What are you doing beyond the job to better yourself?
As the title states, what are you doing beyond your job to be a better person or to set yourself up for the future?
I have a little story but I’ll preface with some background. I’m a former traffic cop that used to stalk this subreddit as well as Protectandserve but never posted anything. I used to read people’s questions, answer them in my head, and move on.
I worked in traffic homicide reconstruction, motors, and DUI enforcement during my short 5 years as LE. Long story short: I violated policy plain and simple, and due to being in probationary period after a lateral, I’m not a cop anymore. I accept I fucked up but everyone knew people have survived worse.
When the whole IA started I accepted I may likely lose my job. I spoke to my spouse and my therapist at length about my future. In the moment I felt like my world was ending.
LE can likely agree that most of what you do as a cop isn’t 100% transferable to other jobs unless you go security, hop town to another agency, or take a civilian job in the agency. Thankfully, I had trades to fall back on.
After leaving the parking lot of the agency for the last time, I felt a sense of freedom rush over me. I got offers from neighboring departments but turned them down. I got home, applied to a corporate trade job and landed on my feet running. After a week, I applied to school and am currently applying my math skills to engineering courses averaging a 3.0 GPA.
I’m home on weekends. No more THI’s. No more dangerous motorcycle. No more dead people. No more crack heads. No more back stabbing. No more catastrophic drama. No more politics. You get it.
I tell my spouse every day that I’m over the moon about losing my job. While I don’t make as much as I used to , I have my individual freedoms back. I’m in school for something I’m passionate about. I’m thriving more than I thought I could have a year ago.
I know some of you LE may be 19-23 with minimal life experience before being a cop. This question is more aimed at you.
I ask you law enforcement. Are you moving on that side hustle? Are you taking advantage of your agencies tuition reimbursement program? Are you learning and improving on something outside of LE? What will you do if you were fired tomorrow?
TL;DR
Used to be a cop. Now I’m not and im thriving studying engineering. If you got fired tomorrow, what have you been doing to better yourself?