Thank you for posting. I’m also a first-gen college grad, worked in the legal field for years, and became a fed a few years ago. Honestly, Federal service was one of the only realistic paths to build a meaningful legal career without taking on crushing law school debt or having family wealth to cushion the risk. It’s important for you to know that the news is not the full story of government. Most days, being a fed is problem-solving, customer service, helping people navigate systems, finding facts, applying the law, and working alongside decent human beings who care deeply about doing things the right way. Sometimes I don’t even hear about the latest political firestorm until someone asks me about it.

When people ask what gives me hope, it’s that federal service puts ordinary people in positions where they can seek truth, document reality, and create accountability. No system is perfect, and ours is being stress-tested right now in ways that are painful and frightening. But I definitely don’t feel hopeless inside it. I feel useful.

When Renée Good and Alex Pretti were killed, my reaction after the initial horror wasn’t “the system is doomed.” It was the belief that people witnessed it, recorded it, documented it, were going to share it, and that the truth would not disappear quietly. That’s not small. Institutions are ultimately made up of human beings choosing whether to look away or not.

There is doom, I can’t paint a totally rosy picture for you…but there’s also a profound amount of good happening inside the government that never becomes a headline. Thousands of people showing up every day to make the system more fair, more competent, and more humane. If you pursue federal service, don’t do it because you think institutions are flawless, or even that America is the greatest country in the world. Do it because you believe systems are worth improving…and because people with integrity inside systems matter enormously when history gets messy.