Jr's & Explorers: Why do you want to become a firefighter?

I'm not sure how many juniors/explorers we have on FFN. It seems that we only notice the obnoxious ones and they tend to portray all Jr's in a bad light.

So, this is a chance for you to step up and be noticed. Tell us a little about yourself and why you want to become a firefighter. There is no right or wrong answer and while I assume that everyone will give the standard "I want to help my community" answer, I urge you to go deeper than that.

Try to analyze why you REALLY want to become a firefighter, let us know your thoughts, emotions, reasonings, agenda's and whatnot. Tell us what being an Explorer means to you, what you do as an explorer, what you hope to learn, and where you see yourself in 5yrs and 10 yrs.

What is the most rewarding part of being a jr/explorer? What has been the most stressful or the hardest to deal with or overcome? Is it what you expected when you first started?

And lastly, what do you expect, want, need or desire from us (the senior members of FFN)? There is a heckuva lot of knowledge and experience represented here and most of us are willing and eager to help teach and mentor others. But, and here is the big BUT, in order for us to be willing and able to help there needs to be a certain commitment on the part of the junior/explorer.

* you must show respect

* you must thank those that help you

* you must THINK about your question first (your department should be your first source of information)

* you must write in PROPER ENGLISH. Your post and writing style will reflect your education, intelligence and professionalism and will help garner more help and support.

* you must NOT ARGUE. stating a disagreement is ok, but if you disagree you must provide your reasonings behind the disagreement and/or offer alternatives or suggestions

* you must be willing to PARTICIPATE - if all we see are posts about asking for pagers or what color is such and such than you will either be ignored, ridiculed or snapped at.

So, how many of you Explorers and Juniors are willing to take up the challenge and participate?

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Permalink Reply by Philip Liggins on April 25, 2011 at 9:28am

Awesome post!!!! This will help in my research. In my department i've been tasked to be the "Junior Advisor" to oversee our program. I look forward to reading everyones responses.

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Permalink Reply by Ryan MacDonald on January 16, 2013 at 11:33am

my name is ryan to be honest no one in my family and no one i knew was in the fire service it was something i wanted to do my whole life so the day i turned 16 i told my mom to take me down and i signed up its been a good 2 years and in about 2 week i will be a probie and actually considerded on the fire department. from the time i joined to now i feel that my fire department went down hill we use to have many young guys but now we barley have any i cant blame them they need to grow up and move on but i love my town i love the guys on the department i just like to be envolved and i want to work for my towns dpw if i cannt get a paid firefighter job im going to a county college for fire science. all though im young all the older firefighters not only treat me with respect they all teach me new things and help me out when ever i need it so its good. they know that the young men like myself are the future of the department .