Rookie Reality - Expectations vs The Job

Episode 8 — Rookie Reality: Expectations vs The Job

What you think the job is… and what it actually is—are two very different things.

In this episode, I sit down with fire recruit Aiden Flanagan, who currently just completed rookie school, to talk about the reality of stepping into the fire service for the first time. We break down what he expected coming in, what hit him the hardest once training started, and how quickly the job begins to change the way you think, operate, and carry yourself.

This isn’t a look back from years on the job—this is real-time perspective from someone living it right now.

We get into the pressure, the pace, the accountability, and the moments that make you realize this isn’t just a job—it’s a complete shift in mindset. We also talk about what comes next, what it’s like preparing to step onto a truck, and what it really takes to earn your place in a firehouse.

If you’re thinking about getting into the fire service, just starting out, or even years in—this episode brings you back to what it actually feels like in the beginning.

The expectations… vs the reality.

This episode Includes dynamic content. If you feel impressed to help support the show, follow the link below. If not, please continue to like, share, follow, and subscribe for more great content!

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2605628/support

This episode Includes dynamic content. If you feel impressed to help support the show, follow the link below. If not, please continue to like, share, follow, and subscribe for more great content!

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2605628/support

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Before you ever step foot on a truck, you build this picture in your head of what you think this job is going to be like, what it's going to feel like and what you're going to do and who you who you're going to be. And then you get into it and you realize real quick it's not that simple. Because it's not just about learning the skills, it's about learning how to think, learning how to operate, and learning how to carry yourself in a world that doesn't slow down for you. And the reality is nobody can fully prepare you for that part. I'm Lieutenant Dodson, an engine officer in Northwest Georgia. This podcast is about the real conversations in the fire service. It's about the brotherhood. It's about the lessons we learn along the way. So this is a big one for the show. It's our first episode that was that's recorded out of state, and we're down in Central Florida. I think this conversation matters because we're not talking about the job from years down the road. We're talking about it from someone who is in the middle of it right now. Uh we've talked to the veteran captain and we've talked to the one-year guy. Uh so our guest today is in rookie school. So we're gonna look at it from that perspective. It's a phase of this job that we forget after a while. Um we remember the highlights and we remember all the big moments, but we forget sometimes what it's like to be brand new. So that's what we're gonna talk about today. Um, what we thought it was gonna be, what it actually is, and um what starts to change once you get into it. Aiden, I appreciate you sitting down with me today. Go ahead and introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about you.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

So, my name's Aiden Flanagan. I'm 19 years old. I'm born and raised down in Orlando, Florida. Uh I recently graduated the Fire Academy back on April. That's pretty much it for now.

SPEAKER_02 2:16

A good deal. When do you go on the truck? Oh, I shouldn't say on the truck.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

You can say engine, truck, whatever you want. When do you go on shift? How about that? My graduation date is July 2nd, so I could be on shift the fourth, fifth, or sixth. Just depends on what station and shift I get. Gotcha. Do y'all do 24 on 48 off? Yeah, I think our next kind of contract we're going to 2472 or Kelly Days. Gotcha. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:43

There's a lot of departments that are changing the way they do their shifts. I don't know about the 2472s.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Uh I wouldn't complain. I know we're trying to get a lot more people hired so that we can get that in one of our kind of cities in our department recently switched over, and a lot of the people that are over there have said that they like it so far. A good deal. I know there's there's some departments doing 4896s. Yeah, I've isn't that mostly in like California, I've heard.

