This week my two biggest fears came true.
Fear #1...snakes
Imagine being stuck in a pit full of snakes on steroids being poked at by a stick, or wrestling a caged alligator… Well I wasn't in a pit full of snakes but we did ground fighting for 4 hours straight. The next day I felt like I had done a four hour bicep curl while squeezing the thigh master for four hours straight. We have learned how to fight smarter- not harder, but that doesn't mean our opponents get any smaller or lighter or weaker. For four hours you are either on the offense or on the defense and both require mental and physical strength. The skills and fundamentals we have learned throughout the academy were reviewed and applied on each other for four hours on two different days. Needless to say, this week was physically exhausting.
Fear #2...being struck by lightning.
Imagine swallowing a bolt of lightning. Hard to imagine? Try to imagine getting tazed. Same thing. We all had to go through the wonderful experience of swallowing lightning. I actually think I would rather be struck by lightning than ever be tazed again. Lightning might mess up your hair, but it's over in a second. The first brave recruit went and the rest of us watched with anticipation, fear, hesitation, anxiety....
One by one we all experienced the taser. The macho recruits yelled, screamed, stiffened up, tried to stand up, everyone is affected differently. The only difference between how the guys reacted and how the girls reacted was that the females swore like sailors. There is something about knowing the taze is coming. You are staring right at the taser when the instructor says, "taser, taser, taser," knowing on the third "taser" it's coming.
I told myself I was going to tense up and just fight it out for five seconds then be done. Nope. The mind was having nothing to do with any of that. I yelled a solid five second yell, my body went stiff as a board, and my mind left the building. Being tased definitely makes for great conversation.
The whole experience brought our class together even more than we already were. There was a sense of comfort knowing your brothers and sisters were right there with you going through the same awful experience and supporting you when you were done.
For us to be good at what we do it is imperative that we know the effects our tools have or do not have on people and see how differently each person reacts. It is a valuable experience, just one that I will be at peace with if I never have to do it again.
We still have to be OC sprayed which I heard is worse than being tased. I can't imagine anything being worse than swallowing lightening, but...the academy continues to blow my mind each week.
Next week...driving!
