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Noun: grit Courage and resolve; strength of character Passion and perseverance for long-term meaningful goals. Your goals require courage, determination, and resilience. The courage to take (calculated) risks, the determination to follow through on the goals you’ve set, and the resilience to keep chipping away when things get tough. You need grit.  Often we see people around us give up on those long term goals just because they aren’t willing to put the work in to achieve them; but do you want to be “everyone else” or do you want to be “somebody”? Grit is a soft-skill, meaning everyone has...

Although we often enjoy coffee for its flavour and stimulating effects, caffeine and its catabolic products also act as an antioxidant in the body, defending against free radicals and cancerous cells. Free radicals are a natural but toxic byproduct of oxygen metabolism, but can also be generated through other substances that can increase the oxidative stress on the body; behaviours like smoking, eating fried food or charred meats, and any environmental pollution, including air pollution and pesticides. These free radicals can go on to steal electrons from important parts of the cell, such as the cell membranes themselves, proteins, or...

The term "bread and butter". "Single story, single family, wood frame brick home fire showing one room and contents sector C, E2 making entry, Quint to vent." Sounds pretty "bread and butter" right? Doesn't it seem possible that when arriving on scene to these "bread and butter" fires we as aggressive firefighters will become complacent and over look things that could kill us. Does the idea that any fire or ems run that is considered "bread and butter" or how about "routine", can be hiding a surprise that will kill us? This type of mindset while usually caused by confidence...

The Training you never do but need and the training that kicks in when you least expect it. Within the first year of graduating from standards, the biggest event of my life occurred; Hurricane Micheal. I was still pretty fresh at a newly started department, maybe running a single call a shift, with most of my fellow firefighters also fresh out of standards. Oct. 10 came around and destroyed the tiny town we served, and all I remember that night is the training I learned in standard and the training we did on shift just kicked in without me having...

Your First Days on The Job As a new guy in my department myself, I am still navigating the complicated waters that surround the brotherhood of our fire department. Yes, I do believe it takes some navigating. This job isn’t so much of a normal full-time job as it is a family, like I said above, a brotherhood. With it being a family, imagine your parents adopting a new younger brother after you have been with the same family that you know and love for 5,10, even 20 years. You have a lot to live up to and a lot...