Advice to newcomers

I just received copies of this magazine for my next cadet class. I think it is great. I wish I had been given some of that advice way back when, instead of having to learn it the hard way.

The only thing I think I would have added is a little bit on not taking the job too seriously. We all join to help change the world, and I would love to think I did my little bit to help someone. But, if you worry about all of the crooks who get away or that you can't make a good case on, you will kill yourself from stress. One of my first sergeants taught me that what I should do is put a tick mark in the win column when I do good and make a case. Put one in the loss column when I lose, cannot make a case, or see something I wanted to change and could not. Don't add up the columns while you are still working, and when you retire, just erase the board so some new guy can start his tote going instead of totaling it up then. By that time, you will have learned to just do what you can and accept that sometimes the bad guys do win.