April 8, 2024 • 52 mins
After 8 years in healthcare, and at the suggestion of his wife, Giovanni decided to go back to school and pursue his childhood dream of becoming a firefighter. In 2004 he was hired as a Paid Professional Firefighter by the City of Hialeah Fire Rescue Department and 2 years later, was hired by Miami Dade County Fire Rescue. Giovanni has add many certifications to his resume such as:
EMT-Paramedic
Hazardous Materials Technician & Specialist
Hazardous Tox. Medic
Wildland Firefighter
Aircraft Rescue Firefighter
Driver-Operator Fire Engine & Aerial Truck
Fire Instructor III
Live Fire Training Instructor
In 2015 he began working on a part time basis as an adjunct faculty instructor at Miami Dade Fire Academy at Miami Dade College North Campus. And as Gio puts it, It has been a great experience to help inspire and motivate young men and women with instruction on how to achieve their goals of serving their community.
Summary:
When Giovanni Abril stepped onto American soil, he carried the weight of his Colombian heritage and an unwavering resolve to succeed. Today, we navigate Giovanni's incredible transformation from an aspiring soccer player with medical ambitions to a lauded Miami firefighter and physical therapy enthusiast. His story, rich with episodes of overcoming adversity, like a debilitating back injury, is a testament to the sheer power of determination and the importance of community support, especially from his wife.
Our conversation with Giovanni dives into the mosaic of his identity, painting a picture of the intricate dance between holding onto cultural roots and embracing a new national identity. We unravel the layers of being Latino in America and the unique struggles that come with changing careers while juggling the duties of parenthood. Giovanni's narrative deftly illustrates the delicate act of balancing one's heritage with the demands of assimilation into an ever-evolving society, a challenge that resonates with many.
As a fire academy instructor, Giovanni ignites the same passion for public service in others that he discovered on his own journey. He generously shares the ins and outs of firefighter training, certifications, and the distinctions between volunteer and professional firefighting. His insights offer invaluable guidance for those aspiring to join this noble profession. Join us to hear how Giovanni's drive and gratitude illuminate the path of generational progress, a beacon for immigrant families everywhere striving to light the way for future success.
See more at www.successinspanglish.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
This is Raul Lopez, and you're listening to how Do
you Save Success in Spanglish?
The path to success isn't easyFor minorities and people of
color.
Many attempt this journey withlittle to no guidance.
Join me as I sit down withindividuals who share their
stories of perseverance so thattogether, we can learn how to
save success in Spanglish.
What's good, mi gente?
(00:31):
Welcome back, it's your boy,raul.
Thank you for joining us today.
Today, on how Do you SaySuccess in Spanglish, I have a
very good friend of mine,giovanni Abril.
Giovanni Gio, how's it going,man?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
It's going well, thank you.
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Thank you for joining me.
I hope you're enjoying the warmweather in Miami while I'm
freezing my tail off up here inConnecticut.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yeah, don't feel bad.
It's a Florida winter right now.
It dropped to like the low 50s.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Oh yeah, we were like at 29 yesterday, so I don't
pity you, man, but thank you somuch, gio.
You are a firefighter, so letme just start off with a little
bit introduction about you.
So, after eight years inhealthcare, and at the
suggestion of his wife, giovannidecided to go back to school
and pursue his childhood dreamof becoming a firefighter.
In 2004, he was hired as a paidprofessional firefighter by the
(01:20):
city of Hialeah Fire RescueDepartment and two years later
was hired by Miami-Dade CountyFire Rescue.
Giovanni has added manycertifications to his resume,
such as EMT, paramedic,hazardous materials technician
and specialist hazardous toxmedic, wildlife firefighter,
aircraft rescue firefighterdriver operator, fire engine and
aerial truck fire instructor,three live fire training
(01:42):
instructor, and in 2015, hebegan working on a part-time
basis as an adjunct facultyinstructor at Miami-Dade Fire
Academy at Miami-Dade CollegeNorth Campus and, as Gio puts it
, it has been a great experienceto help inspire and motivate
young men and women withinstruction on how to achieve
their goals of serving theircommunity.
