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Worst case you can go into private practice.

A teenager isnt mature enough to be a cop, plain and simple. And I have met VERY FEW guys in their early 20s who had the kind of maturity and life experience needed.  Seems that around 23 on up should be a good age. Though I have come across guys who are 21-22 who have it, they are few and far between though.

The ones I did come across who were 21 and 22 who were mature enough are ones who either came from the military, were paramedics, or were jailers prior to being cops.

Ok Scurge and PSD_TEAM_LEADER I will let you keep your opinion. Anyways Marine42 I think you should follow your gut feeling and listen to what your family has to say. Good Luck!

102193 says ...

Ok Scurge and PSD_TEAM_LEADER I will let you keep your opinion. Anyways Marine42 I think you should follow your gut feeling and listen to what your family has to say. Good Luck!

Ok, this is the kind of thing they are talking about in the first place. In a sense, you are saying let's agree to disagree. While that is a mature exit in some cases, you're still missing the point. The people who are talking to you here know what they are talking about far more than you and if you have any real maturity then you will take their opinion (based in fact and hard won experience) to heart; not just "well you have you're opinion and I have mine."

Do you know what that says to me? I says to me that if you don't like what they have to say, you just walk away and say "Oh well, too bad they don't get me." We do. You talk about how mature teens are today. Are you kidding? Every generation says the same thing, mine included. I was a mature as they came at your age and I can tell you that no one is mature enough to be a LEO at 18.

I enlisted at 17 and was in combat at 19 and 20 (two different parts of the world). Believe me when I say that I know what I'm talking about. You're at an age right now where you are transitioning from a child to a young adult (you may not like the sound of that but that is what it is). I wasn't ready at 18, 20 and probably not until a couple of years after that, so what does that tell you? I was ahead of the curve in general but under 21 is still under 21.

At 15 you're at a point when you think you know far more than you actually do and as your ego begins to develop it causes over-confidence in your own abilities and self. This is part of normal development. It's not your generation, it's the same for everyone. Scurge had it right. How would you know how mature we were decades ago? I hate to break it to you, but the adults you are talking to are the only ones that have been around long enough to witness the maturity levels of teenagers for the last few decades or more. Notice your male classmates acting especially cocky this year? Bingo.

I understand that you feel and in fact may be more mature than some of your peers. But in the end, so what? How are you (or anyone) at 18 years of age (which you have yet to reach anyway) going to effectively resolve a marital dispute between two 45 year olds with 5 kids in the house, most older than you? How will you respond to a group of drunk college students who have no respect for you? What words will you choose when you have to make "the knock?" With age comes life experience and sufficient maturity that makes someone an effective LEO.

I don't mean this or anything I have said here as an insult to you. But don't bother telling us how great you are, how ready you are, how mature you are. At this point you have done nothing to prove yourself. You are speaking to combat veterans and LE veterans. On top of that you are telling us how you are further ahead than we were at your age, yet you have no frame of reference? We've been in your shoes, you haven't been in ours so you might want to really examine how you are coming across.

In defense of bold print here on PL, I often use them myself when quoting someone else in order to make it clear to other readers who said what. It's not an "angry" tool for me.