My Big News

I am taking this opportunity to announce to all my bloging comrades (those of you that don’t already know) that I am looking at making a pretty big change in my life. It is something I have been thinking about for years, but I have finally worked up the courage to do it.

What could it be?
Am I returning to work for the bank, as I just missed it too much?
Am I moving to Tibet to become a monk?
Am I pursuing a career as a beat writer for my beloved blue Jays?
Have Michelle and I broke up as I am in love with the old lady from the cafeteria?

Nope, it’s none of those…this time.


Caution! Before you read any further I need you to promise me something. You must promise not tell anyone from my office what I am about to tell you. This could seriously jeopardize by ability to not get fired. Promise?
.
.
.
.
.
Ok, I believe you.


I am in fact making a real attempt to become a firefighter.

Some of you may know that this has been my calling for some time. For about 4 years I have constantly said this is the career I think I belong in. Up until know I have told myself that I need to give my business degree a chance, see how the corporate world treats me. And while I have a job that pays me well, allows flexibility and interaction with many people, some travel, and great benefits… it’s not what I really want to do.

For the past several months I have been seriously investigating this, speaking to many people involved in the schools and the profession, plus hours of research on the internet and talking with my family and most importantly my bride to be. I will be submitting my application soon and will be going for the physical test and interview on Dec 6&7th. Nothing is guaranteed, as I am just applying, but I am excited nonetheless.

I consider myself pretty lucky; I don’t think many people have the chance to pursue a career they believe they will love. It is a long road until I actually land a job, but the thought of it really excites me. It is going to mean at least a year without a salary, and at least a year of Miss Brody supporting me (good thing I already bought those golf clubs), and the biggest issue, a year living away from the her (Peewee, don’t get any ideas) and everyone else in Regina. But if it was easy I would have done it a long time ago.

So why do I think I will love this? Well I look forward to actually working in a TRUE team environment. In the corporate world we often refer to our groups as teams… “ good win team”, “let’s work as a team”…”welcome to the team” I call BS to all of that. Everyone is still just looking out for themselves, maybe working hard, maybe not, but not overly concerned with the success of the others on their “team”. In the fire hall, I believe I will actually be a part of a team. A team that will go in together and come out together. If one man runs out of air, we all move to get him out. On top of that, I am sick…SICK… of people treating shit in the office like it is life or death. ‘I need that computer running right now or else there will be hell to pay”, “It’s critical that we get the project done by October 5th or else heads will roll” I find I can’t take it anymore- people crying wolf. Everything is an emergency, urgent, or critical, and what difference does it make??? Who knows! The world never comes to an end, no one looses a limb or a loved one, no one even loses their jobs. And if it gets done the next item on this list is now an emergency, urgent, or critical. I can’t say I look forward to people loosing their lives, but I will relish the fact that many of problems in the world as a firefighter will be life or death and should get the appropriate attention. I don’t expect it all to be roses, I am sure there is political BS, and I have never wanted to be part of a union, but once you go out on a call that shit won’t matter.

Maybe there is a corporate job out there that would make me happy, maybe there isn’t, but I know that to be happy I have to feel engaged and appreciated, and I don’t feel that now. I think in my posts of late you could see that I felt like a change. I also feel to be successful I will have to climb the corporate ladder, and not to sound arrogant, but I think with time I could do that. However, when I look around at the executives in our company, and some of our partner companies I just don’t want to be like them. They all seem over stressed and over worked and whatever drives them to keep going and to succeed - well, I don’t think that is in me, at least not in the long term.

I didn’t mean for this to turn into a bitch session about my job, as this is supposed to be a celebratory post. It sounds cheesy, but I feel life I am pursuing a dream, and it feels good. This is more about wanting to pursue this new career than it is about not likely my current, but the fact that I am not satisfied will make it easier to walk away. I don’t mean for it to sound like we should all quit our jobs, just because it is at times a piss off, but I just had to get all that out. Plus it’s my blog and I will write what I want.

Again, I am taking a bit of a risk putting this information on the world wide web, because at this point I still haven’t told anyone at work, so please if anyone sees my boss pretend like you don’t know anything. I need to hold this job in case I am not accepted, and I need the money wither way.