One of my cousins asked me this question (the title of this post) during a recent celebration in my family (my grandmother's 80th birthday) and now I'm feeling compelled to write an entire blog post about it. Haha. She wasn't the first one to ask me that question -- many, many people have questioned the rationale of me choosing what can be regarded as the hardest social science major among others -- as my prospective major for my first degree.
Well, since you were wondering, I'll break it down for you.
But first, some history about my career realization.
When the subject of career options first entered my conscious mind in Form Four (we had our first career talk in school then), everything was Greek to me. What were they talking about? Majors, college, degree, diploma, course...all were pretty alien terms back then. All I vaguely remember from there is that we should choose based on what we were interested in: hobbies, talents, whatnot. And apparently all the smartest kids in school should take up medicine (no offence medicine students...I'm referring to the popular belief that smart students = future doctors.)
The first major that I listed as my preference a year later, at another career fair where we had opportunities to inquire about the majors that we liked, wasn't law; it was mass communication. Today, it still remains my second choice, due to its prerequisites and my interest, which is the study or written expression of what is happening in society.
However, my choices were not fixed at that time. I knew that there were a lot of other majors besides the more familiar ones people were talking about such as doctor, engineer, pharmacy, architect...(weird enough at that time law as a popular option was pretty alien to me as I was still in the science stream then), and that there may be one that was more suitable for me...or not. That was when I decided to do some research about it. One of the best resources that I found very useful for post-SPM time research is doctorjob's A to Z booklet of courses and jobs, which lists down what will be studied as well as the prerequisites for each course. I mail ordered it for RM5 then. That time was when I found out more about other courses, including law.
That was some history for you. Back to the question, here's why I kind of decided on law for next year:
- I have personally defined law as the study of the regulations that govern a society to enable harmony and peace in a country and also inter-country (internationally). For a more detailed (and proper) explanation, click here.
- Issues such as equality, social justice and impartiality have been important (dear) to me since a young age, and I think that by studying law I can know more about these concepts and more importantly, do something to contribute to the practice of these concepts in society.
- It has been said that law is a study subject where tons of statutes, acts and orders need to be digested -- and all these knowledge is mostly unknown to people in general, i.e many people are unaware of their rights, and I would like to be able to make people more aware of their rights so that irresponsible parties don't take advantage of clients by finding loopholes, changing the terms in a contract, etc., thus bettering society.
- Why, you ask? I cannot deny that I'm a studious person, and I'd always been pretty consistent with my study performance due to the fact that I can digest information fast, since young, so I take studying this subject as challenging, yet I know that if I work hard I can do it because God has blessed me with a brain and I want to maximize its capability, pushing myself harder and stronger.
- Reading and writing, especially the latter, are my favorite things to do. I like keeping up on current issues, and as long as I'm not being lazy (ouch) I'll study on them, reading opinions and trends, etc.
- Law also calls for the sensitivity to the points and errors made by both parties, as well as the skill to counter them, and I've been training these skills in daily life. I like it, actually, as it helps one to understand the viewpoints of others and strengthen your own ones. (In terms of interpersonal relationships, however, it does helps to be sensitive to people...but not too sensitive! I undeniably need a lot of work on that part...)
- Besides...I do love to argue, and I have strong opinions on a lot of issues (I do review my opinions from time to time though). Most of you don't know this, but my family members and more recently, my classmates can attest to that, since I am more vocal around them about these sort of things (think debating!). ;)
And that, my friend, is basically why I choose law. I'm not 100 percent sure that it's the best mistakes, but sometimes you'll only know after studying the subject for some time. Until then, law is still my first choice...
Slight detour: If you wonder why I don't blog about current issues more often, it's because (honestly) factual articles are hard to write in a short period of time, and factual errors are risky business. Quoting from this article (emphasis mine):
The purpose of writing an unbiased and factual article is to relay information in a simple and straightforward manner, giving both sides of a situation or story without the writer having a need to express personal feeling.
Writing this type of article can be difficult at times because, after all, the writer is human and may or may not have a strong positive or negative opinion on the particular topic they are writing about.
Writing a factual piece is almost like writing for Time or Newsweek, where I'll need tons of time, information, and citations, not to mention that this is a personal blog where I am entitled to my right of opinion, which may or may not have a bias (I try not to sometimes). Studying law, then, would make me become able to write that kind of stuff more often, and enrich my mind.
That being said, perhaps I'll be working on a more factual piece for my next blog post. Stay tuned! :)
PS: If you asked me for my dream job, I'd actually like to be a columnist . Imagine getting paid for your opinion, where people would enjoy when written in an factual yet insightful manner :) However, that's more of an interest, a 'side thing' to me as compared to my main major (lawyer cum regular columnist for ... daily/magazine). Only time can tell on that one...
Image taken from here.
Image taken from here.
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