Academy Casualties
I went through the training academy in the fall/winter of 2005. There were about 40 of us when we started.
The first day, we all went to an auditorium. We were all dressed the same - well, mostly. Blue dress pants, white dress shirt, blue tie, black dress shoes. If we had long hair, it had to be above the collar.
[Oh my goodness, I just thought of the pre-academy training I need to tell you about! Later.]
One of my female classmates thought it would be a good idea to wear giant hoop earrings with her "uniform." I can't tell you how much it bothers me that my fellow females don't "get" why we need to follow dress code. If you CAN do it, just freaking do it.
This girl - did nobody tell her we might have to do some Physical Training that day? Did she know nothing about dress codes and why you don't want to be the "odd person out" in the academy? I don't know. We never discussed it. She was a nice enough young woman but she struggled with a lot of academy activities and was invited to resign about 75% of the way through the academy. She went on to work in detentions at another agency and I hope she has thrived there.
Anyway, there was also a male classmate who was from another state and was wearing a business suit of another color. I remember talking to him about it later. He was SURE the instructors were going to "fine tune" him for that. But it ended up they had plenty of fine tuning to do aside from him.
So, I remember they wanted our registration and proof of insurance from our vehicles and they wanted that information NOW. So they yelled at us all to get moving and we ran out of the auditorium pell-mell to our cars to get those documents.
I had on mens' dress shoes that were super smooth on the bottom. Naturally, I fell on my butt in the middle of a swarm of running people. I didn't care, I was getting back up. But I remember which classmate stopped to help me. I always will. Thank you, P.D.
So, we got the silly documents and got on with the day.
The next thing I remember is when they "wrecked" us. This is a harsh PT session done in the stupid business attire uniform. Okay, I am adding pejoratives. I have no problem with the process. I just know they made us do these things in uniform to test us - would we follow instructions, would we ignore discomfort, would we ignore improper resources to do what we had to do.
So, we were out in the quad (a grassy area between buildings), doing pushups and burpees and whatnot in the July sun in our business attire. I remember we were standing at attention at one point and out of the corner of my eye, I could see the profile of the guy in front and to the left of me. There was a GIANT daddy long legs spider crawling down the right side of his FACE. The dude did not MOVE. When they yelled at us to get down for a burpee or something, he quickly and calmly brushed the spider off his face. OutSTANDING!
One of the other females clearly hadn't prepared herself for the physical rigors of the training. She was struggling through the PT and the instructors were on her like white on rice. She had a TERRIBLE day. But there was a dude that was struggling as well, so he got plenty of attention, too. We all got some special attention.
The next day, we all came back for more. Except that female. She quit. I don't know what she has to say about it. I know I was pretty judgmental about it at the time.
But then, the next day, she was back. WHAT? You quit and then come back? How's that? But she has never quit again. And do you know I can't imagine the GUTS it took for her to come back and go through the rest of that academy with a bunch of people who saw her quit.
She is still an officer. She has served the community well, as far as I know, and GOOD FOR HER.
Well, that's enough academy fun for today. This is helping me. I hope whomever reads these snippets enjoys them!
The first day, we all went to an auditorium. We were all dressed the same - well, mostly. Blue dress pants, white dress shirt, blue tie, black dress shoes. If we had long hair, it had to be above the collar.
[Oh my goodness, I just thought of the pre-academy training I need to tell you about! Later.]
One of my female classmates thought it would be a good idea to wear giant hoop earrings with her "uniform." I can't tell you how much it bothers me that my fellow females don't "get" why we need to follow dress code. If you CAN do it, just freaking do it.
This girl - did nobody tell her we might have to do some Physical Training that day? Did she know nothing about dress codes and why you don't want to be the "odd person out" in the academy? I don't know. We never discussed it. She was a nice enough young woman but she struggled with a lot of academy activities and was invited to resign about 75% of the way through the academy. She went on to work in detentions at another agency and I hope she has thrived there.
Anyway, there was also a male classmate who was from another state and was wearing a business suit of another color. I remember talking to him about it later. He was SURE the instructors were going to "fine tune" him for that. But it ended up they had plenty of fine tuning to do aside from him.
So, I remember they wanted our registration and proof of insurance from our vehicles and they wanted that information NOW. So they yelled at us all to get moving and we ran out of the auditorium pell-mell to our cars to get those documents.
I had on mens' dress shoes that were super smooth on the bottom. Naturally, I fell on my butt in the middle of a swarm of running people. I didn't care, I was getting back up. But I remember which classmate stopped to help me. I always will. Thank you, P.D.
So, we got the silly documents and got on with the day.
The next thing I remember is when they "wrecked" us. This is a harsh PT session done in the stupid business attire uniform. Okay, I am adding pejoratives. I have no problem with the process. I just know they made us do these things in uniform to test us - would we follow instructions, would we ignore discomfort, would we ignore improper resources to do what we had to do.
So, we were out in the quad (a grassy area between buildings), doing pushups and burpees and whatnot in the July sun in our business attire. I remember we were standing at attention at one point and out of the corner of my eye, I could see the profile of the guy in front and to the left of me. There was a GIANT daddy long legs spider crawling down the right side of his FACE. The dude did not MOVE. When they yelled at us to get down for a burpee or something, he quickly and calmly brushed the spider off his face. OutSTANDING!
One of the other females clearly hadn't prepared herself for the physical rigors of the training. She was struggling through the PT and the instructors were on her like white on rice. She had a TERRIBLE day. But there was a dude that was struggling as well, so he got plenty of attention, too. We all got some special attention.
The next day, we all came back for more. Except that female. She quit. I don't know what she has to say about it. I know I was pretty judgmental about it at the time.
But then, the next day, she was back. WHAT? You quit and then come back? How's that? But she has never quit again. And do you know I can't imagine the GUTS it took for her to come back and go through the rest of that academy with a bunch of people who saw her quit.
She is still an officer. She has served the community well, as far as I know, and GOOD FOR HER.
Well, that's enough academy fun for today. This is helping me. I hope whomever reads these snippets enjoys them!
Comments
Post a Comment