Strangely enough it was a random encounter with a police officer where we were both in the wrong.

My parents were very active in the 60s civil rights movement and so constitutional rights and "freedom","equality" and "the rule of law" were always concepts I was exposed to and took seriously from a young age.

When I was 18 I showed up at the end of a high school dance with a case of beer and an oz of weed in my car trunk for the after party. I had my stereo going and attracted the attention of a cop. He wrestled the keys out of the ignition and opened my trunk and seized the beer without any citation or documentation. So all I had for the rest of the night was the oz of green. lol. I filed a protest the next day and it turned out he did no paperwork and did not turn in the beer.

I was incredibly offended that he would assault me in my vehicle and seize my property and he was disciplined for it with a mere slap on the wrist. So I knew I wanted to go to law school then. I am a white dude but come from a multi-racial family and had seen the shit that had happened to my brown family members and it was shameful. But only when it happened to me did it click. Sad but true.

I thought I would be a lawyer to fight such injustice. But then once you get into law school, social justice projects are not favored. Good lawyers do corporate work. And over a course of years I forgot about that angle. I still think working for the ACLU or EFF would be amazing but I have never done anything like that. :(

At the same time I am glad I made that choice. It may not have been the best career path for me but at least it is fairly lucrative and intellectually challenging if you want it to be, I get to help entrepreneurs who are into the same stuff I am into and I really enjoy that.