1) Picking up the pieces on an early life failure (false start) and turning that into an successful career in logistics, from driving to in-house work back to driving and then back to college after a leg break (to right now, about to graduate). What I've done in school will be on the application and will not be included on any PS. Not sure how to not write this like a bio, which adcoms don't want.
2) Writing about that early failure, really a set with the same base reason. Dark self-thoughts, turning away from that. I figured this would not be upbeat and draw attention away from what I'm doing 'now' in addition to rehashing C&F.
3) Between my first/second driving job and going in-house I had a 9 day hospital stay, surgery, etc from an infection that almost killed me. skin grafts, permanent vein damage, etc lucky to not lose the leg I later broke, but that's another story. Basically after recovery tried to restart the driving part, but this was a lease operation in 2008/2009. As one can imagine not being able to drive and the bills that came later kind of made me have to drop the lease in that economy even though I did try to go back.
4) I've been in fights before, but those ended with OC Spray or baton work. I meant writing about the closest time I have ever come to ending another persons life and the conscious/legal statute (elements of the crime being committed) thoughts I was still able to process in the moment / articulate as to why no matter how close to justifying action (the difference of a guy raising his arm or not), there was a legal line that wasn't crossed in order to justify response. Write about the story and ability to able to still distinguish difference in a detached moment. Sort of surreal, it was as a 3rd party witness to an altercation at one my local Waffle Houses. I don't mean me joining the altercation if I got involved, I mean I was in the position to end it without the armed guy knowing I was even there. Occurred after I stopped being a cop.
5) military brat life, back-to-back, two of the posts we moved to were being closed in the time span we were there. Not just 'shut down', the posts and all property therein were returned to their host nations. Not sure what I can write here that would interest anyone, this isn't an uncommon experience.
6) why I believe in the personal philosophy of wanting to protect innocent life. something I want to write, but am afraid of how it would be received. A few people obliquely already made fun of this, which I assume is because they don't understand that yes there are people who think this way, or perhaps for other reasons just choose to dismiss it out of hand because they think it's political. That would also be the reason I am not sure adcoms would receive the message the way it was meant to be sent. This is more of a self reflection topic but tied to life events.
7) 500 word draft answer as to why I ran for office. Just happened to write it for a school before I was asked here for an answer to that question.
Personal Statement
As a “military brat,” I was raised with an inherent respect and appreciation for true selfless service, but the events below highlight when I consciously affirmed my desire to earn a Juris Doctor and become a citizen-lawyer. I am far from perfect and I have made my own mistakes, but I try to not repeat them and above all, I still hold myself accountable for my actions. At the end of the 2011/2012 Georgia legislative session, I watched the video broadcast of the closing week’s activity, and became both embarrassed and angry at the lack of action from my own State Representative. To be fair, I already knew my Representative through his passive opposition to several civil rights bills I wanted passed into law that year. However, even voting no would be preferable than not doing one’s job which is what I witnessed.
This kind of thing happens, and while many people may say, “someone needs to do something, but I cannot because…,” I actually took the time to research the situation and realized that I could do something. I decided to run against my State Representative, who had never faced opposition. Still in the process of just finishing my first year back in college, but I did my best to make my principles guide my campaign. I lost that General Election in November 2012, but did as well as any other candidate in my geographic area from the same political party. I garnered some local recognition and became more involved in local politics, but I also learned that I am no politician. I then concentrated on my classes once again and continued to work for positive change behind the scenes through both new and old associations.
To tie this back to accountability, I have to add that in learning how to run a campaign and therefore follow election laws, I ran into the fact that the person I just ran against continuously failed to do the same both then and now. I lost, but he was still not doing the job he was elected to do by failing to properly complete the required paperwork every candidate or incumbent for public office in Georgia has to complete. I found more than a dozen ethics law violations spanning his entire time in office and compiled a complaint which I submitted to the proper authorities in October 2012. I never made this public to avoid any erroneous accusations of “sour grapes.” The complaint process has taught me both patience and perseverance, because just two months ago the Ethics Commission substantiated my claims and found a handful more from paperwork to which I was not privy. The case is still pending final resolution, but local and regional media ran the story. Though a small figure compared to higher offices, thousands of dollars are still unaccounted for, errors still occur. Again, I am not perfect and understand that mistakes can be honestly made, but they should not be repeated.
