I joined the police force in my early twenties and worked as an officer for over fifteen years. It was a tragedy that sparked my interest in pursuing this career. I think it's a common theme for most of us. Nobody wants to be a police officer because the world is a great place, they want to be one because they know it isn't.

At thirteen years old I experienced the greatest loss in my life. My parents drove us to a country cabin by the lake for the holidays. Staring out the window of the backseat I'd watch the trees dancing with the sunlight and the smell of wildflowers wafting through the air. I remember how my father would boast proudly about all the fish he planned to catch and my mother would smile and offer to cook it for him.

We had been waiting all summer for this day, but before we could get to our destination, a drunk driver crossed over onto the wrong side of the road in front of us, causing a head-on collision that was fatal. Both of my parents died from the impact, but I was left unharmed.

I don't remember the crash or how I survived; it all happened so fast. I blinked and everything went black.

When I woke up, the firefighters were pulling me out of the back seat of the burning vehicle. The heat radiating felt like a furnace, and the smell of heavy smoke lingered in the air.

The fireman carrying me over his shoulders started to walk away from the scene as the wreckage became smaller in the distance. I realized everybody was evacuating, but my parents were still inside the car.

"Go back!" I wailed. "Why aren't you saving them? Please save them." I begged and pleaded with tears running down my face but nobody listened.

As I tried to claw my way out of the man's arms, I screamed, but it was no use. The front end was crumpled like a tin can, and the engine had been pushed into the front seats where my parents sat, leaving any hope of rescue impossible.

They had already determined that my parents were gone by the time they arrived.

All I could do was watch as the car burned with everything I loved inside it.

Just like that, I became an orphan overnight. I was too old to be adopted. I had to learn to be alone and take care of myself. My family had relatives in Europe that I could have gone to stay with, but I had never met them; they were complete strangers to me, and I wanted to stay in America, where I was raised.