Since starting my mission to become a volunteer fire fighter
no one has really ever asked me WHY I am doing it. It’s a reasonable question.
I, personally, have a lot of family members involved in the fire department but
if you look on the wide scale of how many people I know there aren’t a whole
lot of fire fighters, EMTs or even nurses. The path to becoming a firefighter
is a long, winding one full of laws, technical terms, education, training and
low pay. Right now I am stressing myself out and worrying over my Emergency
Medical Technician coursework and I’m just trying to become a volunteer. I’m
not even doing this as a career choice.
By the end of it all, I will have put my mind and body
through some pretty hellish situations and yet my biggest fear isn’t about what
will happen once I’m on call or what will I do when someone is dying on me or
even how will I control my nerves during exams and labs it’s the thought of not
finishing. I’m more terrified of giving up than I am of being a fire fighter. I’m
more worried that if I don’t pass my EMT coursework that my training will stall
or end all together.
Last night was my first real EMT class, quizzes on the first
two chapters, lectures, the whole shebang. The instructor went to everyone in
the class and asked why they were taking this course. The answers varied as did
the ages. Some were fire fighters in the military and they wanted to transition
to civilian life and stay in the field. Some grew up in a fire house. Some
wanted to get into the medical field. Some wanted to be firefighters. Some wanted
to be paramedics. I have the pedigree, I have the background. My father is a
retired Battalion Fire Chief, my stepbrother and cousin both are in the fire
department. My husband’s family is also in the fire department. My answer could
have been easy and concise. It wasn’t what I expected.
“I love my community and I want to be an asset to them by
becoming a volunteer firefighter.”
I couldn’t tell you where it came from. It wasn’t anything
else anyone had said. There weren’t many people who admitted to going through
all of this just to volunteer. Who weren’t making this a career choice. I do
love my community. I loved it when I was a reporter for the North Kitsap Herald
and I love now. The people are kind, the roads are paved and everyone is
supportive. When I started to work from home, I panicked on what I would do to
make it so I didn’t lose my mind. I toyed with the idea of volunteering at the
Library or the humane society or at the horse rescue. My heart would have been
into all of those things. Once the idea of volunteer fire fighting came into my
head, though, it wasn’t leaving and it became a mission, it became a goal, it
became real.
It’s only now, that I’ve truly started down the path that I
am realizing what this will take out of me. I will be sacrificing my mind,
body, time and effort. I will be studying, I will be physically active, I will
be mentally taxed and I will do it all with a smile, because this is the choice
I have made and this is what I want to do with my free time. I’m not doing it
for the “maybe” glory of being a fire fighter. I’m not doing it because of my
dad. I’m not even doing it to save lives. I’m doing it so I can live every day
and know I am trying to do something bigger than myself that I am offering
myself to something great.
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