You might say I have the lawyer gene in me.  My uncle is a lawyer; so was his father (my grandfather), and his father (my great-grandfather).  Even my cousin, who did not get a law degree, works as a paralegal in his father’s (my uncle’s) office.

So as you see, I come from a family of lawyers.  Therefore it should come as no surprise that when I was younger, I was interested in criminal justice.  My parents always said that I argued like a lawyer, even from a young age; and in high school, I took classes in criminal justice.  After high school, my interest intensified when a boyfriend of mine got in trouble with the law, and I saw how pathetic a chance he had with a public defender.

There are a lot of good schools offering degrees in criminal justice.  For instance, Bethpage Briarcliffe College has an associate’s degree in criminal justice that will help get you started.  I never did pursue this career choice, though — my first love was writing, and in the end that’s what I went to school for…and what I’m doing now!

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