While he has several months’ of sick days to use up before it’s official, James stopped working today is considering himself retired as he knows he won’t be returning.

Despite having twelve or fifteen years before he had intended to retire, James has worked enough jobs in his lifetime to earn him a well-deserved retirement, even if it’s not quite how he wanted it to happen. He started working at 16 years old, cutting lawns for $30 apiece, mostly through people he knew from church. A year later, James added to his workload, stocking shelves at the local IGA. He worked twice a week from the time school dismissed until 10pm. His shift changed later on and he started working at 3:30am on Saturday mornings. (Little did he know that 3:30am would be his start time for most of his professional life!)

During his senior year he began working at the meat counter, where he learned how to cut meat and wrap it. He also began umpiring Little League games, where he made $5 a game. He really liked when he could actually help the kids, getting them set up to bat correctly and putting the ball on the top of his mitt like an ice cream cone for them to hit off of when the tee was too difficult. He was still cutting lawns during this time, which left little room for much of a social life, but he enjoyed all of his jobs (and the money they brought in).

After high school graduation, he took a job helping maintain the course (mostly weed-whipping), so he quit cutting lawns but still worked at the grocery store and he continued to umpire in season. He was taking classes at the local community college, aspiring to go to the police academy and needed as much money as he could to pay for those classes.

A year later, his dad knew he wanted to get on with the local volunteer fire department. James wasn’t yet 21, the minimum age to volunteer, but his dad knew the Fire Chief and his dad was also terminally ill, and so he was granted a position six months before his 21st birthday. He changed to a full-time job at the meat processing plant in Yale. The parents of his girlfriend owned the plant and it was there that he learned how to clean the kill floor, manage deliveries and box the meat. The girlfriend was temporary, but his relationship with her parents continues to this day. If his days and nights weren’t busy enough already, he also took on work driving a tractor for a local farmer. He mostly helped with baling hay and working ground.

He tried several different jobs over the next few years, but every time he left the meat packing company, the owners would assure him he would always be welcomed back if he ever wanted to return. James is certain he could walk in the door even today and she would hire him immediately.

In 1996, James was hired to be an emergency dispatcher. He was hoping that this position might help him get into the police academy. It was a full-time position, working 12 hour shifts that paid $21,000 a year. He took calls for burglaries, armed robberies, accidents and people “just calling to complain about something.” His favorite part of the job was getting to dispatch the fire department. He least enjoyed arrogant supervisors. While he worked as a dispatcher, he started his own lawn-service company. After two years of the stress of dispatching, he quit, opting instead to take on more business with his, “A Cut Above” lawn service company.

He eventually did start at the police academy but a health condition discovered 13 weeks into the program forced him to abandon the dream of becoming an officer and he instead went to work for the USDA knowing they had good benefits and decent pay. He started as a meat inspector for the USDA in Plainwell, Michigan. This is where the early morning shifts began. While it was always hard to get up at that hour, having afternoons to himself was a great trade-off. During this time, he took up driving a limo as a side-job to make extra money. Bachelor and bachelorette parties were the most entertaining he said. The men often reminded James that he “didn’t see anything” and the girls went from primped and proper to barely holding it together by the end of the night.

He made a switch to meat grading a couple years later, moving to Souderton, Pennsylvania. The change meant an easier job and the plant left him alone more than they did when he was in inspection. Following an opening back in Plainwell, he moved back to Michigan a couple years later to be closer to family and friends and he remained there until his early retirement.

We never quite know how some decisions will impact us down the road, but it’s easy to see how James’ work ethic has served him well. His early retirement is only possible because of all the steps he took to ensure his future was solid financially. He has a pension which he can draw from while disabled and he has contributed to social security for over three decades, which will also provide income during this time.

But the places he worked and the people he worked with have been blessed by his work ethic, too. He didn’t just umpire children’s baseball games, he used his time to help them become better at the sport, in a fun, no-pressure way. He has worked for people and had people working for him and he knows what it means to treat people well. He has volunteered to help people during some of their worst emergencies. He as been all-but adopted by some of the people he worked for and he has made life-long friends along the way.

I am thrilled that James is able to officially retire and to enjoy his days doing whatever it might be that will bring him the most joy. That is a blessing indeed. But I know that the biggest blessing is his impact on this world, not just through his professions but through the man he was in every one of those roles.