Second Semester Anxiety

blossom
Sun, 06 Mar 2016 16:42:03 +0000

The FBI is a wonderful goal. As is the NSA, CIA, DHS, Interpol-- as well as at least another dozen agencies which either deal in security, law enforcement, prosecuting terrorists and drug traffickers, cyberlaw, human trafficking, etc. Even the post office (the lowly post office) has a law enforcement arm which actually does some extremely sophisticated tracking and analysis of criminal behavior; the SEC, every single Federal prosecutor’s office, Secret Service, etc.

The good news is that there are at least 25? I could probably think of more if I tried- paths to this type of a career. There are lots of things that can derail the hyper-specific goal that a kid has in mind (a medical condition which precludes job A) but like anything else in life- when a door closes, a window opens.

Your D can take many paths to her goal and NONE of them involve the kind of stress and anxiety she’s facing right now.

Math and CS? No need to double major. Major in one, show facility in the other. Bingo. Minor in Latin American Studies? Nobody will care. Being fluent in Spanish is never a bad thing- but why jump through hoops to minor?

I know a young woman whose goal was JAG. Her entire middle school/high school/college goal was JAG. (a very honorable way to serve, by the way). During law school she was diagnosed with a chronic medical condition- not life threatening in any way, but a disqualifier for the armed services.

She’s now an AUSA (Federal prosecutor) working on cybercrime, can’t imagine any other career for herself. Which is the way these things tend to go.