Journalism is a second career for me after serving for a decade as a first responder.
Previously, I served as an Emergency Medical Technician and a volunteer firefighter in my small rural community.
Up to this point, my past and new careers have intersected briefly in covering stories about the calls and training the local fire department does.
Unfortunately, this past weekend my past and new career hit head-on when I had to cover the story of a firefighter who was killed in the line of duty.
As much as I love my new career as a journalist, I’ve got to be honest, the day I heard about the loss and knew I would have to cover the story, I hated it.
I hated it because I knew that as much as the family of the fallen member , the fire department, and the whole community was in pain, I had to risk adding to that pain to cover it.
I knew that if I didn’t cover the story, it would not be long before someone else did.
I was not wrong, with two other media outlets picking up the story in short order.
The job ended up getting done and then I joined the collective mourning of my community.
This experience highlights the point that as much as we may like our work, there are always going to be aspects of it that we may not like.
It’s the same with life.
Life is not all good or all bad, but a steady stream of both.
We never know when the good or bad is going to come at us.
All we have in our control is the ability to roll with the punches as they come.
I knew the firefighter who was lost, and his loss will leave a major hole in the community.
Our community will grieve his loss, myself included.
However, the firefighters who remain will keep getting back on the trucks in service to their community.
All any of us can do when tragedy strikes is keep moving forward.
The community will heal, but his legacy of service will not be forgotten.