This week, I had the honor and privilege to attend the
annual Women in Criminal Justice conference held at the Omni Colonnade in San
Antonio, TX. My supervisors chose me
last year sometime when asked who they would choose to attend this
conference. Then, sometime later, other
people narrowed it down to 6 ladies that they would pay their way to attend the
conference. My agency paid for my hotel
stay at the Omni for 3 nights, which included a breakfast bar each morning,
along with coffee and orange juice. Mid-afternoon,
they also provided us with snacks and tea and lemonade to drink. There was always ice water at the back of the
segmented ballroom areas. We are also
apparently getting reimbursed for our mileage and a per diem for our food.
Anyway. I had no clue
that I had been suggested as one of the people that should get to attend this
conference until about 4 weeks ago when I got the email from the lady
coordinating the trip for us that included all the details for the
conference. I was immediately
excited. I had a new friend in San
Antonio and made plans to get together with her for a run on Tuesday evening
while I was there. They did encourage us
to carpool, but we all had different things going on before, after and (in my case)
during the conference that required we all bring our own vehicles.
I spent Monday morning doing my packing last minute. Hooray procrastination! Because of that, I didn’t put a whole lot of
thought into the clothes I was bringing to wear so 2 of the 3 button down
shirts I took were too big (no time to hop of the sewing machine and slim them
to fit me better). I totally spaced that
I had “power suits” that I could have taken to wear. These are blazer-skirt sets that I could have
paired with this ill-fitting shirts and made myself look more put
together. Oh well…lesson learned for the
future…plan out a week ahead of time what the heck I’m going to wear!!!
So, I arrived late…ish.
I arrived at the hotel just 15 minutes before the keynote speaker, Carmella
Jones, began her speech. She is a cancer
survivor (still has super short hair due to chemo, but has loads of fun wigs!),
a former elected sheriff, and has a long list of high level qualifications
within law enforcement and criminal justice.
We listened to her speak for about 2 hours and she was truly inspiring
and amazing.
Since I had arrived so late, I just had time to dump my
luggage in my room and make a beeline for the ballroom. So, after Carmella was finished speaking and
we all dispersed, I went up to the room to truly check it out and set my stuff
up the way I like it. As I said, there
were 6 of us from my agency at this conference.
All but one of us had agreed to meet for dinner Monday night. The other lady went to have dinner with her
grandma that lives in San Antonio. We went
to Papadeaux’s. I had never been there
and, while the food was good, I will probably not go back for a few reasons
that are nothing at all against the restaurant.
I do recommend it.
Monday night, I didn’t sleep all that great…different bed…roommate
in the next bed over breathing. Just stuff
I’m not used to. We got up at 6 the next
morning. I didn’t realize that their
notation of “morning refreshments” actually meant a somewhat extensive
breakfast bar, so I walked about a quarter mile down the road to Egg & I
and got the chicken apple sausage scramble with fruit for breakfast. The other 2 mornings, I ate from the provided
breakfast bar…which was different each day.
The first day, they had breakfast tacos, breads, muffins, pastries and
fruit. The second day they had bagels
(with peanut butter, butter, cream cheese, jellies and jams), muffins, breads,
and pastries. There might have been
fruit again but I don’t remember. The
third morning, they had breads, muffins, pastries and croissants with eggs and
cheese in them. YUM!
On Tuesday, on top of eating breakfast at Egg & I, I also
had lunch at Jason’s Deli. After the
conference that day and before I met up with Jennifer for our run around the
Riverwalk, I drove to the grocery store and bought a couple things of sushi,
some prepackaged salads, some strawberries and a sandwich. I didn’t eat out until my drive home from the
conference when I stopped to get some yummy BBQ.
The sessions I attended on Tuesday were Customer Service
(speaker: Aimee Crockett), 4 Agreements (speaker: HeatherAsh Amara), and
Dealing with Difficult People: Conflict Resolution Skills (speaker: JoAnn
Linzer). Customer Service was good. It was, however, not my first choice for that
time block. I had originally wanted to
attend the Stepping Outside the Box session (speaker: Kelley Blain), but she
was a no show to the conference. I did
gain new and applicable information from the Customer Service session.