Welcome, gio.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Thank you, appreciate it, appreciate you having me.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Yeah, I appreciate you coming and obviously I've
known you because once again,transparency for everybody
you're one of my fraternitybrothers, so I've known you for
quite some time.
You're also from BostonUniversity, so you've kind of
been all over the place.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
So I guess to start off, tell me a little, a little
bit.
You know who is GiovanniGiovanni Brill.
I'm like you said, I'm afirefighter now, which is
definitely not just a careerchange but a lifestyle change.
But I was born in Columbia.
When I was a few months old myparents moved to New York City,
you know, searching for thatAmerican dream like everybody
(02:46):
else, and it was a.
It was hard.
I mean, it was great memoriesgrowing up in New York City for
the formation, formational years, and when I was in middle
school we moved down to theMiami area, hialeah, one of the
first cities I worked for as afirefighter years later.
But I didn't like it.
I was so used to the moving upnorth and the crowd.
It was just a different culture, even though down here is
(03:08):
obviously very bilingual, it'sjust a different culture.
So I wanted to go back northand I used college as an escape.
I applied to a lot of schools inthe northeast.
Most of the school that Iapplied actually every school I
applied to had a couple thingsin common.
Number one they had to have adivision one soccer program.
I was.
That was.
That was truly my first love.
(03:28):
My dream was to play soccer inEurope.
So they had to have a goodsoccer program and I was a
pre-med student.
I wanted to, you know, pursuesomething in the healthcare
field, and so that's whatbrought me to Boston.
They gave me a pretty goodscholarship so I couldn't say no
.
Yeah, syracuse gave me a fullride, but I opted for, uh,
(03:50):
boston University.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
So oh yeah, no, it's um.
I didn't get a full ride at BU,but I did get some other offers
at other schools, but I decidedto go to BU as well.
So sometimes, uh, you know, butuh, did you play soccer that
year?
Speaker 2 (04:03):
I actually redshirted the summer before going away to
college.
I hurt my back in a soccertournament.
You know it was my team versusa team that was visiting from
Jamaica.
It was an internationaltournament and I hurt my back
pretty bad.
I ended up having surgery atthe end of my freshman year.
So freshman year was a blur.
I spent most of my time, youknow, visiting doctors and
(04:27):
physical therapy and painmedications and so I could
barely walk.
So freshman year was it was atough year for me.
I had surgery, like my last day, may 7th, 1993, of my freshman
year, may 8th, at seven in themorning I was at the hospital
about to have back surgery.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
So so you're dealing with um.
I'm assuming a childhood dreamof pursuing soccer at a
professional level with aninjury, starting college and
doing pre-med Correct Uh, abouta thousand miles away from home.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Exactly.
Yeah, all that, all that youknow, boiling to one, and you
know, like most, to maintainyour scholarship I think I don't
know if it's changed but youhave to maintain a 2.3 gpa or
you're going to get aninformation.
I think I got a 2.35 myfreshman year and I was without
attending class, you know,learning remotely.
It was just a pain, literally,because I couldn't, couldn't
walk, I couldn't walk, sit forprolonged periods of time, stand
(05:25):
, and with the cold I was alwaysstiff and shivering and so it
was tough for me.
So I had surgery.
So that summer, between myfreshman and sophomore year, I
came back home to Florida and Irehabbed.
A buddy of mine was doing hisinternship at a physical therapy
office and they helped me rehaband that's when I fell in love
with the physical therapy fieldand I kind of started pursuing
(05:49):
rehab in that area.
So fast forward to sophomoreyear, and for me my sophomore
year was my freshman year yeah,because I was doing all the
things I couldn't do.
I was out, running, riding bike,playing soccer, building up, uh
, everything that I had lost.