SPEAKER_02 3:09

Well, there's there's some places around Metro Atlanta that are starting to do it. Really? Yeah. I don't know about that one either. Yeah, I'm not fan of that. 48s are especially for a busy house. That's a long time. All right, so before we get into where you are right now, I want to back up a little bit. Because everybody has a different reason for getting into this job. Uh and I think that matters more than people realize. I I was in construction for years. I volunteered back in the late 90s, a little small department. And I think you get the firebug, or whatever you want to call it, you get this thing where if that's what you're meant to do, it's hard to get away from that. So I got in construction and did that for years, and the time come where I knew if I don't do it right now, I'm not gonna do it. So I was 32 when I got in the fire service, which kind of late, but I'm glad I didn't I did it when I did. Um but I've like I said, all these years I'd went wanting to do that, but when you get older and you have kids and you're locked into a job, it's hard to leave. I feel like if I leave I'm I'm taking a risk. Uh but luckily things worked out, and I've been there a little over 12 years now. And it was a good decision. I enjoy it. Uh but like I said, a lot of people don't realize that change. Some people grow up around the fire service. Uh there's there's some people that I work with that their parents or their daddies were firefighters, their granddaddies were. Some people just get into it. There's other people that I worked with that it was just a job. You know, there was openings and they got hired, and then some people feel pulled toward it, and that's kind of where I was at. Uh so for you, what made you choose the fire service? And when you made that decision, what did you think it was gonna be like?

SPEAKER_01 5:04

So I had never like in high school, everyone would always kind of talk about what they wanted to do, like immediately going to high school, and I never really had a big idea. And I got lucky that I joined a program because originally my plan was just I'm gonna go to college, figure it out, try and play a sport in college. And then my buddy told me, Hey, there's a fire program at our school, you know, they work out a lot. I know you're trying to get in better shape, that could help you. So, my sophomore year, I decided to join and try it out. And it's like you said, I was just kind of bit by that bug. Like I immediately fell in love with it. I that was my favorite class for three years straight, and I was there every day just working, like getting the basic skills down. Uh, I wasn't lucky enough to get my fire one cert out of it. It was more just like I learned all my knots. I s my senior year, we had just started throwing ladders and then like some of the small stuff, like nothing for state testing, just the basics. Yeah, and I got very lucky to have that.

SPEAKER_02 6:00

Get your feet wet and learn the basic stuff. That's awesome. Um, there's it's called College and Career Academy. There's a couple around North Georgia. I'm sure they're they're everywhere, but it kind of does that. It kind of transitions you into certain careers. Uh, there's some for fire and law enforcement and stuff, but I think that's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Yeah, that's kind of like what our program was. It's called a magnet program for us, but yeah, that's it pretty much what it was. Because we had like law, um, some like we had police, just some other small stuff there.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

Yeah, that's cool. I like that that that they do that. All right. So that's uh I don't know. I before I got into it, I guess I had this picture of what you see on TV. And like I said, I did volunteer in the 90s, which seems like forever to go ago, but super small department. Like I was there for like three years, we run two fires. Now one was a school and one was a mill, so they were big, but that's all we ran. Like it we didn't run much. Um once I got hired on in a career department, I realized this ain't nothing like I thought it was gonna be. And I made that joke a while ago about firefighters mop and clean and wash trucks, and that's really the um we run we don't run a ton of fire where I'm at, but we do run we do run fires. But the majority of our day is not what I thought I was getting in the fire service for. It's doing pre-plans, doing maintenance on hydrants and washing trucks and cleaning the station and all that mundane stuff. Uh but it's all part of it. It all makes you better. So now that you're in it, this is where things start changing. Uh and there's always that moment where the picture that you had starts to shift a little bit. Um, not because it's bad, but because you see the reality of what's going on. Uh so talk about that for a moment. What what hit you first when you realize this isn't exactly what I thought it was gonna be?

SPEAKER_01 8:12

So the first time I ever really had a moment that hit me was in standards when I put on my gear and we did our first ever uh rule of air management drill, and it just kind of whooped me because I kind of thought I was in good enough shape, like I was gonna kind of be able to keep up in it, definitely put me down. Yeah, it's different. And being there, like kind of realizing like this gear is really it's getting me. It's I it's not what I expected. I mean, we were in January, and that heat was like even just being in the gear kind of killing me. Yeah, and definitely the gear in my first ever ride-along, because my first ride-along, I was in a station and they didn't have like a great bond, is that the word I guess I would say for that. Like, they didn't take pride in their engine, like I just kind of saw that side of the fire service first. Like, that was my first ride-along, and I was like, There, these people are just kind of sitting in their rooms, like I didn't really see them do the checkoff or anything. Like, they just went and kind of hid all day. Yeah, and that that was definitely my first. Like, there's gonna be a lot of people that I run into like that. And then I got lucky that my second one was the next day, and I saw the better side where they're training, they're there, they're running calls, they make sure that engine's check and wash. Like, yeah, definitely those are some of my wake-up calls. It's like even though we don't get calls all the time, there's still a lot to be done around the station. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 9:43