The 4 Agreements session was AH-MAY-ZING! So amazing that I bought a book set from
Amazon that includes the 4 Agreements book and the 5th Agreement
book. I plan to read these as soon as I get
them and then I encourage you to look forward to me writing a short blog series
about the 4 Agreements and what they mean to me.
The Dealing with Difficult People session was awesome. The lady that taught the session was a District
Attorney and has an “interesting” background for someone that is in the
criminal justice field. I think it has
helped her greatly. She is an amazing
woman and I really enjoyed her session.
On Wednesday, the sessions I attended were Leadership as a
Lifestyle (speaker: Amanda Tuck) and Character Driven Success (speaker: Beverly
Chiodo). I absolutely loved the
Leadership session. Ms. Tuck is a Major
in her agency and has a great amount of experience from which to draw
from. She was also extremely personable
and approachable. I took a LOT from her
session. The Character Driven Success
session was an excellent message but I didn’t like the way the speaker
presented it. She lost me at the
beginning by using golf analogies. I hate
golf. But, by the end of the session,
even though I didn’t like HER, I had been completely drawn into what she was
saying and was very moved by the message she was giving us. And I very much intend to apply quite a few
things she spoke about.
Thursday, the final day, there was just one session:
Personal Wellness (speaker: Charlotte Stallings). I lalalalaloved this session. Charlotte is an amazing, passionate,
energetic, and FUN person to watch work.
She is so inspired and so inspiring.
She got almost everyone involved by asking many, many of us ladies to
stand up and tell their stories. At the
very end of the session, she asked for a volunteer to come up in front of
everyone and tell their story about something they had done that they were very
proud of. She had told us earlier in the
session that she would do this. I knew
that I wanted to do that. So I started
thinking of what I would say if she chose me.
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| Charlotte wearing a tutu and a "DIVA" headband |
The end of the session came and she asked for a
volunteer. I raised my hand. So did others. She chose me.
So I walked up front and she handed me the microphone. I started talking. I said “I am Sara Casey and I work at (my
agency). 5 years ago, I was in a real
bad place in my life. I had gained 80
pounds in 7 months from a bad relationship.
It has taken me 4.5 years, but I have lost that weight again. I started running and I recently ran 3
marathons in 78 days and became a Marathon Maniac. I am so proud of that.” It took me a minute or less to say this. I had wanted to say so much more, but I was
so nervous that all my words left me. I went
to hand her the microphone and go sit back down. She put her hand on my arm and said for me to
not go anywhere. She then told all the
ladies in the ballroom to think about what I had said and how it made them
feel. She told them to write down one
word that described how what I said made them feel. After they had written down their word, she
told them to bring them to me and put them in my hands and say the word they
had written. I was overwhelmed. I did not see this coming. Quite a few of the ladies also hugged me when
they gave me their piece of paper. By the
time the last lady gave me her word, I was crying tears of gratitude at these
women taking from my little tiny short blurb that I am a determined,
courageous, persevering, enduring, brave, fierce, overcoming, proud, strong
LIONESS (to quote one of the slips of paper).
One wrote “you did it.” A couple
wrote “Marathon Maniac” and one, this is one of my favorites, wrote “maniac.” Love it!
Those last 3 I guarantee were written by women that also run and know
from their own experience what a Marathon Maniac is and not just because I said
I was one.
So, I said I gave a very abbreviated version of my
story. I said that I had wanted to say
so much more. Well, I would like to take
the time to say everything I didn’t say to those women. So, here we go.....
5 years ago, I was in an emotionally abusive relationship
with an internet addict that cheated on me with other women over the
internet. I gained at least 80 pounds
during the just 7 months we dated. I ended
up with semi-severe back problems (bulging discs in my lower back that
eventually required minor surgery) that caused me to be put on restrictive duty
at work and caused me to gain even more weight.
