Defining Moments

Post Date

Mon, 04/22/2013 - 22:41

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City Blogs

On a quiet Saturday in Washington in June 1972, there weren’t many reporters around at the Washington Post. A news story was breaking. There had been a burglary at a local hotel and someone had to cover the story. Who could the editors get to come in that day for what would likely be fine print in the upcoming edition? Young Bob Woodward, new guy on the block. As he describes it, no one else wanted to come to work that Saturday. But as he sat in the courthouse later in the afternoon watching the events unfold Bob Woodward knew that what he was learning was going to change the world and his career. A defining moment.

When I graduated law school I dreamed of being a corporate lawyer. I wanted to “do deals”, whatever I understood that to mean as a young lawyer. As I look back, I am not really sure what drew me to corporate work other than it was the mid-80s and deals were plentiful so it seemed the thing to do. But, as it turned out the firm was about to negotiate a huge union contract for a client and it was “all hands on deck” including mine. Soon I knew that my calling was labor/employment law, an area of law that deals with people and which has kept my interest and attention for more than 25 years. A defining moment – perhaps not as significant to the world as Bob Woodward’s but as significant to me.

Have you had a “Bob Woodward moment” in your life?

Comments

Fred Klein

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The Viet Nam draft prospect which influenced me to obtain a law school deferment

Ester Horowitz

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My defining moment came on the steps of the Department of Social Services (DSS) building. I was a young 27 year old mother with two children under 4 years old. My world had collapsed. My husband was declared mentally disabled. We were economically wiped out. I was losing my house. My family was trying to avoid me going back to work for my baby's sake.

I was told that if I got rid of my car I would qualify for welfare. My head spun wondering how I would find work, go to work, or fend for myself without a car on Long Island. Mind you the car was more than 10 years old at the time.

There were more than 50 steps that descended down to the DSS office. I had spent the better part of the day there with both kids and a stroller. Upon climbing the last step to the top, I looked out at the sea of cars in the parking lot and made a decision that despite family pressures, despite the sacrifice to my children and myself, despite how terrified I felt or the reasons why I had found myself there, that I wasn't going on welfare. I was going to go back to work after being out of the work force for 5 years. I was going to go back to school and get my bachelors degree. I was going to make sure my children didn't have to suffer the consequences of mental illness on my watch.

Today, 30 years later, my children are happy, healthy and successful adults. I not only got my bachelors degree but I got a masters and I just celebrated 24 years of a successful marriage with my second husband.

Joshua Zinder

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For me I knew I wanted to build snce I was 4 but there were 4 moments that made me knwo i was meant to be an architect.....1) a box of wood, hammer, saw and nails for my 4th birthday. 2) daydreaming in synagogoue looking at the wonderful structure. 3) Watching the twin towers going up clad in orange as they rose. 4) failing 7th grade spanish put me in mechanical drawing and I discovered I could actually take a class about something I understood.

I think our lives and decisions are an assembly of moments, each like a domino in a series the path we take depends on each to fall.

Corey Bearak

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My life probably includes more defining moment than even my allegedly decent memory can recall. The Cuban missile crisis inspired me to write a letter to then President Kennedy; content for another time. I knew thereafter I would pursue public service and making a difference.

Lucas Meyer

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A defining moment for me occurred when I was only fourteen years old. It was my first year of high school (Sleepy Hollow High in what was then called North Tarrytown, NY), I had to select a language, and I chose Spanish, figuring it was the easiest to learn (the school also offered French, German, Italian, Latin and Russian) and would get me an easy 'A'. Little did I dream that Mrs. Mirta Roca Y Guerra de Butler would hold me in her iron grip for four years. I got the 'A's, but they didn't come easily. Fluency in the language got me my first job in banking, sent me to Argentina for four years and as a consequence, I met my wife of 23 years. So, if I hadn't chosen Spanish, I am sure that my life would have been very different, and probably not as exciting.

Thanks, Mrs. Butler, wherever you are!

Rona Gura

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I always knew I wanted to be a lawyer. There was never a set moment I reached that decision, it's just something I always knew. So, the defining moment for me was when I realized that I and my kids could, and would, leave my first husband. In the sitcom that was my life at that time, that is when the studio audience stood up and cheered.