By Michael Morse
我并不总是一名消防员。我们没有人。我们每个人成为消防员的人都必须长大，永远不要放弃我们的梦想，避免麻烦并申请工作。以消防员的身份谋生并不是出生权。这是一种特权。被录用并通过学院需要时间。很多。同时，有工作要做。总有工作要做。有一天，我在一家高档餐厅里照顾酒吧，第二天我是一个大城市的消防员/EMT。
It’s weird the way things work out. It took me a long time to get hired in Providence, Rhode Island, and during the six-month academy, bills kept coming in and the kids didn’t just go away and life for everybody else in my family went on as usual. So, I worked—nine-hour days at minimum wage in the Providence Fire Department Division of Training, then another seven or eight at the restaurant. By day I learned how to tie knots, push water, breathe through an SCBA, pull ceilings, and bandage the injured and tie them up on long boards and KEDs. I even learned how to put somebody in shock into inflatable trousers.
And at night, I worked. I showed up at the restaurant and put my firefighter clothes away, put on a bow tie, and waited on people. It was a great lesson in humility. People would come to the restaurant, and some would treat me like their servant; others would completely ignore me except when they ordered their drinks, but the others were the ones who taught me how to be a better person, a better father and husband, and a better EMT and firefighter. They would treat me with dignity, and even though their position in life was considered by society as more elevated than mine, they would be nice and ask about the family, inquire about the academy, be genuine, and be honest—just good people without condescending attitudes.
那些人使那六个月的80小时周期可容纳。
我收到的最好的技巧从未把它放进我的口袋里，但是它深深地嵌入了我的头和我的心中。没人告诉我;他们给我看了。行动胜于雄辩。这一生中没有赢家或失败者，只有在发现自己的情况下，人们尽力而为。没有什么好东西很容易。It’s not the situation, it’s the way we respond to the situation that matters. How we respond is entirely up to us. We can think the world and people in it are ugly, unfair, and useless, or we can think the world we inhabit is beautiful, harmonious, and full of opportunity. How we make our way in this existence is completely 100% up to us and nobody but us.
We are all part of the human race; some days we seem to be winners, only to find ourselves behind the pack the next. One day I was serving people, the next I was saving them. But the greatest lesson I learned was that even though I was in a different position, and a little closer to the head of the pack, I was still serving them, all of them—the homeless, the drunks, the bartenders, the executives, and the politicians.
And I liked it. And I treated them all the same way I liked to be treated—with dignity. And by doing so, I found self respect and job satisfaction that endured two-plus decades.
Michael Morseis a former captain with the Providence (RI) Fire Department (PFD), an author, and a popular columnist. He served on PFD’s Engine Co. 2., Engine Co. 9, and Ladder Co. 4 for 10 years prior to becoming an EMT-C on Rescue Co 1 and Captain of Rescue Co. 5.
