Courage

Courage

            What is the real meaning of courage? To me, courage can be defined as “being the only one who knows your scared”. I believe that that is a quote from a military person but instead of “courage” it was “bravery” I believe at least. Well, anyway, I really feel that the quote still works. I guess could say that I have a heroic hobby, firefighting.  But yet I do not consider myself courageous.  But the way I see it, everyone is scared at one time or another and if you are able to do the task at hand, while being scared and you are the only one to know, then you have courage. Then to take it a step further, if you are scared, no one knows, and they feed off of your courage, then you are a very special person.

 If I was to say that one type of person is courageous, I would say that fire department officers are that special kind of person. But I guess I am a little bias on that but yet again it is one topic I know I can truthfully talk about through personal experience.  I can say from personal experience, I fire is a scary place that takes a certain kind of person to go in to. Knowing full well that the floor may collapse at any moment or the fire could be lying in wait for you behind that next door, is definitely nerve racking. Clearing knowing that the only think that is allowing you to breathe as you inch your way down a pitch black, zero visibility hall way is strapped to your back which could become entangled and trap you around the next turn only makes matters worse. Yet still a fire company line officer has to have all that on their mind and still be able to make spit second, life saving calls and being that rock of strength for every person on their team, being the person they put their trust and safety into. That right there is a person who has more courage than I do not know what.

            The only person who I could see being more courageous would be a member of a fire fighter rescue team, or a F.A.S.T Team. These guys are the saving angels of the fire service.  Knowing all of the before mentioned things, these teams go in after a trained fire fighter has gotten into a situation where they became unable to get out do to a collapse or something else very bad. A person on one of these teams knows that the structure is now completely compromised and is most likely going to fail, yet they still go in. yet knowing all of this, you now have to still find the person and effect a rescue that will most defiantly not be easy. And they still go in. My hat goes off to each and every one of these brave folks. To me, they are the absolute most courageous.

But that’s just me

Advice

 Advice  

            What kind of advice would I give to a younger self? That is an interesting question. First of all, I guess I would tell myself to really really watch yourself on the table saw. Like when you are making the table for your sister, just watch where your right hand is. That would be the first thing I would tell myself.

            Second: I would tell myself to cal back that plumber a whole lot quicker than you did. It doesn’t matter what you think now, but waiting sure did not turn out in your favor.

            Third: I would tell Amber how you really feel about her. Do not think that it would be forward or anything like that, just go and do it the first chance you get. Trust me; it would be more than worth it.

            Forth: I would tell myself to not be an ass to Mr.  Mannion. He really is a good guy who is just doing his job the best way he can and you are not the one to tell him how to do it.

            After that, I guess I would just kind of walk away and tell myself to have fun with it. I would say to just relax and live a little bit. If you do not, you kind of do end up wishing you did. But all in all, even if you do not, you will still end up fine. You really will not have that many regrets.

But that’s just me

P.S. Mr. Mannion, I know that this blog is only half the length it has to be. My reason is because I am just about falling asleep right now. But most of all, my finger is killing me right now. I do not want to see like I am complaining, but it really hurts. It is somewhere between stinging and sore. All in all, it is just terrible. Sorry about this.

Sincerely,

John

Worry

Worry

            Do I worry? That is a good question.  For the most part, I really do not. I could be considered cautious more than a worry wart. Yet even this weekend I have shaken a lot of that cautiousness that I once had.

            This weekend, I went camping. I went with Chris Garrett, Dan Hartig and a few others. Now camping is one of my favorite so that is not where I lost my cautiousness. I guess one part that I was kind of worried about was the drive. Kind of was because I was one of the drivers going up to Stokes State Forest. It was about a 2 and ½ hour drive and I was driving my mom’s explore, but I drove any ways. But it was during the fishing trip where I stepped way out of my personally worry boundaries. First of all I hate snakes, I makes sense, wait one. We were fishing and we saw a water snake just swimming along. Normally I would have run far away from it but instead Chris, his brother Ben and I chased it. We chased it for the better part of the day. This, for me at least, was very out of character, but I did enjoy myself.

            But there was one time where I was honest to god worried. Oddly enough, I was not when my thumb met my table saw. Heck, during this entire thing, I have been oddly calm, but oh well, anyway. The first time I was truly worried, was when I was going to the New Jersey State Police Trooper Youth Week. I will never forget it. I turned to a co-worker and said to I am nervous.  I have no clue why I was. But on a whole, I find it odd how I am really not worried.

            I think about life a lot. And when I look ahead, I have no worries. That is I have one. My main worry is that I will go through college and not have a job. I guess that is the main reasons why I want to l join the Marine Corps Reserves. Now, I do not would to join the Marines just to have a job. I honestly want to join and serve my country to my fullest. The way I look at it, I am a perfectly able young person. Who am I not to do all I can to help to further my country, the country that I love. But the way I look at and from what I hear, the truck battalion out of Red Bank is a great place to be, and I would have a guaranteed pay check and work for 4 to 6 years. So that is the truck I am really thinking about going, but I do not really know, I guess only time will tell and who knows what the future will bring. So is life.

But that’s just me