lyft: law intern

i picked up a law intern yesterday, i’ll call him J

i had the honor of taking him to the office on his last week of his internship

he’s from la/oc, and is going to ny for law school

his interest within law is around intellectual property (IP)

turns out, he’s from around the same area i grew up in — around a bunch of asians

went to a high school i’m familiar with — also a lot of asians

turns out, he’s korean lol

we’re basically siblings ha

i asked him how he got to where he’s at, why he chose this path

J: “i’m interested in tech, but i sucked at school and didn’t think i could get into tech directly (e.g. science, software engineering, etc).”

ah, i see, interesting way to look at it, i thought

we chatted a bit about college, turns out he and i both went to the same community college at some point

we’re basically classmates hahaha jk he’s much younger than me

he mentioned that he hated high school…

J: “i failed all my classes and i got in so much trouble”

me: “ooh that sucks”

J: “yeah, it wasn’t until i went to college that i started getting my shit together”

me: “how did that happen?”

J: “my parents stopped pressuring me, i think they gave up on me haha”

i laughed, “and wow, look at you now”

J: “yeah, they can’t really say anything now, and i tell them, look what i did now that you stopped breathing down my neck”

me: “i hear that… so what really happened in college for you?”

J: “i started seeing education as something that’s *for me*, that i wasn’t really doing it for anyone else, and once that happened, i felt motivated and i wanted to learn”

mic drop

me: “yesssss that’s amazing!!!!” cue clapping (yes, i literally clapped in the car lol) and happy noises

that makes me so happy

this mf refused to be forced to do something, buy into something he didn’t want and ultimately, what he didn’t believe in…

until his parents (bless them) made the leap to let go of (the illusion of) control and ‘gave up’ on him

i commend the parents for sure

and i commend J for being true to himself, even when it all seemed like it was going to hell, and he probably didn’t even know that he was being true to himself hahah

and when he was given the space to do so, the air to breathe freely,

he found his way,

inside him,

where it’s always been.

and now, he chooses his path from that place.

who knows if he ends up getting the full-time offer after the internship and he ends up absolutely abhorring it

and gets hired again and again and again at places that he hates,

and he doubts all his life choices…

i think he will be fine.

he knows what it’s like to be lost and to inquire within to see who he is and what he wants

and that will always be enough.

J – you’re amazing, keep going!

also, he tipped 100%+ loll make that lawyer monayyyyy

10/10 biatch