I don’t talk much about my job here at Average: More or Less. It doesn’t seem like a good idea for both professional and personal reasons, but today I have some good news and to fully appreciate how good the news is, you should have a little background about my job and what it means to me.

So, right off the bat I have to tell you that six years ago I did a really stupid thing. I mean really stupid- like life-changing stupid. My life was changed, but not in all the drastic and negative ways it could have been. Through the grace and forgiveness of several people I was given a second chance. Which is why it felt so right to start working for a probation department four years ago. Probation -or Community Supervision as it’s called these days- is all about second chances. I felt like God was giving me an opportunity to show others grace and forgiveness while helping them make a fresh start.

And our department is all about the fresh starts. Our judges and Director are committed to public safety and social restitution, but very high on the priority list is rehabilitation in the pursuit of socially responsible behavior. Sometimes this requires third and even fourth chances. That’s a lot of opportunities to demonstrate grace and forgiveness.

Almost immediately the Director started encouraging me to finish my degree so I could become a certified CSO (Community Supervision Officer). Some of y’all read patiently while I dithered back and forth about going back to school and then you slogged through the two years of sporadic posts that consisted of much whining while I did finish my degree. Finally you celebrated with me that it was done and then had to suffer more whining when changes were not immediately forthcoming.

Well keep both hands on this boomerang y’all ’cause we’re celebrating again!

Yesterday I was promoted to Assistance CSO which includes a miniscule small salary increase, a larger workload and a whole lot more responsibility. It’s still the bottom of the heap since no one else is being hired to fill my position (guess who’s still responsible for those duties?!), but it suggests the possibility of rank and is certainly a step in the right direction.

The bottom line is that at the ripe old age of 42-ish my new career is taking off proceeding apace. At this rate I’ll be able to retire in 2040 or so. I can share a lot of grace between now and then.