Two summers ago, I was invited to attend the Hispanic Scholarship Foundation’s (HSF) 2019 National Leadership Conference (NLC) in another predominately Latinx city, Los Angeles, California. This summer, as I remotely intern with Dade Legal Aid in Miami, Florida (known as the capital of Latin America), I am reminded of the pistachio ice cream lesson I learned at this conference:
“Raise your hand if you don’t like pistachio ice cream,” HSF CEO Fidel Vargas asked me and the other 99 rising sophomores attending NLC.
Many students raised their hands.
“Alright,” Vargas continued, “Now raise your hand if you have ever tried pistachio ice cream.”
Only two out of 100 students in the conference room raised their hand.
“So, besides these two students, let me ask everyone else this: How do you know you don’t like pistachio ice cream if you have never tried it?”
All my life until I was in high school, I said I wanted to be a lawyer. I took one criminal justice class my freshman year of high school and quickly ruled out a legal career path, claiming that I wouldn’t like being a lawyer and going down the medical field instead.
As a rising senior with only two premed requirements to go before taking the MCAT, being a legal intern at Dade Legal Aid is essentially like trying pistachio ice cream. These past two weeks have been full of court room hearings/trials, client intakes, staff attorney meetings, and events from different bar associations. And so far, I am really liking pistachio ice cream.