I remember sitting in the second grade talking about our parents' job and being so excited to tell the whole class that my dad was a police officer. He was a superhero who helped keep the world and myself safe. I believed that he was way better than any superhero because he didn't need a cape.

But growing up in a police household is far from normal. It's not like living in a household without a police officer in it. My dad would work an odd schedule with a lot of crazy hours. When I would go to bed my dad would be getting up to go to work and protect everyone else while I was sleeping and I'd come home from school and he would be sleeping after spending all night looking after the people who needed him the most. He protects people who didn't always want to be protected because he cares for them. Despite his odd hours of working, my dad tried is very hardest to have a good relationship with my brother, my sister and I. He was always at every soccer game, every baseball game, every school concert and dance recital that we had. He never wanted to miss anything that happens in our lives.

Looking back now, I still see my dad as a hero and I am just as proud as I always have been. Except that little girl who used to shout at the top of her lungs that her daddy was a police officer, now hesitates. Everyone has different ideas of what police officers do and a lot of it is negative and not true. With the events that unfolded in Dallas still in my mind, I think about how it could've been him. How he could've gotten hurt trying to help other people. How he's a good man and does good things for the world, but you only see him based the uniform he wears and the badge he carries. You see police officers as these bad guys who are trying to go out in the world and do more harm than good but I see them as people both men and women trying to go out and do good and trying to help and protect people. They aren't there to hurt you. They aren't there to get you in trouble. They are there to protect you from the bad people in the world not from themselves.

It takes a very special and unique person to become a police officer. Police officers are selfless, caring, hardworking individuals who are constantly fighting for the little person. They put the cares and needs of others before themselves. They spend their entire lives fighting to protect the world. Despite this fact, I worry every day that my dad, uncle, and cousins will be attacked because of the oath they took. The oath that says that they will protect their country and its citizens.

I wish I could go back when I wasn't no the second grade. When in couldn't wait to be in 5th grade so I could have a police officer come in and teach me all about the harms of drugs and alcohol. Think about that. Think about the policeman who visited your school on career day. The one who let you go when you have a tail light out and you were late for work. Think about the policemen and women who are first responders who save lives during natural disasters or terrorist attacks. The police officers who go up to people's door to tell them about their loved ones they have lost and comfort them. Those are the faces of the police force that I know to be true. They are the people who do jobs you couldn't even imagine doing yourself.

Thank the next police officer for the work that they do. Thank them for helping you even if they never did because they kept you safe even when you didn't know it. Thank them for anything you can think of because they deserve it. If you don't think they deserve it spend one hour in their shoes and you will be thinking differently.