And so at the end of mysophomore year I tried out.
They had open trials for thesoccer team, so it was a.
(06:11):
Over 100 individuals came outtried out and I was lucky enough
to be the only one selectedfrom that group and I was
invited to be part of the teamon a practice squad.
Eventually I ended up redshirting.
So my junior year it was.
It was great for my ego frombeing told by a doctor I was
never gonna run again.
Maybe even golf was too roughfor me.
Give up my dream of soccer tomaking at that time, my, my
(06:34):
friend.
My junior year b was rankednumber one in the nation
division one soccer.
So of course it was great formy ego.
And but unfortunately, since Iwasn't a scholarship kid, I
couldn't't do two-a-days orthree-a-day practices because I
had to work, I had to go toclass, I didn't have scholarship
.
So I ended up giving up thatdream of pursuing college soccer
(06:56):
and just played intramurals therest of junior year and senior
year.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
And as far as pre-med goes, did you always want to be
a doctor as well before?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
oh, yeah, yeah that was a dream that I had.
You know anyway, like I thinkyou've mentioned other podcasts,
when you're growing up as alatino, you want to be the
doctor, a lawyer or an engineer.
You know if you can be evenbetter yeah, exactly, yeah so,
uh, but I did, I did enjoy it.
I mean, even high school I had,uh, you know I took all the hard
classes and the, the honors andthe fruit and a few, uh,
(07:28):
advanced placement.
You know that I could and Iloved it, so I pursued it.
I did.
My declared major was exercisephysiology, but then on my
pre-med requirements, I try tofit in in between them or take
them as extra classes if myschedule allowed.
So there was times I was takingfive classes a semester.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
So you ended up studying exercise physiology,
correct.
What were you planning to doPhysical therapy with that?
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Well, eventually I was kind of like I said through
my injury I started looking intophysical therapy.
So I applied right aftergraduating or during my senior
year.
I tried to apply forentry-level master's that's what
was a requirement at the time.
All the different schools, butthere weren't that many I was
(08:19):
trying to get into BU didn'ttake me and some of the other
schools, so unfortunately Ididn't get into any of the
master's programs.
So I was kind of stuck betweena rock and a hard place, because
what can I do with my pre-medrequirements and a degree in
excess physiology, which was adying field because physical
therapy and occupational therapywere the growing fields in
health care.
So I moved to New York and Ibecame a personal trainer and I
(08:42):
was doing pretty well in NewYork City.
I worked for Equinox for alittle bit and for the 92nd
street Y, and then I had clientson the side and I did pretty
well.
I was able to pay off my schoolloans in eight months nice,
that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Yeah, a lot of us are still paying them off, uh, 20
years later.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
So I was pretty lucky .
I mean, obviously, uh, bu waskind of expensive, but the
amount of money that I owed wasa fraction of what most people
do.
So personal training in NewYork City actually was a
surprise in a good way.
I was able to pay him off andso I was debt-free before I even
, you know, started pursuing themarriage and all that.
(09:22):
So I came in debt-free.
I was a good candidate.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
So when did you get married?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
I got married in 1999 .
So three, almost four yearsafter graduating college I met
my wife, my first job in NewYork city, and, uh, you know we
were friends.
You know I was hanging out withfriends and brothers and
clubbing and she was doing thesame thing.
And you know we were friends.
You know I was hanging out withfriends and brothers and
clubbing and she was doing thesame thing.
And you know we're both in andout of relationships.
(09:49):
And when I left that job webecame good friends and then,
since we weren't workingtogether anymore, we kind of
stayed in contact and eventuallyone thing led to another and
we're celebrating our 25th yearthis year nice congratulations.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Yeah, thank you, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yeah, and so were you guys staying in New York the
whole time when you guys movedin.
We moved down in.
Well, I moved down here inDecember 98.
She came down a couple monthsafter and it was a tough
transition because in New YorkCity I was getting paid pretty
well doing personal training.
