Are We Boring????
This week my child’s school asked me to come to career day and talk to elementary school kids about my job as an attorney. I thought it was super cute and wanted also to help my kid’s school out, since I like the school and want to contribute when and where I can.
So, there I was, walking up to the outdoor tables that the school had set up for all the parents to set up their presentations. As I came closer, I realized all the other cool things that other parents did. One parent worked for Duke Energy as some type of lineman. One parent was a meteorologist. One parent was a programmer that worked at one of the major gaming companies in the world. One parent was an archeologist with all these different bones on their table. What did I bring? Nothing. What in the hell could I bring that would even come close to being interestingly demonstrative of my profession as a lawyer? Black’s Law Dictionary? A couple of statute books? Snoozeville! But I held my head high and shrugged it off. Just because my career didn’t have easy demonstrables for a shindig like this, didn’t mean what I did wasn’t interesting to others…right?
So, I sat down at this little cute picnic table with my name on a placard atop just enjoying the spring day and looking around at all the other cool set ups of the other parents. Then, the kids start filing out of the school and running up to our tables. I sit. I sit. I continue to sit and all the kids just file passed my table not even batting an eye at me. Soon one or two kids, who were as kind and cute as could be, come up to me and ask me what my job was. Oh shit. How do I explain to these innocent and beautiful little children what I did for a living? Before I got there, I was just at the jail for my client facing First Degree Murder and had filed something at the clerk’s office. How do I explain this to these beautiful angelic children in a way that sounds even remotely interesting (and non-traumatizing)??
“I help people resolve disputes and arguments by going to court!” I found something to say. These gorgeous little rays of sunshine looked at me totally confused, then got distracted and ran to the head chef’s table who had just pulled out the sugar cookies (which were damn good by the way). I started texting my law partner: “I have the most boring job out of all the parents here (frown face emoji).
Is what we as lawyers do boring to the masses? Have I been totally fooling myself that what I did was exciting and engaging and people outside the profession were interested in it? Did these innocent little children just reveal to me that the job and profession I loved so much was…dare I say…BORING? Nah, nah, nah! What I do as an attorney is insanely interesting! I get to meet all different types of people and hear all sorts of interesting stories about what has happened to them or what they want to have happen to them. When I tell my family about my interesting cases and the issues involved in them, they can’t get enough of it. But these little children…they were having none of it. I was a total bore to them.
Okay, okay…I know that most of the response I got was from the younger kids. The older kids were a little more engaged and interested, but I didn’t have the throngs of children surrounding my table like the meteorologist or the chef did. I felt this pang of disappointment in my showing to these kids because what my profession entailed was often not something that I could easily show. How could I show them demonstrably of getting a client acquitted at trial? How could I show them demonstrably of working out a custody agreement for a struggling family? How could I show them demonstrably of getting a financially strapped single mother the child support she so desperately needed? Our careers as attorneys don’t lend themselves to much show and tell.
Our careers and what we do as attorneys isn’t always easily explainable to everyone. And not everyone will think what we do is interesting or admirable. I just heard a podcaster I was listening to call attorneys “bottom feeders”. But that doesn’t mean we can’t still be proud of what we do. I am proud of what I do, even if I cannot easily explain it to little children at a career day. I feel fortunate for the skill set I have developed and am happy that I could keep doing it well into my old age if I chose (knock on wood). Yes…yes…I am proud to be an attorney!
And I think our careers are as sexy as hell, too.
