started coming in the room, some people that looked like everyday people, dressed in normal clothes, and some in orange jumpsuits. Now I had to call them up to the stand where the judge, the District Attorney's assistant, and I were. If a person answered that he or she was present, I then had to present what they were accused of, and then I had to let the lawyers battle it out until they came to a conclusion on what they were going to sentence the criminal to. I was so interested in how the District Attorney and the Defense Lawyer came to the conclusion. Out of around 100 cases I went through that day, only one was on the verge of going to court. The District Attorney and the Defense Attorney, just could not come to an agreement on how they should charge they criminal. This was one of the more severe cases of course. Finally, they came to a fair agreement. It was interesting watching them.

Throughout my long day, I finally came to a conclusion that this is the career I want to pursue. At West Chester University I would hope to study Political Science by majoring in government so I can explore the beginning of the law field. I am sure that WCU will give me all of the tools, knowledge, and background I need to become a successful District Attorney.