(10:26):
I came down here like I'm goingto start building my clientele
base but over here, you know,people are I'm not saying more
fit, but they don't viewpersonal training like they do
in other places and willing topay the money.
They're willing to pay me afraction of it.
I got to do something with mylife and that's when I started
pursuing getting back intophysical therapy, so pursuing my
(10:47):
, getting my degrees and firstas a physical therapy assistant
and moving on eventuallyphysical therapy.
But it was just tough becausethen my son came along and you
know when you have to work andpay the bills you do whatever
you got to do and you knowfulltime work, full-time school
was not in in my uh, in mypurview at that point so, so
(11:10):
you've kind of been all over theplace, you know, I think.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Uh, columbia back up to new york, back down to
florida, back up to boston witha stint in houston for a year
and a half yeah, and so one.
One of the one of the thingsthat you did you talked about in
your pre-interview that Ithought was interesting is that
you you said one of thechallenges was being neither
neither here neither there.
You know what were some of thechallenges for you with that.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Well, I mean growing up in a very Colombian household
because I was in my parents.
Now, obviously, with the yearsbeing here, they learned English
but everything was in Spanishat home.
So of course I had theColombian accent and the culture
, the food, everything wasnatural to me.
Going away to college, you knowvery Colombian myself, you know
(11:59):
very Latino and meeting otherLatino students at BU was great,
but it was awkward because Iwas a member of Latinos Unidos,
which is the Latino organizationon campus.
So right after my sophomoreyear I became very active.
Junior and senior years I waspresident of Latinos Unidos and
(12:19):
we had a great collaborationwith other members and we had a
great time.
But I also started theColombian Student Association so
I was inviting Colombians.
But a lot of these Colombianswho were from Colombia used to
tell me you're not Colombian,you're a gringo.
Like what do you mean?
I'm a gringo, I was born inColombia, I speak the language,
I know the culture, yeah, butyou're a gringo, you're
(12:40):
Americanized, you're not reallyColombian.
So I've always had thatstruggle here.
Even when I had to go visit theColombian consulate in Boston,
it's like oh, I'm sorry, you'rewho, from where?
Oh, okay, oh, excuse me,because you know, the
ambassador's son or whateverthat goes to Harvard or MIT.
I have to give them time andattention and I'm like, well, I
(13:00):
need my passport, I need to takecare of my ID, how do I do that
?
So it was always that issuethat I dealt with, which kind of
sucks.
And that's kind of beensomething that happens every
time you travel.
You know, when I go back hometo Colombia I was there a couple
weeks ago, it's you know nowthat I speak English a lot more
(13:26):
often, obviously, than I doSpanish, you know, you kind of
get stuck a little bit.
You forget certain words orthings like that.
So now over there they're likeoh yeah, you are gringo, you
know Americano.
So that's always been an issue.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Yeah, it's funny too, because it was a Columbia
moment that made me feel theworst about myself in my life.
I live in a very predominantlyColombian area, so I grew up, I
have Colombian uncles and so andthe lady who lived downstairs
from me was this older Colombianlady and she was asking me
something in Spanish and I wastrying to answer her back and
she's like you should be ashamedof yourself for not being able
(14:04):
to speak Spanish.
And I literally stoppedspeaking Spanish for like five
years, like I would not respondto anybody in Spanish, I would
just speak, I would go to school.
There's all these Colombiankids that I knew that would talk
to me in Spanish you knowPuerto Rican Dominicans and
they'll speak to me in Spanishand I just would respond in
English.
And so we communicate because Iunderstood them, but I was just
always intimidated.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
You get self-conscious about it, and
that's one thing that for myself, I never felt intimidated about
speaking Spanish andcommunicating in Spanish, but I
could see that you know theydon't treat you the same in
certain areas, in certain fields, or you know.
So you kind of become a littleconscious, you know,
(14:45):
self-conscious about it.
