Police officers.

They’re terrifying and cruel, cruel people.

They only care about themselves and believe they are always above the law.

Now before you get all butthurt, I don’t believe anything that I just wrote above. I love my police officers, and I know there may be a few officers who do it for the wrong reason, but most officers simply do their job to serve and protect.

So now that I cleared that all up, do you see something wrong with those statements above? I just generalized a whole group of people based off of the actions of few that are being broadcasted globally on any type of media possible. I negatively stereotyped that group, without even mentioning my reasoning. I just made it a point to hate on those officers. But why?

I let highly broadcasted stories blind my point of view. I let my mind just believe whatever was posted in front of me, without seeing all the facts there are to the story.

So instead of all this drama about police officers, I am going to start discussing what my police officers have been doing to better benefit our community.

Today I started year two of summertime Youth Police Academy hosted by Falls Township Police Department. They fill our days with education and physical activity which betters us. They train us to be self disciplined, and to follow directions. They bring in speakers to teach us about possible law enforcement vocations, as well as opportunities to help out our officers and military members.

They push us physically and mentally to the limits. They scream in our faces and make us do drills over and over and over, until we finally get it right. They get down on the ground and do pushups and situps and burpees alongside of us. They run alongside of us and scream cadences to get us excited, and are there to talk when you are feeling a bit off. They are strict and stern, but they truly only want the best for us. They are very considerate and know that they can’t push our limits too much at this age.

All of the cadets, including me, come from different backgrounds. Some of us come from broken homes, while others have it going fairly well. Some of us have social anxiety, while others are always bubbling with personality. Some of us come from athletic backgrounds, while others have never played an organized sport before. Some people enjoy the academic portion better, while others are more interested in the intense physical training that we get put through. But regardless of what side of the spectrum we are on, we all have found a love for this amazing program.

We are all in this together. We are a team, and that means no matter what we may endure during the course of this program, we will stand behind one another and scream words of encouragement and make sure that everyone finishes.

We all sink or float. If one person sinks, the whole team goes down. So we will continue to carry our struggling members for as long as need be. That is the true meaning of a team.