One of the enduring qualities of my life’s journey has been an eagerness to serve those around me.  You’ll find that one  of the most frequent refrains in my life (and in my book) is, “I’ll go”.  It is more than a catchy phrase or a gimmick—it is how I lived most of my life.  When challenges were raised or obstacles emerged, I found a way to live my own kind of life.

Becoming a firefighter was one of the greatest moments of my life because it allowed me to help those who were having the worst days of their lives.  Running into burning buildings was partially about running into burning buildings, but it was mostly about going where I could make the most difference.

It was really about living this hero life. Not in a way that I was more important than anyone else, but in a way that allowed me to have an outlet for the boundless energy that has always defined my life. I don’t consider it to be living the life of a hero because of the number of lives I saved or fires I put out, but because I had the courage to face down every fear and reach for the most important dreams I could dream.

That’s what it means to live this hero life—to realize the wildest dreams you've ever dreamt. When external forces tell us we shouldn’t have that ideal life, we devise a plan to bring that idea to reality. For me, fighting fire was one of those dreams—and I brought it to reality.