The Fire Academy- Part I

Spoiler alert, who would of thought a young, naive 23 year old woman entering the Fire Academy would be victim of discrimination and harassment?  Go figure, should of seen this one coming.  I guess we are stuck in the 20th century after all.....

I wanted so bad for it  to be a great experience, I was really hopeful for that. Already making history in a full time department as the first female firefighter, I thought I had the world in the palm of my hand.  I came from a call department that employed women, so us ladies were always a part of a team, and we were family. Sure, there was the select few that had strong feelings about women in the fire service, but they were proved wrong, time and time again. I wanted to be better then that though, this driving force inside me wanted to push myself to the limits.  So I did what I had to, trained for grueling physical agility test and went up against something almost impossible. I busted through that glass ceiling.

It was a rocky start from the beginning, failing one of the physical agility test to get into the fire academy only left me with one shot to do it the second time.  This was 2 weeks before I would start the academy.  Busted my ass....when you want something this bad you do what you have to, because otherwise you would fail yourself, and that's more disappointing then anything. My dad became my mentor, and we became closer then I've ever been with him in my life.  He prodded me along on our runs, weight lifting, and calestetics.  He even made ridiculous props to help simulate raising a 24 foot ladder (the event that I failed). It was great and he was my confidant.  He saw how bad I wanted this, and he was so proud. So with his help, I passed the exam with flying colors.  I left my extrication gloves behind because they caused me to fail the first time.(I couldn't get a grip on the rope simulating the ladder). Even one of the evaluator's said I was an excellent candidate for the fire service.  One of my proudest moments.....

I didn't let my chief down, and that was all that I cared about.  He took a gamble on me and I'm sure was under a lot of scrutiny for hiring a female. He was delighted when he found out I had passed.  I was happy that I didn't disappoint him, or myself.

My first day was of course was nerve wracking, the drive up there? Well that's a whole other blog.  An hour and a half with a couple of Muppet's, (with the exception of the guy I got hired with), made for a long ass drive.

We all sat in the auditorium, had introductions from salty instructors who have been in the fire service for 50 years and have seen everything, blah blah blah.  Then we all had to line up in a hall way to have our numbers assigned like beef cattle getting their ears tagged. This old greasy instructor with a big ol' belly came ripping down the hallway screaming at the top of his lungs berating us, calling us pieces of shit, etc,  just as a drill Sergeant would do.  I'm guessing he was trying to tear us down to build us back up and apparently tell us to "Respect my Authority!" as Cartmen from South Park would say.  I think it was to scare us?  I'm not sure, it was actually pretty comical. All I got out of that was I was number 7, and that's what I was know as for the next 12 weeks.

Lucky number 7.....lucky me.

Keep it real, sista's

Aze