First Encounter with the Cops Today
Here's a good story.
I live in the city for college and was on my way home on the interstate to meet my entire extended family for our annual Christmas dinner this morning. It's about an hour or so for me to get back home, and I guess I'm a little anxious to see everyone again.
I'm in the far left lane (as usual, I'm 21 and own a sports car...) but anyway I get stuck behind some tool that believes that the posted speed limit is actually a literal limit and he is scared to even approach a speed within 15 miles per hour of the limit. Cars are whizzing by me to my right, and I'm ready for the slowpoke to move it over.
I follow him for maybe a mile or so, and I gradually get a bit closer to let him know that I'd like to get by him. By the way, I hate passing on the right unless it's totally necessary, I've seen way too many close calls because people don't really expect to be passed on the right. Either way, my patience runs up and I gear down to 2nd, at this time I'm doing 50 and just nail it and swoop around him in an instant.
It felt great. But what didn't feel great was that once I was around him I ended up at 90+ mph really quick. Damn SRT. Literally within 3 seconds of being around him I spot the patrol car pulling out to come and get me. I hadn't seen him because my nemesis, "Mr. 50mph in the fast lane" was blocking him out of my view.
Either way, I know I'm caught. I just pull on over and he parks it right behind me. He walks up to the window and we exchange our greetings. I ask him how he's doing, and he replies that he's fine, but he's not too sure about me. I nod my understanding that I'm about to be screwed with a hefty ticket for doing 92 in a 65mph zone.
He asks for my license and registration in a calm but stern tone. I nervously sift through my ID cards and produce it and hand it over. As I'm looking for my insurance card in my wallet though, my military ID card must have caught his eye. He's eyeing my driver's license and asks, "Are you in the military son?" I reply, "yes sir." He asks, "Which branch?" I say, "I'm training to be an Air Force officer, sir."
This is the really neat part of the story. He immediately drops my driver's license in my lap, looks me in the eye and says. "Thank you so much for your service, just slow it down out there. Have a nice day son." And just walks back to the patrol car and drives away.
I've never been the biggest fan of the police, but today I saw that they are real people too. They care about things just like us, and for me, they are brothers serving in uniform too; just in a different capacity. I'm not going all sob story on anyone here, but I have a new respect for police officers, and I know that there are some very good ones out there. I know I deserved a ticket today, but I'm confident I took a lot more away from the situation by not receiving one.