Police Academy, week one

I have a great life, and there really isn't much that I would change about it if given the chance. But my day-to-day activities are a bit... vanilla. I work. I homeschool the kids. I clean the house and cook dinner. We take walks as a family and go to church on Sunday. Then repeat. Over and over and over again. 

Now that the kids are getting a little older and a little less needy (supposedly), I'm trying to push myself as a writer. I spent about five months working on a novel (it's finished but not what I would consider publishable.) I taught a couple of writing classes to junior high and high school kids at our co-op. I got a devotional published. Now I'm trying to consider my next project, and I keep coming back to fiction writing. I love fiction. So what's the problem? It's hard to be creative and write imaginatively when your life is dull (see paragraph one.)

I decided I would try to push myself in other ways this year and attempt things that I wouldn't normally do. I'm very much an introvert and would probably be content to spend all of my free time alone on the couch or outside on our deck with a good book. But I seldom take advantage of opportunities to try new things or meet new people, which I think are key elements for fostering creativity. So I did something totally out of character: I signed up for the Sherwood citizens police academy training. 

We meet twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Last week was our first week, and I was pleasantly surprised by how interesting it was. The first night we met the chief and several officers and got to see an international gold-medalist give a self defense demonstration. Thursday night we learned some tricks of the trade for traffic stops, went outside to see a demonstration of Sherwood PD's drone, then came back in for a lecture on narcotics (they piled a table full of drugs and drug paraphernalia they had procured from various drug busts, so we got to see real examples of the things they were telling us about.)

Here's a picture the drone took of our group:

 

We have some other fun activities coming up--a K9 demonstration, a tour of the jail (I've heard rumors that they'll offer to feed us there), range time with the SWAT team, and something I'm equally excited and scared about: a drive-along next weekend in a cop car. When we signed up for drive-alongs, the officers told us to wear close-toed shoes (in case we need to run???) and warned us that if the officer gets a call that we're not allowed to go on, it's possible we could get dropped off on a street corner until they can radio someone else to come pick us up. Hmmm... what am I getting myself into? I don't know the answer to that question, but I do know that I'll take advantage of the momentary excitement and hopefully get at least a few good blog posts out of this whole experience.