Hey to who(m?)ever might be reading this. After weeks of not wanting to look at it, I feel—Read: my girlfriend tells me—it’s time to take another crack at my entrance essay for my first police background exam. Again, feel free to skip this in its entirety and move on with your life; this is basically just me thinking out loud.

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Nearly four years ago, I entered college without a clear goal of what I wanted to do career-wise. I had vague notions of becoming a lawyer based off four years on my high school’s mock trial team, but I had no intention on following a political science track. After switching majors and recycling minors more than once, I am now a mere semester away from graduating with a degree in sociology and an extended minor in professional writing. Perhaps more importantly, I have been able use my time in college to determine what it is I want to do with my degree and, to a greater extent, my life: I wish to protect and serve.

Though it was a criminology course that initially piqued my interest in criminal justice, it was my various social theory courses that really inspired me to pursue law enforcement. The works of Emile Durkheim and Robert K. Merton, especially with regard to their focus on social anomie, have stressed to me the importance of law and order in society. I believe in the essential enforcement of rules both grand and small—from the incarceration of felons, to the written citation of minor traffic offenses—because it inarguably defines the norms and mores we as a people live by, providing the backbone of civilized life. This idea of preserving the integrity of the law is something I can fully devote myself to.

My major in sociology has encouraged me to pursue a career in law enforcement, and I feel my minor in professional writing has helped equip me to take on that task. From both my course load and a cumulative four years working as a research assistant, I have a wealth of experience writing and editing all manners of forms, reports, and essays. Though the latter may not relate to law enforcement, years of writing and editing non-fiction scholastic essays have certainly strengthened my resolve as an author, a skill that I can confidently say has carried over to my reports.

As stated previously, I have experience from my high school’s mock trial team. On dozens of occasions across all four years of high school, I tried cases in an actual court before actual judges in both the capacity of an attorney and a witness. I am well-versed in courtroom proceedings, and I would consider myself comfortable appearing and testifying in court before a judge.

To note, though I am in no way fluent, I have over five years education in Spanish and know more than enough to communicate with native Spanish speakers. I am currently working toward fluency with my last semester of college, and I plan to pursue learning the language more fully after graduation.

Inevitably, my aim with ANY DEPARTMENT [to be changed per essay] is to join Criminal Investigations. I find the work CI does fascinating, and I would appreciate the opportunity to become more fully involved in it. I believe my background as a researcher would help me to analyze a crime scene, and my experience acting as an attorney would help develop skills interviewing witnesses.

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I think I need to better flesh out my introduction (one of those fancy thesis statements that lists what I plan to talk about), and I don’t really know what all to put for a conclusion, but this seems like an improvement from last time.

Thoughts?