Abstract
Life never really goes the way I expect. Oneminute I'meight and in the 3rd grade, telling everyone that I'mgoing to be the world's best lawyer, and the next I'm21, attending community college and cramming courses into my schedule so I can graduate with a teaching credential in less than five years. One day I'm playing make believe with my friends on the field behind my elementary school, and the next I'm bussing tables and holding out hope for a coveted server job. Sometimes when I get really stressed, I forget how lucky I've been, being born in to an upper-middle class family and living in two sheltered communitiesmy entire life. This essay examines the two communities that I grew up in—Irvine, California and Littleton, Colorado—and how these communities affected my socialization from that playground prosecutor to the person I am today.