By Sgt. John Keating/Durham Regional Police Service
Sixty-five. That’s a number that has lots of significance to us as we grow older.
For many of us, it’s the age we want to retire by. It’s the age when we can receive our Canada Pension (CPP), but you can also choose to start receiving CPP at age 60.
It is also the age when we start to receive the Old Age Security Pension (OAS).
For me, at this point in my life, 65 has another special meaning: it is the number of days left until I retire from the Durham Regional Police Service. I turn 50 years old in 65 days and retire at the same time with almost 31 years of service with the DRPS.
I remember applying to be a police cadet in 1984 at the request of my mom and dad. They believed that if you could get yourself a job with good pay, a good pension and benefits, then you took it.
My own plans were to go to Carleton University and become a lawyer, but to please mom and dad, I applied. After all, there were 700 applicants and only three were being hired. I thought I wouldn’t stand a chance anyway. Then to my complete shock, a couple months later and after many interviews, I was told I was one of the three cadets they were going to hire.
So now I had to make a choice: do I take the job that provided good pay, a good pension and benefits, or do I say thanks but no thanks and continue on to Carleton?
Well, I decided to take the job as a police cadet and my career started. My mom and dad were very happy and extremely proud as well. Now 31 years later, I am in a position where I can retire at the ripe old age of 50!
I have been asked many times over the years if I have any regrets about taking the police cadet job and not going onto university and becoming a lawyer.
To that I simply say, “NO.” I had a wonderful career where I got to do lots of different jobs that I really enjoyed and I got to help so many people in a variety of different ways. I got to take dangerous people off the streets and make life safer for others.
I am also a believer in fate. If I had taken a different path in life and gone to Carleton University, I may never have met my wonderful wife. I may not have had three wonderful children and the most awesome dog, Max!
I may not have met the great friends I have today.
I’m sure many of my senior friends get asked over the years if they have regrets, as well. I look at regrets like I look at grudges. If you hold a grudge against someone, the person you hurt the most is yourself. If you have regrets and let yourself dwell on them, then you hurt yourself and the hurt never goes away.
I’m sure that we all could go back in time and look at certain things we have said or done in our lives and if given the chance again, we would change. But to regret these things at the cost of allowing yourself to enjoy the present is of no value whatsoever to me.
So in this, one of my last articles as Sergeant John Keating, I wanted to talk briefly about this “regret” issue that I have heard so many seniors talk about.
Regrets are the “what if” questions that can never be answered, so why bothering asking?
My work as a police officer has allowed me to be involved in the lives of so many wonderful seniors, and I have learned so much from those older and much wiser folks. The one lesson I have learned from many of them that I will always remember is not to focus on “regrets.” This message has come to me from some of the happiest and healthiest seniors I have met.
Regret, jealousy, and grudges are all the same. The person they hurt the most is YOU.
If you are 65, 95, 50 years old like yours truly, or somewhere in between, do yourself the best favour ever and live one day at a time and shake off any regrets. Be the best person you can be today and then start all over tomorrow. You can’t change anything in the past anyway, so don’t waste today on regrets.
And one greater lesson I have learned from working with so many wonderful seniors is that you are never too old to change and make a difference….today!
I’m Sergeant John Keating, senior support coordinator for the Durham Regional Police Service and I want to thank the citizens of Durham Region for allowing me to provide public service for the past 31 years.
Yours Truly, Sergeant John Keating
“Dignity, Respect and Nothing Less”
