Ok..so here is my first FFN blog.. i have blogged about stuff on myspace and gotten laughs and marks or whatever the hell they give you on there, but none of it really means much..lemme tell ya about a call i got the other day from one of our cadets..

This particular cadet is super gung ho when it comes to the fire service. He took a level one class earlier this yr, gives a ton of time to riding when he can, and pretty much knows his stuff for a cadet. He was calling to tell me that he had passed his Level 1 test and was now certified as a Firefighter. I was getting ready to get off the phone with him after congratulating him when he was like, "oh before i go, i wanted to thank you " i asked for what, and he told me that he was thanking me for the speech that i gave to his fellow cadets and him about the brotherhood of the fire service and being accountable to your crew..he said that he had never heard things laid out like i put them and that what i said was going to stick with him for a long time. he also thanked me for taking the time to help teach him things around the department..finally he told me that he really admired me and looked up to me as a friend and a firefighter mentor.. when i got off the phone, i had to stop for a minute and compose myself, because i realized that those were about the same things i had said many years ago to a couple of guys where i started out as a cadet..it just shocked me that i had basically come full circle and that i had finally reached my goal of being the best firefighter i can be and being able to share that knowledge with someone else..just like had happened with me when i was 15...