So it's um it's amazing to me because we run three shifts, ABC, and then we've we've got five stations. And I know this is it's even a bigger deal for a bigger department. But to work like I'm on C shift at station one, our headquarters station. And if I work overtime or if I work a swap or something, and I end up on A shift or B shift, how different, even though we're in the same department, how different the shifts are one from another. And then even on the same shift to go to a different station, how different the crew dynamics are, or you know, the way that things are handled throughout the day, just from one station to the other. And you run into that. You you have the crews where people train, they check their trucks in the morning, things are squared away, it's washed, it's clean, it's ready to go. And then the ones who they're just there for a job. And we kind of mentioned that a while ago. I think that's the difference in being called or having that pull and still being passionate about it versus just it's just a job. Show up and do your thing and you go home. And it's easy, especially after a few years, to kind of get comfortable. But try to keep your passion for the for the fire service. Um there's waves. Every so often you'll go through a wave where you just you kind of feel like, man, is this really what I'm supposed to be doing? And you kinda maybe you have some bad calls or whatever, push through it, and you'll get some wins and then you'll be back on top. It is just like a it's just waves. That's the way it happens. Um, but what you were talking about, the the different uh crew dynamics and stuff, that's that's where people either start to adjust or they struggle with it. Uh you can even if your assignment was is with one of those crews, you can adjust to it and just be self-motivated, go out and train, do some things like that, study, whatever. Or you can struggle with it and you end up usually in the same boat they're in. And and I don't know I don't know the crew you're talking about, but we have those that are lazy for a better lack of a better term, or disgruntled or they're just negative. Uh but try to stay motivated yourself and move forward. Uh it's not all about learning the skills, it's sometimes it's the pace of what we're doing or the pressure. Um and you don't really get eased into that. You just kind of end up there. I know in rec in recruit school accountability is massive. And I don't know how y'all do accountability. Do y'all have tags?

SPEAKER_01 12:42

Uh what do you mean by tags? Like marker tags, like tags.

SPEAKER_02 12:45

Well, we do like we do accountability tags. So every person has their tag. And then even in because some recruit schools we do in-house. And then we have a state training center that if it's a small like two or three, we'll send them there. Um but if it's in-house, then everybody has their accountability tag and it's just got your name, your rank, and your picture on it. And in recruit school, you have to keep up with that. Well, they'll be uh a leader for the week and he has to keep up with those tags for everybody. So he has to know where everybody's at all the time. And then that builds discipline because once you're on the truck, we still have those tags. Once you're on shift, you still have the tags. Yeah. And as we get on the engine or the truck or whatever in the morning, we have a ring that stays by the steering wheel over on the like it's hanging on the blinker switch. But it's a ring, and everybody on that truck attaches their tag to that ring, and then if we run a fire, command gets that ring and knows who's on that crew. And that's how we do it. There's a lot of different methods for doing that, but that's part of our accountability through recruit school too, is the leader keeps the tags, and it's up to him to know where everybody in the class is at.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

Yeah, our accountability, we don't have uh tags like our helmets have like squad identifiers. We're just broken up into six squads in total and between our two classes, and we have a class leader for each class and then squad leader. So it's kind of broken down like chain of command. The squad leaders need to know where their squad is, and if someone's not there, they need to immediately tell the class leader so the class leader can inform our lieutenants that are in charge of us. But yeah, and like you said, like how you guys have the ring on the blinker, we have um velcro on the bottom of our helmets that we have little tags for. So every shift you have to give that to your lieutenant to so that they have you for the marker. And when they if we get like a fire, they're easily able to rip it off and give it to whoever's in charge of IC, or if we're first arriving, then they'll establish kind of the same thing, just a little different process, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:01

