It was while perusing a teammate's college textbook on criminal justice that Ralph Jefferson's interest was sparked, so much so he changed his major and later would embark on a nearly 30-year career in law enforcement.
"When I was in high school, I had a tendency to break up fights; this was among my peers. I would settle disputes," explained Jefferson, who will retire March 31 as a lieutenant with the Poplar Bluff Police Department. "I even had an occasion that one of my peers asked me: 'You want to be a police officer.'
" ... My answer was emphatically 'No, no I'm not going to be a police officer.'"
Jefferson initially planned to declare a data processing major as "I knew computers were the next big thing."
While in college, Jefferson said, he and his football teammates were talking when he picked up a criminal justice textbook and started looking through it.
As he did, Jefferson said, his "interest was sparked."
"It wasn't just driving fast and carrying a gun and arresting bad guys," he said. "It was helping people, trying to make the world a better place that sparked my interest.
"With my Christian background, that interested me. ... I thought that it was a honorable profession."
After graduating with a criminal justice degree, Jefferson said, he was biding his time.
Jefferson said he did "real well" on testing for the Missouri State Highway Patrol, but "that fell through."
Jefferson then thought about hiring on with the Butler County Sheriff's Department, but then deputy, Jeff Rolland, "kind of talked me out of that."
Jefferson, who had student loans to pay back, was told it could cost him $10,000 or more to get hired on there as deputies had to pay for their own uniforms, cars and equipment.
Rolland, he said, encouraged him to apply at the police department, which paid better and offered benefits.
Jefferson did just that, initially becoming one of its reserve officers.
About five months later, he said, two full-time positions opened up.
"I wasn't going to test for it because, at that time, they had like 12 or 14 reserve officers," most of whom had been on for five years or more, said Jefferson.
Jefferson said then Lt. Roy Lowe asked him whether he intended to apply.
Knowing the other reserves had more experience, Jefferson told Lowe no.
"He told me with your college background, you're young, strong and athletic to give it a try ... so I gave it a try," said Jefferson, who, along with Donnie Trout, were hired.
When Jefferson joined the department on March 4, 1989, he described himself as being "as green as they come."
A lot of officers, he said, have previous law enforcement or military police experience, so "they've got an idea what to do as a police officer," Jefferson said. "I had no idea."
Jefferson recalled Tom Brown, who was one of his supervisors, telling him they had to supervise him a "little bit differently than others" because he was "green" and "starting from the very bottom."
"He made sure that they molded me to be able to do the job even though I didn't have any experience," Jefferson said. "They worked with me, trained me, helped me along."
Back then, Jefferson said, officers didn't attend a training academy before being hired.
"We got hired; they gave you a uniform, gun, badge and put you in a car with a training officer," said Jefferson. " ... Then, they looked for the next academy coming up" and sent the officer.
The academy at that time, he said, was 120 hours of training as compared to 700 hours today.
"You would be in the academy for (a few) weeks, be with a field training officer and then you're done," said Jefferson, who described being a police officer as a fun job, "from the standpoint of getting out there and actually fighting crime."
The look on someone's face when an officer catches the "bad guy and gets their property back or brings someone to justice (who's) done someone wrong" is rewarding, said Jefferson.
Jefferson recalled responding to a theft report, where he was met by a mother and her daughter, who was about 7 or 8.
"This little girl comes up and she hugs me, and she's crying," Jefferson explained. "She looked up at me and said: 'Please find my bike.'"
Comparing it to looking for the "proverbial needle in a haystack ... what do you say ... I said I'll find you bike," said Jefferson. "Then, of course, when I leave, how am I going to find this bike."
While on patrol about two to three hours later, he said, he saw a child riding a bicycle that looked like the missing one.
After flagging down the child and asking where the bicycle came from, "I get the bike back," Jefferson said. "I take it back to her, and to this day, she still contacts me."
Years later, Jefferson said, the girl, now an adult, contacted him because her mother was sick and wanted to see him.
While visiting with the woman, Jefferson recalled how the woman told him she had thought about and prayed for him over the years.
"It's stuff like that that makes the job fun ... you are able to help people" and build relationships, Jefferson said.
Several times during his 29-year career, Jefferson said, he has dealt with juveniles and/or adults, who he has told the path they were on was going to lead them to prison or death.
"I've had more than one come up to me and say: ... 'Do you remember when you told me if I didn't change my ways I was going to wind up in prison or dead?'" said Jefferson, who indicated each one then told him about going to prison and vowing to never go back.
Each, Jefferson said, also thanked him because he/she now was married and/or had children and a full-time job.
"When people come up to me and say that kind of thing, that lets you know all the work ... the times you think it is thankless work, it lets you know if I made a difference in one person's life, it's all worth it," Jefferson said.
According to Jefferson, the toughest part of his job has been seeing "the trauma people go through and what people" do to each other.
"You run into the ones who honestly just don't care about their fellow man or themselves," he said. "That's the hard part.
"It's hard not to give up hope and to keep fighting to make a difference when you run into those people."
Having been on the job for nearly 30 years, "I never thought I would be leaving early," said Jefferson, who won't be 55 for two more years.
Describing himself as a man of God, Jefferson said, he believes "God is pushing me to move on.
"You've done enough. It's time to move on to something else."
From the time Jefferson was a teenager to now, he said, people "who know me" and people who don't have asked "me if I am a preacher.
"I'm not saying I am, but I have faith in God, so if that's what he has for me, then he will show me the way. ... I'm waiting on him."
While Jefferson feels God is pushing him to retire, he said, he will miss his co-workers, especially the officers who work his shift.
"Being a supervisor, these are my guys," he said. "They're like my kids."
Leaving them, he said, is "going to be bittersweet. I'm going to love being away from the stress, the politics of police work, the frustration of being unable to accomplish what you want ... because of certain laws or certain policies.
" ... I'm going to be happy to be away from that part (but) I'm going to miss the people I work with."
Jefferson said he will miss working "shoulder to shoulder with them, fighting in the field."
But, having worked crazy hours, as well as weekends and holidays for 29 years, Jefferson said, he has missed out on so much with his family.
Now, he said, he'll have time to spend with his family, including his soon-to-arrive first grandchild.
"I'm just thankful I was able to do this job, raise my family, be a productive part of the community ... God kept me; I can't ask for much more," Jefferson said.