As you are walking down the street, you spot a soda can lying in your path. As you pass over the can you decide to kick it, just for the heck of it. Later that day, when you are out to eat at a nice restaurant, you decide to use the bathroom. As you leave the empty bathroom you pass right by the light switch. That is the difference between myself and a majority of the world. I would not kick the soda can; rather, I would pick up the can and deposit it into the nearest recycling bin. When leaving the empty bathroom, or any other empty room, I always turn off the light. I am the guy who prints rough drafts on the back of previously used sheets of paper. I am also the guy that will nag you until you pick up that plastic bottle you just threw into the regular garbage and place it into a recycling bin. I am an environmentalist to the core.
Ever since I was young, I have always wanted to be an environmental lawyer; partly because of television shows like Captain Planet and Matlock, and partly because I knew that lawyers made good money. As I have grown up and become more educated, my reasons for wanting to be a lawyer have changed. Now I want to be a lawyer because I want to help protect the environment from man’s ignorance and destruction. I realize that to be a good lawyer, I need a solid educational background. That is why I chose Franklin and Marshall College as my undergraduate college and the University of Maryland School of Law as my law school. Both of these schools were partly chosen because of their reputation, and partly chosen because they would challenge me intellectually as well as prepare me for my future.
While attending Franklin and Marshall, I took numerous steps to help me prepare for my future. Those steps included being the student leader of the recycling committee which was in charge of revamping the college’s recycling program; performing various river and campus clean-ups; and both reactivating the college’s environmental club as well as becoming it’s president. I also helped organize a conference for the regional branch of the Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC).
Although I am only in my first year of law school, I have continued along my environmental law path. During the first few weeks of school, I joined the college’s environmental law society and became a part of two smaller committees. The first committee is designed to further the law school’s recycling program by encouraging our fellow classmates to recycle as well as attempting to incorporate the faculty into the recycling program. The second committee is designed to help bring a national environmental law conference to the law school in the near future.
After law school, I plan on working for an organization like the Environmental Protection Agency and then either enter politics and attempt to initiate change from the inside or enter education and teach students about the importance of protecting the environment. I do not know how successful I will be in my career, but the one thing I do know is that I will give everything I have in the fight to save the planet from mankind’s ignorance and destruction. I have a fire inside of me that can never be extinguished. Not everybody thinks that recycling one soda can, or turning off a single light switch is very important, but I do. If everyone would just take the extra second to recycle their soda can and turn off that light switch, just think of all the aluminum and electricity we would save. I believe in the power of free will. I believe that an individual can make a difference. I plan on making a difference.