Twelve years ago today, I hung up my badge and gun. I can’t believe it’s been that long already. I worked for the Sheriff’s Department for 27 years after graduating from the police academy in 1986.

My first position with the Sheriff’s Department was with the jail division, working in the antiqued jail built in 1911. It was all concrete and steel and I didn’t think I’d ever get used to the noise or the smell or the inmates or the phones ringing…but I did.

After graduating from the academy,  I transferred to crime scene investigation (because our sheriff at the time was a true chauvinist who didn’t believe women had a place in the road division), then to the road division (new sheriff), back to crime scenes, back to the road

division and ultimately I spent the last ten years of my career in the Detective Bureau; seven years in Crimes Against Persons unit and three years in the Cybercrime division.

Before I started at the Sheriff’s Department, I spent two and a half years with the Lake Saint Louis Police Department.

I was 57 years old when I retired. Luckily for me, in law enforcement, you can retire with full benefits at 55. I guess they figure that by the time you reach age 55 there are much younger, more physically capable people out there ready, willing and able to take your place. Not to mention that they cost much less to employ.

There were several reasons I decided to retire when I did, but one of the biggest reasons was that my mom died when she was 57. Although I loved my job (for the most part) and the people I worked with (except maybe one or two), I wanted some time to do the things I wanted to do.

My first goal was to get my college degree. It’s something I’d always dreamed of doing. I’d been taking one or two classes a semester, on and off, for twenty years. I’d changed majors three times; from paralegal, to law enforcement to finally multimedia and web design. I never went to college after high school, it had never been on my radar.  I looked forward to my college graduation, but instead of walking across the stage to receive my diploma, I got to walk down a church aisle on my son’s wedding day and receive a wonderful daughter-in-law.

So a couple part-time jobs and five years later when I reached the age of 65, I retired completely. I often wonder how I found time to do the things I did when I was still working. Maybe it’s because I had more energy back then, I don’t know. I just know that the things I didn’t like as a child; staying home, going to bed early, taking a nap, are all things that I now look forward to doing.