Originally from Dispute Resolution Journal

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He was not the first. About a dozen times a year I find myself sitting across the desk from an attractive and alert young man ("there but for the Grace of God is my son or grandson") and hearing that unanswerable question: "How do I become an Arbitrator?" The last one, with a faint note of satisfaction in his voice and face, reported that his Labor Law professor had expressed the confident view that, when he graduates, he ought to become a labor-management disputes arbitrator and has a glowing future to contemplate in that blessed profession.

My first reaction is annoyance at being faced once more with a question I cannot answer satisfactorily. My second is a combination of relief and compassion: relief that I am too old for the uncertainties that this pleasant young man will experience for years to come; and compassion that he should have to undergo them.