“I remember back when I was a first-year…our class had quite a few of those ‘save the world’ types.”
This line was said jokingly by a 3L during one of my first few weeks of law school. The group I was with laughed boisterously, and I joined in, but I felt a pang of sadness inside.
What is it about wanting to save the world that bothers people, so much so that we now have a term for it: “social justice warrior”? Maybe what bothered the 3L, and what bothers many about these so-called social justice warriors, is a certain pompousness that some inexperienced law students often possess: the belief that they alone are capable of making a difference. If there’s one thing law students are good at, it is comparing ourselves to our peers. So when faced with these bright-eyed, bushy-tailed peers that are ready to save the world, we often find ourselves asking this question: “Who are they to think that they can change the world?” Continue reading “Why I Still Want to Save the World”