Okay. All right. So one thing, one thing I think people overlook, especially from the outside looking in, is how fast this job starts changing you. And we've talked about it in in other episodes too. Is it changes more than just you on the job. It changes the way you think about things and how you carry yourself and things that you pay attention to, like going in the store shopping, but looking at fire extinguisher tags. Or going into the mall and knowing where the exits are, and if something happens, this is the way we're going. We're getting out of here. Stuff like that, backing into parking spots. I noticed you backed back then a while ago. We don't have a single station where you back in a rig, and I still back in every parking spot. I don't I don't know why, it's just one of them things. But it starts changing so much about you. Um so since since starting, 1714 and not not about skills, but you as a person, have you noticed anything changing already?

SPEAKER_01 16:10

So the biggest thing that I've noticed changing myself has definitely been my work ethic. Before I started um standards or EMT, I was working at a grocery store and I was just kind of lackadaisical about it, is the best word I would say. Like I would not really look ever look forward to going to work. I was like, you know, another day I have to go in and right after class, and then I would go to work. Just kind of I wouldn't put in any extra effort. It was just all right, survive, get out of here for the night, and then go home, go to sleep. And once I got to EMT school, I found myself often coming like an hour early to sit there on my tailgate and study, or even earlier to help people, and then I would find myself staying late because we'd get out of class like five o'clock, and I'd be there till 7:30, maybe eight or nine, yeah, staying and studying and helping other people that were struggling to study. And then standards is where it really hit with the work effort. Uh, it's like I said, uh in gear, I got that wake-up call. What the moment that hit me was I want to be the best I can be in gear because now I know that I struggle in it. So I immediately was looking forward. We had two rule of air management drills, uh, roam drills as we call them a week, and each one I would look forward to. And then on our survival week, we had one every single day. Yeah, those were definitely some of my favorite days because I know that's when I was gonna get a real wake-up call. Because our other PT days, we would just kind of run around a track and then stop, do some workouts in an area. And it's definitely different compared to how orientation is now for me. Because it now we're in the weight room a lot more. But definitely the work ethic. It's I look forward to doing more things that are gonna challenge me and allow me to get better because I know that me, if I'm not good at this job, I'm not just affecting myself. That's right, it's affecting other people, and these are people's lives at stake. And our instructor said something to us today, uh, because we had a roam drill this morning. They said, if you are struggling to even get yourself through this drill, do you genuinely think you could go in a fire and save yourself right now?

SPEAKER_02 18:16

Yeah, that's exactly right. I remember so we have a a connex box that we have a maze in. It's at our training center. And when I was in rookie school, I've never been big on confined spaces anyway. It is tight to move through there. And we went in in in pairs and full air, full gear, the whole deal. Crawled through, crawled, crawled, crawled, and I finally got hung up between some rafters in the ceiling and my vibe alert goes off and I'm hung up and it's hot and I want to get out of there. But I had I had this moment where I had to decide, is this where I quit and go back to doing what was easy? Or do I push and I get through this and move move forward? And I did, I pushed through it. But I think at some point, and we've mentioned this before too, it may be in rookie school or it may be on a call or whatever. I think at some point you reach a a wall that you have to overcome. And it may be gear because if we're running a recruit school in-house, the first day or one of the first days is just gear. And I'll start them off with all right, let's just put your pants on and put your boots on, let's walk around a little bit and kind of step it up, put your coat on. And we'll do that by the end of the day, they they have a face piece on, they're air packing, they're breathing air. But a lot of people, when they get to the point of putting the face piece on, they freak out because it's not what they expected. And it's constricting, and you you kind of have to work for your air a little bit, you know. So those I don't know, I think you get to a point at some point where you have to realize it's not gonna be comfortable and you just keep pushing. But um that's that's a lot of the part that people don't see or understand. Um they see training and gear and certifications, but they don't see everything else that that goes on with that. Uh, do you feel like the change is still happening, or do you feel like you're kind of starting to settle into to where you're at?