Whenever I looked in the mirror, I only looked at my face. I was in complete denial about how I looked
and how overweight I really was. My doctor
recommended I lose weight but I just brushed it off and said I wasn’t THAT
overweight. I was in denial that I was
eating Tums like they were candy because of the severe acid reflux I was
having.
One night, after going out with friends for my birthday, I got
home and was uploading pictures from the evening to my computer. There was one of just me. I was horrified. I literally said to myself “OMG I’m a cow!” I started making efforts to eat
healthier. My back hurt so bad that I really
couldn’t do any exercise, other than walking, at that time. I think over the next couple months, before
my surgery, I managed to lose probably 10 pounds just by making better food
choices. After I recovered from my
surgery, my pain level was GREATLY reduced and I could start doing exercises I couldn’t
before. I went and got fitted for
running shoes because I just had this inner calling to run. I started running just to be sidelined by
severe shin splints and was told to stop running by a doctor. So I went back to walking. Over the next 8 or so months, I lost another
20 pounds or so.
When the new year came around, I made a vow to really make
good changes. I started calorie counting
and eating about 1200 calories a day and doing a workout DVD every day. So, from 20 minutes to an hour every day, I worked
out in my living room. A couple months
later, I added a gym membership and started doing weights, the stationary bike
and the arc trainer. This is when my
real struggle started. I would do great
for a couple months and then I would backslide.
I lost and regained the same 30 pounds alternately for the next couple
years. In 2013, one of my co-workers
heads up a year-long fitness challenge.
5 people buy into it at $20 each.
I started off the challenge with P90X.
That program is great. (I want to
start integrating the occasional P90X workout into my current routine, in
fact) I still had the nagging urge deep
within me to run. Another co-worker told
me about a company called Airrosti that could help with my shin splints. So I went.
It hurt like hell but the doctor “fixed” my shin splints and I could
then run without pain. I spent the next
3 months doing intervals on the treadmill at the gym until I could run for 3
miles without stopping.
Now, I know for a lot of people, running is like the magic
pill. They start running and they just
drop all the weight they ever hoped to lose.
Not me. But that’s not exactly
what I needed to get from running. Sure,
running has helped me lose the weight, but that’s not my primary goal from my
running. Running has made me a more
personally powerful person. Because of
running, I love myself. Because of
running, I accept myself. Because of
running, I appreciate myself. Because of
running, I am who I am.
I still continued to struggle with losing and regaining
weight. Through running, I have learned
how to push myself to do things that make me uncomfortable and to enjoy doing
them, even though they make me uncomfortable.
Through running, I have learned how to challenge myself. Through running, I have learned that you always
have to have a strategy…you also always have to have not only a plan A, but a
plan B and maybe even a plan C and D.
Through running, I have learned that nothing ever goes as planned. Through running, I have learned that I am
capable of so much more than I ever dreamed was possible. Through running, I have made so many new
friends. Through running, I have had a
whole new world open up to me. Through running,
I have found life and the ability to enjoy and appreciate it.
My most recent accomplishment is that I ran 3 full marathons
(26.2 miles each) within 78 days and I qualified for and became a member of the
Marathon Maniacs. I had a great time
achieving this and I learned so much more about myself. I have plans to up my marathon game later
this year. I want to try to do 3
marathons within a month. I will never
stop challenging myself. And I will
never stop running. Running is who I am
now and I am so proud of that title: Runner.
To close this out, I want to say I met so many awesome and amazing women. One, and really just because she's the only name I remember, was Jennifer. Her and I exchanged emails and plan to stay in touch. She's an avid hunter and camper. I would love to join her for one of her trips. I would love for her to show me how to dress a deer properly.
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| with Jennifer at the end of the conference |
And here's a group picture that I took with one of the other ladies from my agency plus 2 from another agency (Alamo College PD, I believe).
Awesome!!
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