--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the evening of September 2009, while getting ready for school I heard relentless knocking at my door. There, stood five police officers in black uniforms, requesting my little brother. Since moving to the U.S. from South Korea at age sixteen, I never would have imagined, that police officers would show up at my door. My brother, who had just turned seventeen, was being accused of assault relating to a gang his friends were in. The officers took my brother to a juvenile detention center where he endured three weeks of harsh conditions. Because my mom and I were not allowed to speak with him for a few weeks and left wondering what really was going on, I felt I did not have a voice to represent the accused within our justice system.
On the day of trial, my father who was still living and working in South Korea , flew over to attend the trial. As the attorneys exchanged words, I focused my attention on my brother – his hair had grown long and had not been cut for weeks. His pale and malnourished complexion proved he had not eaten for days. I was greatly devastated looking at him in such a desolate state and was enraged at the fact I could not do anything to alleviate the condition. I solely focused on holding the tears from bursting down my cheeks which had become blushed with grief. Deep within me, I knew that one way to conquer my mountain of anguish was to make a stand. Suddenly, I noticed everyone was focused on me. I had quite literally stood up in front of the entire courtroom without realizing it. I wanted whole-heartedly to step into the attorney’s shoes and convey the truth about my brother’s innocence. To this day, I still do not know what exactly appealed to the judge, however, the judge that seemed to have been touched by my family’s testimony, and granted a three-day Christmas vacation for my brother which was a blessing.
This incident has shaped my view of life, not only of being an elder sibling but also being a stakeholder in our judicial system. At a broader level, it made me think about why youth commit crimes at such a young age and see the course of events from every perspective.
Going to law school and becoming a lawyer would allow me to help the most vulnerable members of our society and young people. My eyes and heart were opened toward those who may be falsely accused but are unable to effectively defend their innocence. One’s lack of sufficient knowledge or resources should not hinder that person in defending his or her constitutional rights. In addition, the emotional support from a person who have sufficient legal knowledge to analyze the case from different perspectives, would greatly relieve them while going through trials. In today’s fast-paced society, where both of the child’s parents are occupied with their work, parents might not be able to provide sufficient care and emotional support for their children and so was the case for my brother. This is likely to result in children’s misjudgment and misbehavior. In addition, certain brain research studies have shown that children’s brains develop through the early twenties, therefore, it can be expected that teenagers could act before anticipating consequences of their actions.
In addition to my personal experience being in the courtroom, I have also developed a few exceptional qualities to become a successful law student: meeting the tight deadlines; stress-enduring; working independently; being overly critical. While working as a market researcher in a technology sector, my role is to research and critically analyze the market to find insights and trends to clients. Because of the nature of IT industry, which is very volatile and fast-changing, I have dealt with time-sensitive information and made sure I met tight deadlines so clients receive information in a timely manner. Despite of the massive influx of information because of fast-changing industry, I did not overlook the accuracy of the information but rather, I persevered to keep the thoroughness of each report. Research reports vary in length and scope, and often times, no direct supervision was provided, where I had to independently practiced researching and writing. Being overly skeptical of the data presented and question the data unless fully backed by adequate evidence was also a trait I have acquired through the market research role.
While the harrowing experience regarding my brother’s case revealed possible flaws within our justice system, it has inspired me to pursue a legal career. It has stirred up my passion and empathy to shift perspective and by stepping into the shoes of either victim and assailant, I could analyze and interpret things from every angle. I am also aware that it is not an smooth path and I may likely encounter various inequities and hurdles to penetrate, however, with the heart and motivation to help those in need and seeing them walking out of the courtroom happily will be rewarding enough for me to pursue this career.
