What does it mean to be a professional?

Being a professional can mean a lot things, it depends on how we see it. I think that there is a general understanding in all its definitions. For instance a professional is someone who is an expert in their field, someone who makes a living out of a sport or talent.
A professional can be someone who is seen as a role model for their community for what he does. A professional is someone who takes their job seriously and they are for what they do. A professional is someone who presents himself or herself in a manner that is respectable, well mannered and has respect for others.

I also feel that being a professional is a learned talent. There are aspects of being a professional that you acquire from being a student. For instance as students we learning about our professionalism, what we will be as professionals, our careers. I don’t think that being a student you are taught how to act as a professional. I think that work experience teaches us in ways to act as professionals, because in our work, it requires certain behavior. In our work, there are policies which provides us with guidelines on what behavior is tolerable, and how we should present ourselves. They don’t teach us this as students. Although there are ethics in certain careers that as professionals we must follow, for example, there is one in policing, social work, Psychologist. As I write this journal, I am beginning to change my mind about the question asked, Are students in training to be professionals? Yes, I think we are.