Safe Ride adventures

So, I originally was going to use this for a volunteer application to the peace corps. It makes me seem cool and collected. What can I say? I like make myself sound like the opposite of the neurotic weirdo that I actually am. The Peace Corps wanted to hear about an experience in which I had to use "skills" in order to "adapt" to some situation and surroundings in which I was unexperienced. Too bad I didn't follow the directions very well. Instead I skimmed the paragraph and totally ignored the title of the section which was "Cross Cultural Experience"-- or something akin that sentiment. So, I couldn't use my little adventure to boost my chances at putting on the peace corps pants, but I wrote, what I like to think of, an entertaining, short first person account of what a typical first day on the job experience is for me. So here it is. My first blog. Taken from real life. Uncut. Poorly Edited. Brilliant. Meant for the government.

"I had an experience while at the University of Arizona that I will not soon forget. It was during the second semester of my sophomore year that I was employed by the University’s “Safe Ride” program. The Safe Ride program is a student run organization, which is, in turn, patronized by the greater student government. The goals of Safe Ride are to provide safe, accompanied passage for students and faculty who travel to and from campus during the evening hours.
The night of my first shift was pleasant. I talked to passengers and participated in whimsical banter over the walkie-talkies. Things were going reasonably well for a first shift of a new job. I remember that towards the end of the evening, I was dispatched to pick up two girls at the student union who were both traveling to the same apartment block. The MeadowView apartment block was located on 2nd street and Lee—not the best area of town. I picked the girls up and headed out towards my drop. As I passed through an intersection which was about a block from the Meadowview, I was startled by a car came hurtling out of the darkness and almost t-boned me. It had blatantly run a stop sign, and I expected it to speed off. Instead, the car sped up next to the van as if to pass, but instead edged close to the van until we were more or less in the same lane. The car was old and had tinted windows. At that point I began to worry a little.
I radioed that I was having trouble, but couldn’t get through. I pulled into the parking lot of the apartments. The lot only had one entrance, and was otherwise hedged in by the back fences of surrounding houses and on one side, by the apartments themselves. I turned the van around in the lot to face the entrance. The other car had finally passed us when I had pulled into the parking lot, but had turned around and was now perpendicular to the entrance and blocking it. The passenger of the car had rolled down his window and was glaring menacingly. My two passengers were surprisingly calm, but were anxious that that I get in contact with someone. At this point, I had no Idea what was going to happen. I figured that either this was a case of road rage, or that we were about to be robbed. The passenger of the other car began to open his car door. All I could think of to do was hold up my walkie-talkie so that he could see it as I finally made contact with the dispatcher. When the guy saw the walkie-talkie he closed his door, and the car slowly drove away. I was told to return to the campus in order to speak with the police about the particulars of the incident.
I feel as if I responded to this challenge with common sense. I had not been trained to handle a situation like the one just recounted. I was told simply that I was to use the radio in the case of emergency. As it turned out, I was told that it was wise to have stayed in the vehicle and that I didn’t try to do something drastic such as instigate a confrontation or try to lose the other car. If I had not had passengers in my car, or had I not been on the job, I may have handled the situation differently. But, I was conscientious of my situation and of my duties, and modified my actions accordingly."

And there you have it! It's all true.
I used a stripped down and less chatty version for a state department app.
They require names and phone numbers.