10 LONG, HARD WEEKS

Well, the end of the academy has finally come! I'm proud to say that I survived and have succeeded and am now officially a corrections officer. I would absolutely be wrong to not acknowledge Stac in this accomplishment. She had been equally as strong, if not, stronger than I have throughout this whole process. It was her that kept me hoping even before the academy that they would call. They finally called. It was she that made sure I got up in time to make it to all the early appointments during the hiring process when I'd been up till 2 working the night before. It was she who has taken the full brunt of the kid work while I've been immersed in academy life. She has been stuck with the kids long hours, early mornings, late late nights, fussy days, and screaming fits, while I studied, memorized, shined, and prepped for the academy. Stac has totally kept me in the game by standing by me and being there for me when I needed her to just take the kids and go. Or let me leave when I know that ll she wanted was an hour of quiet, alone time to herself. They warned us on day one in the academy that this would be hardest on those of us with kids (specifically small kids) and that it would almost surely affect spouses. I would be lying if I said that it has been easy on us. Stac has just put up with so much of my freaking out while I stressed about what I needed to be doing and wasn't or letting me just go to bed while she stayed up ironing my uniforms and making my lunches. She truly has been what has gotten me through this and I give her all the credit she deserves.

The academy has been really tough and in ways that I never could've imagined. I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father has blessed me with this job, a wife who has gotten me this far, the ability to do what I need to do, and the chance to do something I believe I'm going to enjoy a lot. This is one of the biggest blessings of my life.

Today was the graduation. For as big of a deal as the TAC Staff made it out to be, it really wasn't much. Neither of the speakers were really that great (the keynote speaker was obviously misinformed and aimed her speech to all of the graduating Marshals, which was none..... we're CO's, not Marshals), our white gloves were really goofy looking and are about the only thing you notice in the pictures against all the dark uniforms, the 2 awards the Staff gives out went to the one guy in the class who thought he deserved them the least and didn't even want them (he's been a cop for years and this is his second time around so he admitted that he thought had an unfair advantage where the rest of us were really stressed out or in the dark about things), and it was just a lot of work up over not a whole lot. Oh well.