Sometime between 5:30 and 5:40 pm

[timepiececlock]

I was driving South on Highway 85 (San Jose), somewhere between the Saratoga exit and the 17 junction, wading through traffic, when I realized what I wanted to do with my life. What I wanted to study.

It came with a sweeping sense of satisfaction. All through school, since 1st grade, I've never had a clear thought on what I wanted to be. It was always at least four or five different things, sometimes as many as seven. No matter how many times or by whom I was asked, it was the same vague answer, all the way up to yesterday.

I want to study political science. I want to study sociology. I want to have a career in the political arena in some form-- be it a lobbyist, a consultant, a speech-writer. Any number of things. I want so badly to affect the world around me and to help change the things I think are wrong in the world, and to further the things that are worth keeping, worth defending.

And I'm good at it. I'm good at presenting my opinions, good at convincing people to see things my way, good at arguing a case that's worth arguing.

At one point I wanted to be a lawyer. I've had people tell me I'd be a great lawyer. At one point I wanted to be in the FBI. But I realized I want to do more expansive things than that-- to affect things in a bigger way. And I'm so passionate about politics. I want to be involved, in some way, in how my society is run, in how things change.

I'm still four years of schooling away from a career of any kind... I get that. But at least now-- now I know what I want. My problems in high school were from not caring about what I was learning-- not knowing what I wanted, and thus not feeling any deep down need to study for it.

But I want something now. I have ambition.

This is a Good Thing.

Comments

Re: *forgive me for the unnecessary lurking*

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Well, you're not really pestering. You are being very polite. But I'm rather tired of answering questions about it so I think this will be the last time. :)

No particular reason for not double-majoring.

The American Civil Liberties Union is a legal nonprofit organization with offices in every state, devoted to the cause of defending the constitutional rights of Americans in the law. They appear more times in the Supreme Court cases than any group other than the U. S. government itself. They are awesome because they exist solely to go to court and say "You can't do that shit, because it violates our civil rights."

They are regarded as a progressive group, though given that they are based around the law and not party lines there are rare times when a position they take on an issue might not be the typical "liberal" side.

There's quite a few anti websites, given how large the ACLU is and the fact that it takes on thousands of cases across the U.S.

Re: *forgive me for the unnecessary lurking*

[rasielle.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I see what you mean; so I suppose the ill-feeling towards ACLU is out of disagreement, more than anything. Well, I have no reason to suspect that they could have hidden motives, as you say they don't actually step out of their 'civil liberties' role, even when it's suggested otherwise.

I think I'll do some more research on it later, instead of pelting you with all these questions. *chuckles weakly* Sorry about that. I'm not a spectacular conversationist, so sometimes I ask questions to make up for that, but in this case, I was actually interested. Like I said, I know near nothing about law.

Again, I'm sorry I had to interrogate you so late at night... but yes, that was the last of it. You're actually the first person I've met ((in a way)) to be involved with political science, so it's interesting to see the reasoning behind it. Good luck with your career in future, and again, congrats! ^_^