Honey I think I want to be a cop...

Sometime in May2009:

Honey I think I want to be a cop...

That was how my husband “Officer” broached the subject to me. This was only AFTER I had heard him respond to our family with, “Well I’ve been looking into becoming a cop.” We were planning a wedding, and as family does, they were making sure Officer as a man was going to provide for his soon to be wife. Even though at the time he already had a job (I guess they knew it wasn’t his career by the fact it only paid $12/hr).

We did talk about it more in detail. I smiled mostly because I know officer very well. He is strong and when he puts his mind to it, he gets the job done. We talked about shift work and how hard that would be on me. We talked about him working holidays and not having a free schedule. About why he was considering being a cop now, and he hadn’t before. Mostly he said that it was a job that he didn’t consider before. It occur ed to me Most normal people I knew were not cops. I only personally knew one cop. Being a cop seemed like a job that he didn’t know if he was qualified for. I hadn’t considered it before because well, let’s just say in my family a cop showing up meant something bad. So bad associations= not in my mind as something you consider doing.

A cop?... let that sit a moment… Never thought I’d be married to a cop but I guess it’s a good profession. We need good cops. Officer is compassionate enough and also enjoys action shoot-‘em-up movies where people die. He is a great example of a quality man, was an eagle scout and the whole nine yards. There’s no real reason I could think of why he wouldn’t make a good cop. A cop... OK sure I guess if that’s what you think you want I’m in. OK. I support that.

And so the process began one year ago. Officer was on his way to being a cop. I still laugh because I think the reason he didn't tell me before he mentioned it to his family was he didn't know if I would be happy with his decision.