SPEAKER_01 20:31

I feel like I see uh change happen every day. If it's subtle or not, I feel like it's just a constant learning and starting to understand more. So I find myself looking more into the things that we have with our SOPs, like for our writ, like we talked earlier about the active writ. Yep. I was looking like a lot into the active writ, trying to understand that more because they said uh a lot of people go into writ and kind of think, oh, thank god I don't have to go in. They'll sit there on the bumper and wait to go. And I like the fact that we run an active writ because that way we're able to get more work done and help out the other crews so that it's not you have three crews on scene and two crews are working and you guys are just sitting there.

SPEAKER_02 21:14

And we do, like I said, we do the same thing. And and it can't be a task that pulls you away from being able to respond as a writ unit, but throwing ladders, you know, hardening exits or uh DC and utilities or something like that is totally fine. We do that every time. Um so yeah, that's that's good stuff. And I think we are always changing. It don't matter if we're 25 years in, we should always be changing and learning and moving forward. Uh the ones who sit in the recliners all day and don't do anything, they're the ones that have settled into where they're at. Yeah. So you said you're you're through with recruit school, but you're in like an orientation period.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

So our orientation, it's technically called RTO recruitment. Training officers, it is our orientation, but I had a brief understanding of what was going on and the instructors already because I went to my school in-house. Yeah. Okay. So, like they sent me somewhere for EMT school and they sponsored me. And then when I came back, it was now we're sending you through our own standards program. And I was very lucky. I'm the second class they went through with them. So we did a lot more in having such a good training facility. We had a lot more opportunities because where I went to EMT school runs their own fire program. And you hear from some of the people, and they're like, We only got to do like a couple run throughs of the state practical, and every day that's what we were doing. And we we joke that we're getting tired of getting this doing the same thing every day, and then we kind of think about it, and we're like, we're very lucky because we had a hundred percent pass rate, and some of these people got to do this once, and they have to go take that test. And then, like, you brought up mazes. We were lucky. Our instructor built a maze on a level, he built four mazes in one. And I remember going through that on air, like we upgraded the slower we went through it, so it went by yourself with someone with your whole squad, and then your whole squad all tied together, so you have to stay right next to each other. Yeah. So I feel like uh that was definitely one of the big shifts. Yeah. That everyone that we got very lucky having that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:27

Good deal. So you're in this orientation period, and I keep I keep we talked about this the other day. I keep saying on the truck, not to be confused with on a quint or on a tower, but uh terminology, I guess. But before long you'll be on shift, you'll get your assignment and and all that'll be good. But um what do you think about that transition moving from finishing up recruit school and going through the orientation, and then you're you're in it, you're on on shift.

SPEAKER_01 24:02

Honestly, that transition looks a lot to me like earning my place. Go being out there training, like I I'm walking into a crew that has no idea how I work, they have no idea if I'm able to perform a lot of these skills. So I think if I at least go out and train, kind of earn my spot to say, and knowing my engine, because there's a lot of talk about people that they don't get to know their own engine and they're on a scene and they're fumbling, opening up their doors, trying to look for like the K-12 saw or something, like and they don't know where it is on their own engine. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 24:41

