But on the plus side:
Have I no ambition? No great desire towards the betterment of my fellow man?
No, not really. My fellow man does fine all on his own, without the puny help of someone like me.
I suffer from an acute case of what is commonly referred to as the Robin Hood Syndrome - I have this "holier than thou" notion that I can spare the poor by siphoning from the rich. Yes, you guessed it … I'm a non-profit junkie.
At age six, when asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I confidently replied, "I wanna be a non-profit manager."
"A non-profit manager?" they would gasp.
"Yes. My concentration would be on underrepresented populations in lower Manhattan, possibly Chinatown. I would like to start a community organization for recent immigrants, or generally for anyone in the neighborhood who would require legal assistance, ESL education or general guidance. On the side, this proposed organization would offer to children tutoring and possibly a music program to introduce instruments and to further their musical education. Ideally, I'd like to start off with a staff of five, not including lawyers, musicians and teachers. Eventually, I hope to branch out to other neighborhoods, possibly in Brooklyn and Queens."
Silence.
"Either that, or I wanna be a cowgirl."
Smiles and sighs.
At age 24, the cowgirl idea discarded, I've plunged myself into the world of non-profit. (Haha - non-profit. I guess there's a reason why I will never eat steaks every day.) Going to classes, working full-time with a public organization - I'm really getting into this. Even though my parents have to ask me each week to remind then what it is exactly that I do during the 9-5, I think they're secretly proud of me, despite their incessant urgings for me to go to law school.
Even though I'm still basically a peon here at work, I feel I can be stronger than any Senator ever could be. I won't confine myself to an office in front of a stack of papers and 10 of my closest personal yes-men advisors. I'll be out in the field, working to better the life of one person at a time.
When I'm not doing that, I'll be kissing up to the Senator and his cronies for general operating support.
I'll never be rich or powerful or well-known; none of those things are desirable to me. (I want to instead live hand-to-mouth, and throw away all my personal capital into such a venture!)
Mom and Dad, if you want your retirement to be plush and relaxed, either start saving up now or you'll have to appeal to Sonata for funds - that is, once she's done paying for medical school.