Sometimes an innocent suggestion or comment can change the direction of a person’s life.
At least that is how it was for Sarah Williams, Barrhead RCMP Detachment’s newest constable.
The majority of her life Williams lived in Mississauga, Ont. where she was heavily involved in the martial arts — specifically Goju-ru.
“I was an instructor for two different companies and I was on track to becoming a sensei and opening my own dojo,” she said.
However, before Williams continued on that path she decided she needed a break, so she took a vacation and visited a cousin in Osoyoos, B.C.
The visit turned into a year and a half stay.
“It is just so beautiful there, so I just decided to extend my stay,” Williams said, adding she worked as a wine tasting attendant at two local wineries.
It was during this time that Williams started to question whether she wanted to go back to her chosen career path.
“I started to realize, if I continued on, I would be teaching the same thing, the same way for the rest of my life, if that is what I decided to do,” she said. “Plus, there isn’t a whole lot of job security. It’s very competitive and the industry is a little more cut throat than I wanted.”
Even though she knew she didn’t want to continue in martial arts as a career, Williams didn’t really know what area she wanted to explore until friends suggested the RCMP.
“At first I laughed at them,” she said, adding she started to change her mind after investigating all the different specialties available in policing. “I love the idea of that kind of diversity. The daily challenges and the fact that everything is always different, changing and that there is always something new to learn.”
Williams applied to the RCMP and entered the Depot training centre in Regina in March, graduating this fall.
When asked what she knew about Barrhead before receiving her posting, Williams admitted she had never heard of it before and that she really didn’t have much experience in Alberta.
“The only time I had been in Alberta before was when I was driving through to and from B.C.” she said. “But I figured I took a job with the RCMP because I wanted to do something different and that it had a lot of features that I liked about B.C., like the mountains, so I put it (Alberta) at the top of my list.”
When graduating from the Depot, new RCMP members are asked for their first three choices of provinces in which they would like their first posting to be.
In fact, Williams’ first exposure to Barrhead, besides what research she could do on the Internet, was when she arrived for duty in mid-November.
As for her first impressions of Barrhead, Williams said she has nothing but positives.
“Coming from Osoyoos (with an area population of about 8,000 people) I thought it would be similar, but there are a lot more resources, in terms of both businesses, and recreation and everyone has been so welcoming,” she said.
In the future, Williams is considering moving on to the RCMP’s Human Trafficking Behavioral Sciences section, but in the meantime she wants to learn all she can from her training officer Const. Nick Crowther and get to know the community and its residents better.
And while Williams has decided not to pursue martial arts as a career, that doesn’t mean she has given it up all together.
“When people ask me what I do in my spare time, I say martial arts, that’s what I do,” she said, adding she has already made inquiries at the local martial arts studios.
