h the Cleveland neighborhood known as Slavic Village on a beautiful summer evening in 1976, I decided to become a firefighter for all the wrong reasons.

What I thought would be a fun, short gig to make some money and enable me to return to graduate school developed into an unlikely thirty-three-year career as a firefighter with the City of Cleveland. I could not have anticipated that the fire service would become a significant, influential, and integral part of my personal life journey.

From the insecurity of a young man who lacked confidence and direction, to the tempered finality and painful ending of my career, the fire service carried me, taught me, held me, and challenged me in ways I cannot imagine would have happened in any other career or context.