Why I Went In (ePub)

Why I Went In is the story of how Laura Hanson went from hero to zero. It began when she left her job as a SWAT Operator on the Virginia Beach Police Department to pursue a higher purpose for her life. Six months after leaving she was living in the room above the garage at her parents' house, her wife left her, and she had no source of income. She felt like she had nothing to show for her life and the memories of past successes haunted her as she asked herself how this was possible. While alone, she recalled a major event in her life, when she responded to an active shooter on May 31, 2019, at Building 2 in the Virginia Beach municipal complex. She thought of all the other dangerous calls she responded to both on SWAT and as a patrol officer. She realized she was in the midst of an existential crisis and needed answers. This scenario was very familiar to her because she had already spent the majority of her life seeking answers to questions about her purpose as a result of being adopted. This environment she found herself in served as a catalyst for finding the answers to questions she hadn't come up with yet, namely how to deal with excruciating internal pain in her life. Although Hanson lacked a spiritual practice until two months before this book was written, she writes about how developing a relationship with God, which she refers to as Infinite Intelligence, transformed her life and taught her how to overcome pain in the world. She wrote this book because it felt true to her purpose. She wrote it for you so that you can experience impactful parts of her journey in the hopes that her journey helps you navigate through pain in your journey.