Luck?

I'm stepping out of character on this post, it's a bit more on the serious side than my usual important stories I pass on so stick with me.


Some might call it luck, some might call it fortunate, but I call it..... I received the news this week I've been waiting to hear for over a year starting last April, that I would be a firefighter for the City of Plano. When I set out on this little life changing adventure I had an idea and a goal of how I would like it to turn out. When asked where I would like to work the two places came to mind Plano or McKinney. I knew people at both places that loved it and they are two of the most sought after jobs in the state. I completed my Firefighting and EMT training last year starting in April and taking my final test in December. While working at my current job 40 hours a week I was going to school at night from 5pm-10pm Monday through Thursday and every Saturday from 7am-3-pm. I wouldn't see my family these days at all (kudos to Keelie for holding down the fort and being the mother and father for 8 months).


Now I'm certified and it's January a time when most departments aren't testing, and I have missed most of the cities in the metroplex because most test in the fall or spring. Everyone we talked to said we need to test every city we can to increase our chances, with the economy the way it is the departments are cutting back, and jobs are not plentiful like they were a couple years ago. I had found out Plano and McKinney were suppose to be testing in late winter early spring and Plano had come up first. So I signed up and the first of many steps in the process was the written exam around the 8th of February. Then on my birthday (Feb 3rd) I went to the hospital at 10pm and ended up having a emergency appendectomy. Awesome timing right? I took the written test the next weekend and out of roughly 100 candidates I was #8 on the list and they were hiring 6 spots. So the top 25 went on to the next step, the physical agility part, which in normal circumstances I would have not worried as much about, but I was about 3-4 weeks out of a surgery and had been 1 week earlier released to go back to normal day functions. So I went and passed it but collapsed at the finish line after I had finished. Half way through I was hurting so bad I could have easy have quit, I basically stumbled down the last flight of stairs holding the rails and fell across the finish line saying the whole way don't help or touch me because I didn't want to jeopardise my chances or results. Ended up being taking to the hospital by ambulance for dehydration and precautionary reasons (thanks appendectomy my chance was all most gone). Ended up passing and going on to the next step of interviews with a 8 man panel and the chief, a polygraph, psychological test, and a full physical/stress test.


It was a long stressful process. There were guys I talked to at the written exam that were in my fire academy that had already tested 9-10 cities and no job. I get hired the only test I take, the city I set my sights on since the beginning, and after all that I went through you can call it luck, you can call it fortunate, but I call it a GOD THING!!! The surgery, the cutting of positions hiring from the initial 6 at the beginning of February down to 3 of us now, to having to pass 5 candidates along the way to get in the top 3, you can only say it's bigger than anything anybody did, but it wasn't bigger than The MAN himself (he wrote the book on big).


P.S. I want to thank everybody along the way for your support, faith, and prayers. I am truly blessed to have so many caring people in my corner.