But you know, I actually becameone of those people who are
very adamant, like you knowwhat's your name?
Oh, you know Perez.
No, not Perez, it's Perez.
You know it's Rodriguez.
Roll your R's.
There's a Z at the end.
So you know, I kind of became alittle bit adamant about making
sure that we don't lose ourculture because, yeah, we're
american, we've been blessed tohave a lot of more opportunities
(15:07):
being here in this country, butyou know, this is a country of
immigrants and and you shouldn'tshy away from from what made
you you and and what you bringto this melting pot or whatever
you want to call it.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
So yeah, that's it's.
It's a hard balance for a lotof us american, the Latino
Americans that live here.
You know, you go, like I saidsame thing, I'd go to Peru.
And oh, it was funny, we weregoing in a taxi in Peru and the
taxi driver saw me, you know,wearing much more expensive
clothing than like my cousins,and stuff, because I'm coming
from America.
And he's like oh, it's going tobe like 25 soles to go to this
(15:40):
place and my cousin's putting itback.
He's like no senor, el gringoestá adelante.
Acá estamos peruanos.
He's like don't try to fuckwith us, like don't try to
overcharge us because you thinkwe're American.
And so he's like 15, 15, 15.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
He's like okay, exactly, but yeah, dude, so
Overcome that that's it.
You learn like, oh, okay it orsomething for the next time for
real, yep, yep, um.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Well, so, going back to your, your journey, brother
and um, you know you, at whatpoint did you like, were you
having struggles, working or didyou not enjoy the work you were
looking for in physical therapythat you decided to switch
careers, or what made you decideto switch?
Speaker 2 (16:19):
um, I was working when I moved down.
I was working in this physicaltherapy clinic and they laid me
off.
They laid me off after Itrained three different
directors because I wasn't adegree.
My degree was not in physicaltherapy.
So, because of the way thecontract was written, they had
to hire as a director for thatthose clinics a physical
(16:40):
therapist, even though there wasa transition.
Transition the first physicaltherapist that I worked for he
left.
He actually got tired ofphysical therapy, became a
firefighter.
Um, so you know, we had talkedabout it.
I remember when I was a kid Iwanted to be that too, but I,
you know, he told me you shouldcome to the fire academy with me
, we should do it together.
But you know, I was like youknow, my son was only, I think
(17:01):
he was maybe a year old like no,I gotta, I can't take time off
and go back to school, you knowthat kind of mentality, not
really researching how it went.
And then for the city ofHialeah, some of their workers,
firefighters, to come through,and that's how I started
learning more about how it wasthe academy, the lifestyle, the
work, the benefits, all thatother stuff, and it kind of left
(17:24):
a seed in my head.
So he left.
We got another therapist who washired, so I had to train her on
how to use the computers, howto do the system where the
paperwork insurance, because Ihad to teach her how to do
everything, but she was the onegetting all the big bucks.
So of course I asked hey,listen, I'm doing the training,
I'm doing this.
Can you compensate me?
Maybe give me a couple bucksraised for the work?
(17:45):
No, sorry, I can't do that this.
And that that lady ended upgoing because she got a better
offer somewhere else.
Another one came along, she wasgreat, I trained her as well.
Same thing.
And then the day beforeThanksgiving they told me oh, by
the way, this is going to beyour last week.
Here's a servant's check.
(18:07):
Uh, apologize, but we'reletting you go.
So they did, let me go.
So of course, the day beforethanksgiving, christmas is
around the corner, and then Ihave no work, no job.
So my best friend from highschool that I told you uh helped
me rehab.
That was doing the internshipin in one of the local hospitals
, in the physical therapydepartment, and like, hey, do
you know anything in thehospital?
Somebody's hiring.
Actually, yeah, we're hiring.
Boom, I got hired, like twoweeks later, thankfully, um.
(18:28):
And so I worked for thehospital for a couple years.
