Well, how do I sum up close to 10 years of work here at SJGH? Managing the switching and wireless environment for a large county hospital — keeping it running reliably, keeping it secure, planning for the future — that’s been a meaningful way to spend the final years of my career. I took a daisy-chained network of older Extreme Networks hardware and upgraded it to a fully redundant, survivable network. Completely overhauled. I’ve cleaned up lots of wiring, labelled every important uplink cable, aliased every important switch port in an effort to make the network self-documenting. I’ve mapped it all out with Intermapper and XIQ-SE. I’ve created over 30 IPSEC tunnels to our business partners. I’ve upgraded our wireless infrastructure twice (almost). I’ve had to troubleshoot broadcast storms late into the evening alongside Extreme’s engineers. I’ve been woken up in the middle of the night to reboot servers and respond to power issues in the network closets. I’ve worked long hours responding alongside the help desk to virus outbreaks and CrowdStrike failures. I’ve worked with difficult end users. I’ve worked with some absolutely wonderful doctors and nurses, many of whom have advised me on my own personal medical issues. I’ve thanked God EVERY DAY for this job. My wife can vouch for that. I’m proud of the work we’ve done here.

For those of you who are lost in all the technical jargon, here’s the main point: retirement isn’t an ending. It’s just the next leg of the trip. And if you remember anything about me, I hope it’s that while a career is important, it’s not the whole story. Build things with your hands. Serve your community. Travel with your spouse or friends. Have adventures that have nothing to do with your job title. And don’t let anyone tell you that this job is just about VLANs, firewalls, and switch configs. It’s also about people. It always has been.

Thank you all.