so i joined the south valley police explorer post in November. i was told that there is an explorer academy twice a year. the summer one is during the summer, and the winter one is the 26th of December to the 31st. its held in the national guard base up in Yakima. so i got up at six in the morning on the day after Christmas and was driven all the way up to Yakima by officer Stephens. when i got there it was really cold and kinda depressing. after i got my stuff in my barracks i was assigned to platoon Basic-4. as we all formed up outside they made us do a lot of PT. i mean a freakin lot. flutter kicks, push ups, squats. we also did a lot of drill. A LOT. it was really hard because i kept getting my right and left mixed up which frustrated me. at around 2100 they sent us back to the barracks and we all went to bed at 2200 . so basically the first day was about the hardest and i would have given anything to not be there (That would soon change)
at 0600 our TAC officers (Basically drill sergeants) ran up and down the barracks with an air horn yelling, "Wake up nasties!" we all stood at attention at the foot of our beds until we were told to get on our faces, so we did push ups and sang the pledge of elegance at the same time.
the third day was a little easier but still hard. the fourth day was extremely relaxing. we hardly did any PT, the TACs barely ever yelled at us, and they didn't use the air horn to wake us up. on the fifth day we had our final academic test and we did a bunch of mock scenes. we shot glocks at the range, (Not as fun as i was expecting) we did a Domestic violence mock scene, we did a building search mock scene, and we did high risk traffic stops and regular traffic stops. i was also told that at 2100 to 0000 there would be a dance. i had never attended a school dance or party ever so i thought it was going to be just a bunch of slow dancing. holly hell was i wrong. IT WAS THE BEST NIGHT OF MY ENTIRE LIFE! i have ADHD and i decided to mix that with seven Mountain Dues. damn i danced non stop for three hours. all my friends were cheering me on and it was just awesome! right after the dance ended we all ran out side just in time to see all the emergency vehicles on base come screaming up the hill towards us. they all screeched to a halt right in front of the building blaring their sirens so loud my ears started hurting. it was about the best six days of my entire life and i would give anything to go back and relive it. i cant wait to attend the summer academy.