Well, uh we we run into that too. And we get on scene and people are opening every door looking for a specific tool, and we always see that. But one thing I did when I when I went on shift, my first shift was on a Sunday. Saturdays and Sundays are our kind of like chill days. So we don't have anything on the schedule, we're not doing hydrants and pre-plans and all that stuff. We just run calls. Other than that, it's kind of chill days. But so I went to the bay with a pad and pencil, and I wrote went from one compartment to the next, and I wrote every single item in that compartment and how many was in there, and then I would close it and I'd go to the next one, and I made the whole list for the whole entire truck. And that helped me tremendously with knowing what was where because we have truck checks that we do every morning, and then Mondays are our truck days, so we detail the trucks and we check all the equipment and everything, but it still helped me know where everything was at. Um like it that helped me a lot. And I hadn't seen anybody do that in a long time. But you know, a lot of people are really good on their trucks, they know their stuff, and then some some don't. So Yep, staying on top of our stuff. Um so people throw around firehouse culture, and I know you're not on shift yet, but umce you get in into that and you're on shift and you're doing your your regular shifts, it'll start to make a whole lot more sense. And we mentioned this a while ago about culture being different from one station to the next, or even you know, one shift to the next. Um there's so much tradition in the fire service. Tradition it's a it's a weird a weird thing, but just because something is a tradition don't mean it's the best way to do it. Um we we have to be able to hang on to the tradition that matters, but look forward and change what we need to change to be better. Um also I don't even know where that fit into what we were talking about, but whatever. Um so it's not just where you work, it's where you live, train, eat, spend your time. Um looking back, I realize this more. When I first started in the fire service, I thought, man, I'm I work one day and I'm off two. I work ten days a month. You know, that's nothing. But looking back uh uh on the other side of that, so I've got four daughters, I've I've missed a third of their lives. So it's all in how you look at it, I guess. Um it's it's easy to get wrapped up in like I've spent so much time at the station when I didn't need to be there. Or doing stuff at home for my job that I should have been spending time with my kids or my family or doing whatever. It's easy to get wrapped up both ways. We try not to take our home life to work, and we try not to bring our work home. That that don't go well either, because it happens. Um it's really hard to, especially coming in and being brand new, getting your assignment, you go on shift, and then now you're with a group of people that you don't really know that good, and you gotta live with them for all of this extra time. And some of them you're you're probably gonna like really good, and some of them you're not, but you're stuck with them. Um and we see the same thing too. Every station we have ha now has individual bedrooms. So some people during the day we you can't you're not supposed to be in your bedroom before five during the the week. But at 5 01, half the people go to their bedroom and you won't see them till shift change. And people want to do their own thing, nobody wants to spend time together anymore. Um some people just don't like each other. So they go recluse themselves somewhere in their bedroom. But people are different, everybody's different, everybody's background's different, and sometimes it's hard to mesh with them the way we need to. But all of that should change when tones drop. Um there's been people that I've had beef with here and there, but as soon as tones drop, everything changes. It ain't about us not liking each other or whatever the case is, it's about getting the job done. So now that you're in that process, what do you think station life is gonna be like?

SPEAKER_01 29:35

Uh it's like you said earlier, I think definitely it's gonna be cleaning a lot of toilets. It will be. And I've kind of I I said it a little bit earlier, jumping ahead by accident. It's gonna be earning my spot, honestly, because I may be put there by the county, but it's not like these guys are coming to our uh orientation and saying, Oh, I like the way this guy works and getting to know you. It's not like that you're interviewing to go to their station, it's you're getting thrown there. So they could have no clue and think I'm a complete stranger. Yep. And it's earning my spot. It's being the first one awake and the last one to go to sleep. Uh, you know, making sure that I'm the first one up from the dinner table doing the dishes, I'm cleaning, like, and even and we kind of talked about it today in our in my class. They were talking about you're gonna do it by yourself for a long time, but one day there's gonna be that senior guy that comes and does it with you. And whether or not it's they are doing it to kind of show respect that you may be the low man on the totem pole, but you still have this crew that's accepting you and wanting to help you with the work. So I think it's definitely gonna be a lot of that. It's gonna be a lot of training for me. I I'm hoping to get one of our busier stations because we have the stations that are near my house and they're kind of rural, more out uh on the edge of our area. So we they don't get a lot of calls. So I want a station that's kind of more busy, so I can get that on field experience. And eventually when I do go to paramedic school, I have the medical experience because 80% of the calls that we run are medical. I have a good basis. So I want to be able to be someone that my crew can rely on and just kind of earn that spot. I want to make sure that I'm able to do the work and that they actually accept me and don't think that I'm holding them down as a crew. I got you.

