We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Julian Varela a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Julian , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?
From very early on, my mother taught me to treat everyone with the outmost respect. Having this life lesson taught to me so early, it allowed me to make friends with any and everybody, and it also allowed me to have sympathy and compassion for others. This ended up translating over to my drive to help others and go to school for law enforcement.
Julian , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Julián “Jules” Varela. I was born in raised my a single, strong, independent Mexican woman and was installed with amazing core values that lead me on to the path of law enforcement. I took up a law enforcement job for a D1 university back home in Minnesota for a little while but recently relocated to the east coast, where I am trying to transition myself into law enforcement in my new state. To keep myself busy in the meantime, I am working remote in the health care field. My jobs have always been all about helping others. Healthcare, law enforcement, personal training or health related work, there has always been a deep passion to help and give my services back to others that may find them helpful.
Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?
Having a good moral compass goes a long way in law enforcement. I think in today’s world, law enforcement is perceived as bad and corrupt officers who want to abuse their power but that is far from the truth and those bad examples, are only a small fraction of those who are in the field. I remember growing up and getting into trouble with the law, I was always taught by my mom to be honest, upfront and respectful when speaking with law enforcement officers. She taught me early that I may come across some unfairness due to color of my skin but to always remain calm and respectful. This led me to many pleasant interactions with officers. I think many people forget that, law enforcement officers get into this profession with the intent on helping those who need it, even if it means putting our life on the line. In order to do that, you have to have a good moral compass and attitude towards others.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Even though my mother was the most amazing mother and raised us the best way possible, there were still moments where I let my teenage rebellion phase get the best of me. I just wanted to be accepted with my friend group, I wanted to “look” cool and fit in, so I did not take school seriously and had a “I don’t care” attitude towards life. A lot of adults saw that and believed I would not make it far in life. But those that knew me personally, knew that was not truly who I was and knew I could do better. I ended up graduating high school still but with poor grades and not having a sense of direction, I was nervous I was going to end up going down the same path as my former friends (either dead or in jail). I told myself no would not end up like that and go back to my roots. I would continue to improve my work ethic, work on myself and become the best version of myself that I could. This turned out to be the best decision of my life because I stopped caring about what others thought of my and allowed them to just see me as I am and get to know the real me. This presented me with amazing opportunities that I am grateful for.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @_papivarela
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/julian.f.varela