Definitely! I’ve gotten this question a few times now, but didn’t really feel comfortable sharing it yet. Now that my application process is over though, I’m happy to. I’ve only copied the first page of it (it’s about 3 pages long) as the rest I’d still like to keep to myself. Read it below the cut!
For the majority of my life, I have viewed myself as anoutsider looking in. It was not until asrecently as my freshman year of college that I began to see myself as aninsider, looking out at the world, and wondering how I ever related to those onthe outside to begin with. I strugglewith these two concepts, because my mother, a petite, white woman, with blondehair and blue eyes, could never be on the inside, but my father, a tall blackman, with kinky hair and green eyes, could never be anything but an insider. I am mixed – the biracial product of aninterracial marriage – and what comes with that is the simple fact that I havespent my life as both, standing on the outside looking in, and standing on theinside looking out. Realizing I couldnever fully be accepted as white or black, but as somewhere in between, hasshaped the way I view myself and my family, and those around us. It is this seemingly never-ending search formy niche in the world that has led me to apply to law school.
Identity issuch an important aspect of every individual’s life, and yet it is so commonlytaken for granted. Ultimately, I wouldlike to work as a prosecutor for the United Nation’s International Criminal Court,because those who commit acts of genocide and other crimes against humanity,deny individuals this inalienable right to an identity. By punishing those responsible for war crimes,I believe we, as a global community, would be working toward ending the stigmathat one race, one gender, or one nationality, is superior to all others; wewould be giving people their voices back. While I may not ever find my own balancebetween looking in and looking out on the world, I choose to believe that I can assist othersin finding their own place, identity, niche, and so on.
