Police Academy is a place where I spent 6 months of my life that I will never get back. To think I paid money and spent 9 hours a day letting some local yahoo Sheriff's Deputy kick my ass everyday. At one time I had planned to be a Police Officer, it had been a lifelong dream for me. Then I discovered several things that helped me change my mind.
One thing I noticed right away is that it was all a contest of whose penis was larger. Everyone is better than everyone else at everything. Let me tell you friends that that mentality does not work in the real world of police work. Now, I can understand in such a testosterone-oriented environment that all of us needed to feel rough and tough, but this was ridiculous.
Another thing that was increasingly apparent was the fact that 95% of the people in this class were utter morons. I could not understand that at all. With what was expected from us, only the intelligent could survive. I was hurt that some of these idiots made it through this 'Survival Of The Fittest' that I myself struggled through.
I also could not help but notice how only five of the people in this class seemed interested in the common good, what I feel being an officer of the law is really about. Most of these guys were assholes, and realizing that really hurt. I did not want to be in any way associated with these people.
I quickly discovered what my biggest problem would be with this profession, a minimum wage worker can expect to make around 10,000 or so a year. Most Police Officers make about 14,000 to 20,000 a year in the area I would be working, depending on the education the officer has attained. For most, it means around 17,000 a year, I was already making more than that. THAT SUCKS HARDCORE. I felt that I deserved more than that, considerably more. I was wasting my time there.
Now I did have some fun, and I had some really good instructors, I did learn many incredible things, but as a whole I feel I really wasted a significant portion of my life.
I graduated and was presented my diploma by Officer Robert Killingsworth, a near and dear friend of mine who had helped me along the way.
I don't know why it took so long to click in my head, but I really felt that I should pursue another career. I did so, and I am now striving to get my CCNA certification. Police Academy and actually becoming a police officer are two separate things all together, they each take two different commitments to oneself. One of which I simply could not make.