Retirement is a bittersweet endeavor.
On one hand, you did it.
You’ve completed your life’s work and are forever free to do with your time as you wish–assuming that you had a decent retirement plan in place, that is.
But on the other hand, you’re walking away from what many of us consider to be the only life that we have ever known.
Now, I’m only 27 so I don’t know much about working 30+ years on a job, but I can imagine that walking away from something like that could be pretty emotional.
Which was exactly the case for one deputy out of Grant County, Washington.
For Deputy Wade Hilliard, his last day on the job was a memorable one.
According to Yahoo! News Wade took his final radio call from his daughter, Amy Hilliard on his last day of work.
He sat in his patrol car and listened while Amy recounted Wade’s 30-year career as a police officer.
And based on what she had to say, it sounds like this really was the only life that Wade had ever known.
Amy can be heard over the radio saying, “Deputy Hilliard started his career as a volunteer with the Spokane Police Department Co-op Program while attending Spokane community college.”
Lucky for Wade, he found out what he wanted to do early on and went for it.
This is something that I’ve always admired.
It took me 6 years to complete my bachelor’s degree in Anthropology–which I received 4 years ago–and I still don’t know what to do with it.
As Wade sits and listens to his career being recounted over the radio, you can see him become emotional.
Each career-highlight that is mentioned by his daughter is another 5, 10, maybe even 15 years of Wade’s life condensed down into a single statement.
Wade sits and listens while wondering (I imagine), “where did all the time go?”
It really does seem to fly by and no matter how old you get, you never get used to it.
The most important thing that Wade can do now is to find ways to keep himself busy.
There is nothing worse than having all the time in the world but nothing to do with it.
According to Harvard Health, “In retirement, you expect to have more time — but to do what? Doing either too little or too much can lead to the same symptoms, such as anxiety, depression, appetite loss, memory impairment, and insomnia.”
So making sure that you head into retirement with a plan is critical.
Amy caps off her monologue by telling her dad that she loves him and that she and her mom are both very excited to have him back at the house for good.
This produces a little smile from Wade–it may be the first smile that you see from him during the entire video.
But you can tell at that moment that Wade is going to be alright.
Because there’s nothing that you can’t overcome with love on your side.
As Amy signs off, a round of applause emanates from the fellow policemen and women that are listening to the radio dispatch.
Wade, with nothing left to do, signs off for the last time.
To Wade and any other men and women of service out there, thank you for all that you do.
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