When I was two years old, I informed my mother that, in my expert opinion, there was probably an Ankylosaurus in our backyard, and I needed to use one of our spare toothbrushes to excavate it. 14 years later, when a friend was unsure if I was concussed, she didn’t ask my name, but what I wanted to study when I grew up, because how quickly I answered, “avian paleobiology and the evolution of flight in theropods” was their best measure of my potential memory loss. All my life I have wanted to study paleontology, refining the interest as I went, and holding the aspiration to study it, ahead of me like a beacon light, when I am unsure of what path to take.
After my closing statement at our school’s Mock Trial tournament, as we filed out of the courtroom, shaking hands with the opposing counsel, judges of the competition, and assorted defense attorneys and prosecutors that had been in attendance, my teammates and I were asked, time and time again, “So are you six planning on going into Pre-Law?” Three of my teammates explained they were there because of Theatre interest, one Debate, one actually did want to become a lawyer, and each time we were asked, I continued to surprise people with my intentions to pursue Paleobiology. No one seemed to understand when I said, “Paleobiology is like a …show more content…
Witnesses and evidence alone are just an argument!” Fear not, dear readers, this is where my life’s aspirations come into play. When your case is millions of years old, the judge is not a J.D. but a Ph.D., and the attorneys did not go to law school, but grad school: Paleontologists are the ones fighting to determine what the truth of the story is, and, ultimately, the ones making scientific decisions based on the evidence, the testimony, the arguments from attorneys, and their own background knowledge, to articulate the most accurate picture of what really happened, 150 million years
After my closing statement at our school’s Mock Trial tournament, as we filed out of the courtroom, shaking hands with the opposing counsel, judges of the competition, and assorted defense attorneys and prosecutors that had been in attendance, my teammates and I were asked, time and time again, “So are you six planning on going into Pre-Law?” Three of my teammates explained they were there because of Theatre interest, one Debate, one actually did want to become a lawyer, and each time we were asked, I continued to surprise people with my intentions to pursue Paleobiology. No one seemed to understand when I said, “Paleobiology is like a …show more content…
Witnesses and evidence alone are just an argument!” Fear not, dear readers, this is where my life’s aspirations come into play. When your case is millions of years old, the judge is not a J.D. but a Ph.D., and the attorneys did not go to law school, but grad school: Paleontologists are the ones fighting to determine what the truth of the story is, and, ultimately, the ones making scientific decisions based on the evidence, the testimony, the arguments from attorneys, and their own background knowledge, to articulate the most accurate picture of what really happened, 150 million years