SPEAKER_02 31:37

There's so you'll go through that period where you're cleaning the toilets and you're doing all the things that you talked about. But before long, a new set of recruits will be hired and you'll start easing your way up. And not just by rank, but um by seniority, if you want to call it that. Um on the the level of respect you'll bump up and the next ones will come in under you and you'll start showing those those guys. Um, I think that's a that is the first look at stepping up and leadership. Because you don't have to be an officer to be a leader. You can be a leader at any point. It it don't rank has nothing to do with it. Uh but I think that is your first step in moving to a leadership role. Is when you have somebody come in under you that is new and you start taking them and showing them things that need to be done and the right way to do them. Uh, I think it's a big deal. Uh looking ahead, because like I said, it comes quicker than most people think. You start figuring out parts of this job that you're interested in most, and some lean lean toward technical teams, uh hazmat or swiftwater or uh whatever the case may be, some toward leadership, some focus on just getting good at the basics. We've got firefighters that have been there 25 years and never promoted further than where they are, um, and would make excellent drivers or officers, but they're happy where they're at. And it's not that they're settled in, it's that they have mastered where they're at. Uh, and that's what they enjoy. Um, and to throw this in also, if you ever start thinking about promoting promoting, don't promote yourself out of enjoying your job. Um make sure you're ready, and and I'm not saying don't promote at all because that's for you to decide, but make sure you're still enjoying what you're doing. Um back to the the more focused view. We talked about technical teams and leadership and stuff. What stands out to you right now?

SPEAKER_01 33:55

So currently, I mean, my goal is I want to be on a truck team. So I mean, you can call it a truck. I mean, like a quint or a uh aerial, um that that's really what stands out to me. But I'm very lucky that I have a department that has so much going on. I mean, we have climb teams, we have mark teams, so there's definitely gonna be a lot that I am interested in getting into. And I I say it a lot. There's a station that has both a squad and a truck there. Yeah, and that's where I want to be because I feel like that's gonna be my gateway to learning more about oh, I always thought about being a truckie, but the squad is really interesting. I like a lot of the stuff that they do. Yeah, and maybe I change my mind and want to go do squad or even eventually do both of them. I mean, I definitely see myself getting my truck cert and kind of staying there for a good long time and mastering the basics. Because it I don't think I'm gonna be a good truckie. I'm gonna I don't think I'd be good at anything if I can't do the basics of a search, if I can't VIS a room good, if I can't, you know, pull off the a line and properly flake it, and I'm getting kinks the moment I get it charged. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 35:11

That is the basics, that's the foundation that it all starts on. And that's the thing is we think about all these special teams and all this special stuff that we can do, but it evolves. And you just touched on it going from truck to a squad. They do different things, obviously. Um But yeah, the things we want to do and the directions we want to go in, they evolve, they change, you know. Um, interests change, but um we we we're moving, we run a truck, so in my station I've got an engine and an aerial. Um it's a double company station. Um and for a long time we didn't really run that aerial the way that it was supposed to be ran. But we're moving to that now. We're kind of still in that process where it runs more like a aerial or a truck company is supposed to run um assigned task, and we run two people on it for years. Um we're pushing for four now, so it'll actually be able to run and operate the way that it's supposed to. Um all right, so so you're in the middle of it right now, and that's that what that's what makes all this valuable information. Um you're not trying to remember how recruit school was, you just got through there. So so if someone's about to start recruit school standing exactly where you were at not long ago, what would you tell them?

SPEAKER_01 36:39

Prepare to you're gonna want to spend a lot of time getting affordable of that uh work first of all, just getting in good shape. And it's a lot of cardiovascular stuff to with being on air and trying to make that bottle last and do as much work. And honestly, this kind of got me too was make sure you're ready to sit down and study. Yeah, because I I had uh like in my high school program, I'd briefly gone over the book, but when I got there, it was kind of a wake-up call with the book. It's I'm looking at it and it's a lot of terms that take time to understand. So if you can even get like a brief understanding of it, it helps so much to be able to be able to study that. And like there's workbooks that you could do, quizlets that you can do to study it, and that's honestly what helped me. But I would definitely just say get a good cardio and be ready to study and spend a lot of time so you can be good and graduate.

SPEAKER_02 37:40

I don't think people realize how much education we do, even once you get on shift, like it's still not over. Uh we have to have two right at 240, 250 hours a year of training for different things. We have company training, officer training, hazmat training, all this stuff. And we have to have a certain amount of each one of them. Um and y'all may be close to that, you may be more or less. I'm not sure what y'all's requirements are once you're on shift.