And same thing when I was there, um, I was working with a lot
of what we call specialpopulations, people who had
chronic injuries, had chronicdiseases, and you know, since
most insurances only pay threetimes a week, times four weeks
or whatever, and once theinsurance plan went out, I used
(18:51):
to work with them almost like aphysical therapy slash, personal
trainer mentality, trying toget them back to get ready to
work, because a lot of peopleneeded to get back to work so
they can make more money.
And that's how I met otherfirefighters who said man, you
know what?
You'd be a great firefighter,you can do this and you can do
that.
You have this time off, andthen you seem like you're very
(19:11):
good with people and I said youknow what?
Let me go ahead and find out.
What's this whole ordeal withFire Academy?
And I did.
I ended up signing up withanother buddy of mine that was
working with me, who was in thesame struggle, cause we were
working basically Monday throughSunday, you know, and he had a
newborn.
My son was already growing up.
I'm like we need to have spentsome time with the families.
(19:32):
You know we're missingbirthdays and kids parties
because we were working theweekends.
And so we went to a fireAcademy on a part-time basis.
And then we were working on apart-time basis, uh, for six
months, you know.
And uh, from there, I mean itwas tough.
I was sleeping maybe threehours a night because my, my
wife and my son went to bedaround 10.
(19:53):
From 10 to 2 o'clock in themorning, that was my study time.
Everything was quiet in thehouse, studying, making sure I
did everything.
Good, boom.
And then, right after graduationfrom the fire academy, went
right into emt school and uh,but I started applying to all
these different departmentswhile I was in emt school and I
got a call back from the city ofhylea hey, we're going to give
(20:15):
you conditional.
You have to make sure you passthe national certification as an
emt, no problem, and that's it.
It happened real fast for me.
So in that, that way, I wasblessed, because a lot of guys
that I've worked with currentlyor have worked with in the past
some of them waited six, seven,eight years to get the call that
it took me from starting thefire academy to getting hired a
(20:37):
year.
Some of these guys went to theacademy, went to EMT school,
became paramedics, applied here,applied there, six, seven,
eight, eight years later theyfinally got hired.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
So in that sense I've been blessed nice, and how old
were you when this happened?
30 years old when I uh changedso you were 30 married with a
kid uh bills, bills paysresponsibilities and it's funny
because you think back, you knowlike college and I'm like, oh
man, you know responsibility andyou know partying and staying
(21:09):
up to three and I'm like man.
I can't believe you know youlook back like man.
I can't believe we stayed up tolike three in the morning, four
in the morning, partying, andthen you get to like your 30s or
40s and you're like man.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
I can't believe I'm staying up to three, four I mean
, when it came to studying, Ialways felt motivated because,
you know the back of my mind,you're always told, no, you
can't do that or you can't dothis.
And that was my driving force,especially through high school.
(21:39):
I had a guidance counselor whoyou know, a white guy, nice guy.
But when it came to apply tocollege, he used to tell us yeah
, you know what?
Yeah, you're a good student,You're in your top 1% of your
graduating high school class.
You shouldn't apply to BU, youshouldn't apply to a school
because you're not going to getin.
You should apply to thecommunity college or maybe
technical school.
(21:59):
And I go, wait a minute, betterGPA than all these other people
.
And you're not discouragingthem from applying.
Why me?
So it was always that.
You know, I got to prove peoplewrong mentality and I'm smarter
than most people say.
Not only that, I can think intwo languages, do math in two
languages.
I always had that kind of chipon the shoulder.
So when it came to studying,I've always had that, but also,
(22:22):
of course, like you say now,with a wife and kid.
It just adds to the desire tosucceed.
You always say you want toprovide and whatever it takes.
You know you work 60 hours, 100hours a week, whatever hours a
week you make it happen yeah, no, it's funny too because you,
you as
Speaker 1 (22:43):
a father and a husband as well.
