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Crime, College, and Karate

TANAKA, Ayano (Ube National College of Technology)

If you add crime, college, and karate to a girl, what do you get? The answer is me, a future police officer. Why? Because these are the things that have brought me three key elements in my life: a strong will, practical skills, and perseverance. Today, I'd like to tell you how a crime gave me a strong determination to become a police officer, and how college education and karate practice have helped me build up skills and perseverance to achieve that goal.

Ever since I was 13 years old my dream has been to become a police officer and to exhibit pride and resolve in all I set out to do. I want to help the vulnerable and confused by providing them with security and assistance as a proud member of the Japanese police force. Here is what happened. Shortly before my 13th birthday there was a time when my family received wonderful help and compassion from our local police force. At that time my grandparents suffered serious harassment and threats from a group of criminals who had confused my grandfather with someone else. Until the police arrested them we were really worried that they might return to commit further crimes. I myself was awfully shocked by the incident and felt so young and weak because I couldn't help my grandparents. When my family initially called the local police station to report what had occurred, the police came very quickly and carefully patrolled our area every night until they finally arrested the criminals. They also spent considerable time kindly counseling us on the dreadful experience we had been through. No doubt my appreciation of that sympathy and concern was the deciding factor and the origin of my dream to become a future member of the police force.

With this determination in mind, my next step was to gain practical skills at Ube National College of Technology. In my four years of study so far, I have focused my efforts on learning computer technology, so that in the future I hope I can deal with the ever-increasing amounts of computer crime. Since our society is endlessly facing a growing danger from such criminal activity, we aspiring IT engineers must make every effort to learn how to prevent such illegal behavior. So I've also been trying to deepen my understanding of cyber crime by reading and doing research. The more I learn, the more I realize how challenging it is to keep up to date with those sophisticated criminal activities. There are some moments, to be honest, when I feel overwhelmed by the amount of things I need to learn.

At such times when I find myself weakening, I always remember the words of my karate master. He said, "It takes time and efforts to achieve anything. What's important is perseverance, never giving up." These words have given me the strength to practice hard and win in many karate competitions since I took up karate at the age of five. And they keep encouraging me to continue my efforts and guiding me through difficult moments. Without karate, I couldn't have gained this ability to persevere in pursuing my dream.

So that is how crime, college, and karate have affected my life. Now as I approach my time of graduation, I can take heart from all I have learned, and look forward to becoming a police officer, dedicated and keen to support everyone in our society that undergo suffering and misfortune. I'm sure that I can always overcome difficulties and achieve success with my strong will, skills, and perseverance.