my promise

I was telling a good friend of my apprehensions with the incoming school year. I enumerated the issues that need to be resolved. At the end of the conversation, he was making me promise that I would be a lawyer. I was somehow caught by surprised with the reaction. Immediately I said that I cannot promise him that. When you think about it, it’s not that hard to make a promise. Most people just justify themselves in the end whenever a promise gets broken. The most prominent of these is the promise to quit smoking cigars, and probably in close second is the promise to keep a diet.

This particular promise is one that I would love to make, but I did not. He persisted then finally asked me why. I told him this, with all its mushiness, “Life isn’t allowing me to make that promise. But this one promise I can make: I will always want to become a lawyer. Let’s just hope it will be enough to make me who I want to be.“

My melodramatic explanation is unacceptable to him. Perhaps he understands my desire to be one, knowing me more than half of my life. Or perhaps he was just being makulit. Again, he settled on again asking me why I cannot make the promise. I said, “it will only hurt me more when I break that one.”