I scored a 88% on my 2ND exam this week. Oddly enough 88% was my final score on my last exam (original score was 84% but 2 questions were tossed out, causing my score to jump 4 points). I was somewhat upset that I didn't score higher, only because there seems to be this macho thing going on in the academy where apparently the higher your score, the more inches it adds to your male genitalia. Which in result causes a strong wave of egos and testosterone to take over the building. The irony of it all is one of our female recruits had the highest score of 98%. Was she overly excited and bragging about how great her score was? Nope, she just took it in stride and didn't really say a word. Maybe us guys should take notes.

We also did *scenarios this week. This is by far one of my most exciting parts of the academy. During scenarios my partner and I responded to a call of "Criminal Damage to Property." After entering the victims home it was very obvious they were extremely upset. It was my responsibility to control the situation and gather the facts. Without getting into extreme details - the victim identified the subject as being his next door neighbor. Upon going outside I spotted the offender in the alley, he immediately walked off when he spotted me and my partner. I end up using some persuasive languages we learned in "Verbal Judo" class to talk him into turning around and walking towards me. After gaining his trust and reassuring the offender I wasn't there to arrest him but ask him if he's heard any disturbances I then signaled to my partner a coded hand gesture that it was time to cuff him. Just as I grabbed his risk, he yanked away. This turned a very simple cooperative offender into a low level assailant. I end up having to slam the offender into the garage as he continued to fight with me. This was a big guy, so the physical struggle between me and him wasn't as easy as I would have preferred. A couple of verbal commands, and physical techniques we learned in Defensive Tactics worked almost to perfection. Afterwards my partner assisted me while putting the guy in handcuffs.

In the end result, the entire scenario lasted about 12 minutes. I had some scratches and slight bleeding on my hand from the struggle with the offender, but nothing to complain about. Especially because the training officers keep reminding us that this scenario won't be half as physical as our upcoming scenarios. One of the training officers told us she loves to fight with recruits during scenarios with routine traffic stops. My main instructor emphasises that she's known for sucker punching recruits. Let's just hope it isn't me, because I have absolutely no problem taking her to the ground.

*Scenarios are suppose to be as closest to the real thing as possible. The scenarios take place at a apartment/condo building used only for training purposes. All rooms in the building are fully furnished as if they were actual vacant apartment units. All people acting in the scenarios are police officers dressed in civilian clothes. The "actors" call you names, lie to you, use excessive profanity and just about anything you could think of that applies to a real world situation. We even had one "actor" play as a nosey neighbor and kept peeking outside to see what's going on (I couldn't help but giggle at this one). The recruits are examined by a judge who follows them through the entire scenario, however the judge says absolutely nothing and just takes notes. Scenarios are expected to be immensely physical and just as equally mentally challenging.

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Congrats to Angelo who recently graduated from college. Angelo is the 1st and only person I've known who will graduate twice (College & Police Academy) within a 4 month period. Wow, talk about setting the bar high. When asked what is more exciting for him, he replied "the academy" - but that remains to be seen.

Also here's a pretty good blog post by a friend of mine concerning guys getting their windows busted after a relationship turned bad. Unfortunately I can testify that I've not only witness friends get their cars vandalized by presumably sour women, but I my self have also been a victim of this ridiculous buffoonery we tend to call "revenge." It's a couple of weeks old, but it's definitely worth the read.

Final Thought: While running on our 3rd mile during PT in freezing temperatures last week, I looked at a fellow recruit and complained to him about the weather. I expected him to empathize and shower my same frustration, however right after I asked him "recruit how do you feel right now?" While gasping for air in the frigged temperatures he shouted to the top of his lungs, "I feel great, I'm having the time of my life, I'm in the academy!!!!" At that very moment I knew that not only had I been taking some of this experience for granted, but he was right.....we're having the time of our lives. Especially for the younger recruits like myself who have their whole lives ahead of them; this is really everything to us. So now when we're carrying (literally) each other up 3 flights of stairs, crawling on the ground around the entire campus as our knees and elbows suffer profusely, or running 3 miles in 15 degree weather - I scream "I LOVE THE ACADEMY!" The rest of the group chants and barks as the residents of the neighborhood and students at the local high school look in complete disarray.

...this is what we signed up for.