LEARN, TEACH, GROW

Cpl. Bowen, USMC

I'm sitting at work tonight in a position I have grown comfortable with. I had the opportunity today to work with a Marine from Truck 31 in Brooklyn. Solid dude as most I get to work with are. We bs'd most of the morning with stories of my home town and how much we hated it. lol Good times were had by all. It was after lunch I saw something that made me think back to what I SHOULD be doing. Matt had printed out an article and placed the copy in a set of protective cover sheets. I asked him, "hey man is that the one on the NY Hook? I haven't read it yet. Is it any good?" "yea." he replied. "I'm printing it out so all the new guys we get coming through to do their book can read it."

That's when it had hit me. I have been in such a "rut" and having a one track mind that I forgot what I'm supposed to be doing here. Learn, Teach, Grow. I have been spending so much time at work "learning" how I THOUGHT things around me were wrong. Instead of wasting that time I should have been spending time working on things I KNEW were right. I came up with excuses as to why we hadn't done anything for the day or why "youtube will do today..." Today was the day I was gonna turn that damn leaf back over and get into doing what I'm here to do. LEARN, TEACH, GROW.



I DON'T CARE HOW MUCH I TALK AT THAT WALL WITH NO EFFECT I'M GONNA KEEP TALKING. I'm not talking to hear myself talk, make myself look "SALTY" *sidebar* (IF YOU USE THAT STUPID WORD YOU JUST MAKE YOURSELF LOOK LIKE AN ASS). I'm talking to the wall for the slim chance that SOMEONE will hear my faint cries for higher standards of performance on the other side.

My minion

So with my new found flame of inspiration from Cpl. Bowen, as he demanded he be addressed as, I got to work. He had such a novel idea. Why WASTE the 5 or ten minutes it would take to find these great articles we had read over time when we can just put them all in one binder and say "here read this." I pulled from the great Willie Wines & Mark VonAppen as well as the great standards from Urban Firefighter. reading back over many of them to relearn tidbits of knowledge. It was amazing to me to read something I had read dozens of times before and still pick out something new.

I compiled some of what I thought were great fire starters (pun intended) and put them in my own little book.I hope to add to it as time goes on and even go back to read some of the stuff for a third, forth, and tenth time. I just want to get back to doing here what I was placed here to do. LEARN, TEACH, & GROW. I've been cutting out the last two parts for long enough. I have a good spot, an even better reason to make it home, and a whole lot of wall to talk to.

LEARN   TEACH   GROW