SPEAKER_01 38:12

But yeah, I don't know our yearly. I I know we're an I I know we have to do our ISO class one training with our multi-company deals, so we definitely have a lot of hours going on for that. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 38:21

So it's it never stops, especially first three years of finishing up other classes. Because you mentioned that y'all y'all's rookie school is 10 weeks, ours is 10 weeks also, but y'all also do the EMT stuff and all of that. We do the basic class and then we typically it's to the state training center. We do hazmat stuff. Um vehicle extrication and stuff like that. That's not really part of our recruit school that's added on after. We also have a career path that that is laid out for every year, first year, second year, third year driver, which we call sergeant. And then as you promote up, but it lays out certain classes that you need during that year. Um, it's a lot of schooling to try to keep up with. And that's real advice. That's not polished, that's not filtered, that's somebody who's in it right now. Um and that per that perspective matters a lot. So with all of that being said, let's lighten it up just a little bit. Totally unrelated to the fire service. Totally just personal questions. So, what artist or music are you into right now?

SPEAKER_01 39:38

I'm definitely bit by the country bug again right now. Um, my parents were just in Nashville and they were sending me all the videos and the bars and everything and the live music. So it's definitely got me. I'm I'm finding myself on the way in every morning, listening to country more than anything else.

SPEAKER_02 39:53

I gotcha.

SPEAKER_01 39:54

So definitely like Morgan Wallen. I mean, he's one of the big names right now. I definitely go a lot back with uh George Strait. That's one of my favorite ones. You know, just some artists like that.

SPEAKER_02 40:05

I gotcha. I like country too. I listen to the old stuff. I do, I like Carrie Underwood, I like Randy Travis, but I like George Strait, and I like some of the older stuff too. What about podcasts? What other podcast are you listening to?

SPEAKER_01 40:18

Uh so I'm not a big podcast person actually. Besides this podcast that I've listened to a little bit, I've listened to one other episode, full episode of a podcast, and it was the Nick Bear podcast. Okay. And it was a lot about like uh athlete mentality. Because I follow him and his supplement brand a lot. And it was him interviewing one of his own athletes that does the Ironmans and everything. And he was kind of talking about his build-up and the mentality that he went through, and that kind of helped me like even before I started because I was trying to get in better shape every day, and just kind of the mentality that they had, like in running. Like, here's I can't run without music. It's a really weird thing about me. Like, I hate it, it's just terrible. And like for Iron Man's and stuff, you have no music and you're going for 12 hours just working. So he was like talking about how he gets through stuff like that, and that helped me on the runs in uh recruit school for sure. Good deal.

SPEAKER_02 41:14

All right, last one. What's your favorite Bible verse and why?

SPEAKER_01 41:18

My favorite Bible verse is definitely uh Romans 8 18. The pain you are feeling cannot compare to the joy that is coming. Uh, I think it definitely helps because no matter what you're going through in life, like something could really just be eating you alive inside it's just bothering you, or you have something happen. Like, no matter what you're going through, you always have a God to fall back on, and you can always fall into your prayer, and the joy that is coming through every single thing that you suffer through is inexplicable. Like, I have the days where it's just a rough day. I feel like I'm getting beat down, and I think in a couple months, I'm gonna be living the I'm doing what I want. Like it's just pushing. You have to push through the rough to get to the good, no matter what.

SPEAKER_02 42:03

That's right. Joy always comes in the morning. All right, that's good stuff. So this is why these conversations matter so much. The job's not just seen from that one perspective. Uh hearing it from someone else that's right in the middle of it, that's that's about as real as it gets. Uh Aiden, I appreciate you coming on. Like I said, I don't have a million subscribers. Yeah. Um, but I do appreciate you coming on. I I enjoy doing this a whole lot. And um maybe when you get a year or two in or whatever, we'll get back on and see where things are at then.

SPEAKER_01 42:37

Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_02 42:39

All right. Thank you for listening to One in the Cue. Stay safe. Take care of your crew and take care of yourself.