For some reason, I had zoned out while listening to the
music pour out of the truck speakers, my co-worker singing along. I was all
packed, I was ready for this…I had graduated Marine Corps boot camp, this
weekend shouldn’t be a big deal to me. After all it’s only fire camp.
Fire Camp.
For someone like me, the idea of it was intimidating and
exciting all rolled into one. I was going to a part of the state I had never
been in, only to be separated from my co-worker and thrown into a group of
people I had never met before. Learning to do something that, quite frankly,
scared me to death – fight wild fires. I had to learn how to work effectively
and quickly with these new people in a period of less than 24 hours to make
this weekend work like it needed to.
But…
I felt like I’d be shunned out because I was “different.”
You see, I am not like the rest of them. I wasn’t attending fire camp to be
able to go out west and dig line for fires, to eventually work my way up the
firefighter ranks – I was attending so I could have the experience and know
what they go through because I want to achieve a role as support for the crews.
I couldn’t pass the arduous pack test needed to take the full camp, I was there
under modified conditions. What would the crew think of me? Would they cast me
out because I wasn’t necessary, I wasn’t one of them?
I was worried.
I came out of my zone, hearing my co-worker telling me about
snapping turtles in the pond, and that we were near camp. It was 11, and I had
just over 24 hours before my portion of camp started. All I could do was be
like Peter Pan’s shadow and follow my co-worker around, since I really didn’t
know too many other people there…at least ones who didn’t work directly in the
division. The people I did know would be part of the “over watch” so to speak. I
spent my off hours visiting with the people I knew and then went to bed for the
night. Waking up at a decent time, I spent the morning preparing for my part of
camp.
Stay tuned! I'm looking forward to making the next post and hope you will be there!
-Katie
Hey my friend sorry I just seen this. I too was at cam but my reasoning was to better my firefighter skills. You mentioned you were afraid of being shunned if people found out why you were there. I'll be honest with you if you would've told me what you was doing I would've helped you as much as I could. I think it's awesome that people wanna better understand firefighters. I hope you had a good learning experience and got what you were looking for.
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