Asian Parent: "Law School? Why Didn't You Make It Into Med School?"

[supernga]

So glad to find some fellow Asian law students.  I went to a Vietnamese wedding last weekend, where I announced that I was going to law school.  The reaction was something along the lines of this:

Parents' Friend: "So when are you getting married?"
Me: "Uh...not any time soon.  You see, I'm going to law school!" <beaming proud smile>
Parents' Friend: <blank stare> "Law school?  You mean med school, right?"
Me: "No, law school.  I start this fall in Chicago".
Parents' Friend: "Oh.  Chicago's cold".

Not exactly the kind of congratulations I was expecting.  I probably would've gotten a more excited reaction if I told them I was attending pharmacy school or mortuary school.

[jacy85]

I'm a horrible person.  When they said, "you mean med school, right?" I would have been so tempted to say:  "Wait, what did I say?  Law school?  Ick.  I meant Medical school.  Of *course* I meant med school." 

[twarga]

Well, I guess it goes hand in hand with the "Why can't you just be happy doing what you're doing now?" response from my 'extended' family.  I'm 35 with two pre-teens, good job, house, hubby, etc. and they don't understand why I don't just shut up and color.

[AmanteDolciume]

I'm worse. I teased them by majoring in biology during undergrad.

My parents are pretty Americanized, so as long as I become either a doctor, lawyer, or astronaut, they're a-okay with me. 

[c00lbeans]

I just graduated with BS in architecture. When I told my parents that I decided to go to law school, they freaked out big time. After pretty a long conversation, it turned out that they didn't know law school was a professional school. They thought I was starting college all over again. 

[kristay]

My mom (Chinese) is very americanized and didn't push at all for one profession or another.
My dad (Japanese) said "Why not go to med school?"  To which I responded "Because I hate bio and I majored in English."  To which he then asked "Why not go to business school?"
My grandmother on my mom's side said "Lawyers are better than doctors."
My gradparents on my dad's side said, "At least one of the grandkids is going to grad school.  But why not science?"

[the REAL desi]

asian parents - gotta love em

[supernga]

Actually, it's my parents' friends who push the whole science thing on kids.  My parents are actually ecstatic that I'm going to law school.  You know how I did it???  My parents were once like that, too.  My freshman year in college, my dad said I had two choices: I had to either pursue a degree in science and go to med school, or I had to go to law school.  That really pissed me off, and since I was in my rebellious stage, I told them that I wasn't doing either, and that I was changing majors and colleges and going into business.  I showed them! 

So then after college, they just assumed I would automatically go straight to grad school, which I didn't.  I told them that I wanted to work a few years to get experience before I went back to get my MBA.  So I screwed around for 5 years, partied my ass off, all the while being nagged by my parents to go back to school, because the economy was so bad.  Finally, after they gave up and stopped nagging me about school, when all hope was lost that I will not follow the likes of my 4 older siblings and become a respectable professional, I surprised them and told them that I was going to law school.  That, you see, is why they are so happy that I am going to law school.  But their friends still wonder why I didn't just go to med school.

[calgrad04]

i don't know about east asian parents, but i know my indian parents made it very clear that they could always picture me as a doctor and that nothing would make them prouder....plus in the community, medicine is just so prevalent as a career choice that it's hard to escape it

i majored in mol biology because when i came into college i thought i wanted to be a doctor, but by the end of my first year i realized that i just didn't want to pratice medicine. i wanted to change my major, to history perhaps, but my parents freaked out. i believe their exact lines were "what are you going to do with a history major". they pushed me to keep trying and if i didn't want med school then maybe get a masters/phd and work in biotech. i tried that and found that i hated that too. while interning at a biotech, i met with their general counsel and some of their patent lawyers and found that their careers were definitely more of what i was interested in, hence i decided that law school was what i wanted. it was too late to change my major and still graduate in 4 years, so i finished my bio degree and after explaning many many times to my parents that i wanted to go to law school (and telling them that their stereotypical representation of being a criminal lawyer working in a courtroom is NOT what i want) they have finally accepted my choices....
and now they are even open to my younger brother's choice of considering law as a career - in fact, they want me to advise him now on how to prepare himself in college for law school....who would have figured?

indian parents, love them, hate them but can't live without them

however, my mom does drop into conversations every now and then the line "i wish one of my children would have become a doctor"....i think she's going to guilt trip me with this for life, and her new hope now is that i marry a doctor so at least we have one in the family....   

[Trinitygunner]

i don't know about east asian parents, but i know my indian parents made it very clear that they could always picture me as a doctor and that nothing would make them prouder....plus in the community, medicine is just so prevalent as a career choice that it's hard to escape it

i majored in mol biology because when i came into college i thought i wanted to be a doctor, but by the end of my first year i realized that i just didn't want to pratice medicine. i wanted to change my major, to history perhaps, but my parents freaked out. i believe their exact lines were "what are you going to do with a history major". they pushed me to keep trying and if i didn't want med school then maybe get a masters/phd and work in biotech. i tried that and found that i hated that too. while interning at a biotech, i met with their general counsel and some of their patent lawyers and found that their careers were definitely more of what i was interested in, hence i decided that law school was what i wanted. it was too late to change my major and still graduate in 4 years, so i finished my bio degree and after explaning many many times to my parents that i wanted to go to law school (and telling them that their stereotypical representation of being a criminal lawyer working in a courtroom is NOT what i want) they have finally accepted my choices....
and now they are even open to my younger brother's choice of considering law as a career - in fact, they want me to advise him now on how to prepare himself in college for law school....who would have figured?

indian parents, love them, hate them but can't live without them

however, my mom does drop into conversations every now and then the line "i wish one of my children would have become a doctor"....i think she's going to guilt trip me with this for life, and her new hope now is that i marry a doctor so at least we have one in the family....   

ahhh...the API dream profession...medicine.
i guess i'm the lucky one...i used to have the overbearing asian extended family...grew up with my aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins...so instead of having one or two asian parents, i had like 6.

but lucky in the sense i had a huge argument about this stuff with them and basically told them to get with my program or get off my case and leave me alone. after a little while of leaving me alone (in asian terms that means being "disowned"), they came to terms and came around. i "americanized" them after much pain and suffering...but it was worth it!