Major Life Change – Essay

     In the last four years there has been one major change in my life.  Four years ago I was a military policeman in the Marine Corps planning on either staying  in the Corp. or getting out and joining the police force somewhere. I am very proud of my service to my country and of the things I accomplished while in the Corp.  However while I was stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in North Carolina some events occurred that caused me to rethink the plans I made for my life.d

     Neither of the events I'm going to mention to you are earth shattering and are for the most part, I believe common in the life of a policeman.  The first is the day I and another Marine MP had to search a house that had just been burglarized.  This was not the first house I had, had to search; however while searching this house there was an excellent opportunity to catch the burglar still inside.  For me this elevated my consciousness that I was holding and ready to use a loaded pistol.

     As for the other event, it happened a couple of weeks later.  I was out on patrol and called to backup another MP who was making a felony traffic stop.  In doing this I took outmy pistol and pointed it at the driver of the suspect vehicle.  This was the first time I had ever pointed a loaded weapon at a person knowing that if anything went wrong I would have to use it.

     In both instances everything went smoothly and I didn't have to pull the trigger.  They were however enough to get me to think.  What I learned from them was that although I believe if necessary I could do it, the taking of another persons life is something I never want to do.   With that and a few other minor problems I'd had with police work I'd decided that I needed to find a new career for myself.

     So when my four years were up I decided that I would go back to school and see what kind of careers were available to me.  One of the first classes I decided on taking at Dutchess Community College was a career and life planning course.  This course was very helpful for me in deciding on my future.  I learned through the course that the Marine Corp. had helped to improve my writing sills and what was once a chore for me became something that I now enjoy very much.  The course also showed me that a career in video and film, things I saw as completely out of reach, were open to me if I only tried or them.  To sum up this change in my life I would say that once I thought I would like to help the world and I thought the best way to do that was as a police officer.  Now, I know that for me that is not such a good idea and that maybe I can still help the world but do it in a different way through film and writing.