It's like there's these weirdmotivations to do better and
it's like I was living kind oflike this for a long time, and
then I got married to have kidsand I just started pushing
myself a lot more, you know,because you have something to
work for.
So yeah exactly.
And so, as far as like umfirefighter, firefighter school,
you know what's like afirefighter academy, like like
(23:04):
what do you what?
Speaker 2 (23:05):
is it?
I always say fire academy islike a paramilitary uh
institution.
I'm not military uh, you know,obviously respect to them.
The bootcamp you have to go andbe able to perform under stress
, under duress, but on top ofjust physical activities you
also function in hightemperature areas because
(23:29):
obviously you're going to begoing into a fire, not
necessarily run away from it,and on top of all that, being
able to carry heavy equipment.
So it is very physicallydemanding.
And somebody who you know was asoccer player I ran half
marathons and 10Ks and all that.
The physical portion, you know,being a, I was a personal
trainer for many years and spininstructor and all that other
(23:51):
stuff that I was able to do.
The physical portion was theeasy part.
The hard part was, you know,just getting mentally ready to
put your life on the line ifneed be.
So it was.
It was one of those things that, uh, but it was fun.
The adrenaline rush.
I didn't think it was going tobe that great because when I got
into it I don't know how it isin most of the parts of the
(24:11):
country, but here in SouthFlorida, even though you're a
firefighter, paramedic, you canbe both and function in a fire
truck.
It's not like New York Citywhere you have fires on one side
, ems is the other side.
We kind of do everything.
So in my fire truck we have ALSequipment, advanced life
(24:32):
support equipment, ids,medications, all that and of
course we have tons of hoses anda lot of water and ladders,
tools and all that other stuff.
So we function, uh, you know,in that duality in a way.
So I was looking forward tomore of the medical aspect being
a paramedic, but becauseobviously my background and
pre-med and all that, all thatcame easy to me.
(24:53):
But then once I got into thefirst burn at the fire academy,
the adrenaline rush, it wasexciting and you know you look
forward to another fire andbreaking things and you know
saving things and jumping outwindows and all the things that
you kind of get over glorifiedon TV.
But that's pretty much thepassion that you build and it's
(25:14):
been with me to this day.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
I was going to ask you know.
I do want to get into themedical stuff aspect of it as
well.
But you know that, overcomingthat fear because I'm sure
there's that initial fear oflike what the hell am I signing
up for?
Yeah, Natural instinct is torun away from the fire and
you're signing up to run intothe fire I was like, what did
you have to do to try to getyourself hyped up and overcome
(25:38):
that initially?
You know, because I'm sure itwas pretty of a struggle I mean,
well, you know what I can't say?
Speaker 2 (25:43):
um, at least I can't say that I was ever afraid.
It was more like, uh, theadrenaline rush always took over
like, oh my god, oh my god,it's getting hot, oh, this is
cool.
Okay, how much you know.
So it became that mental game,uh, and and you just learn to
exercise the mind.
One thing that I, um thought Iwas was afraid of heights.
(26:05):
So when you're climbing the 100foot ladders or doing things at
the edge of buildings andrappelling and things like that
that we kind of train for, I wassurprisingly more gung-ho about
it than I thought I would be.
I thought I was going to be alittle bit afraid of that, but
no, but that was pretty cool.
So I actually was pleasantlysurprised how well I handled
(26:26):
stress.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
Nice and do you?
Feel like you were able to finda good balance from what, like
you, wanted to go to school forin some sort of medical field.
And now you're actually kind ofdoing EMT and you know you have
a crap load of certificationsfor a whole variety of different
things you know.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Yeah, and the good thing is that the capital people
, you know the first thingpeople hear firefighter.
What's the worst call you'veever been to, you know.
We, unfortunately for thecommunity, called thousand nine
one one.
Um, they're never going to callus.
Hey, come hang out at abirthday party or come to our.
They're always going to call uswhen it's their worst moment in
(27:06):
their life.
Obviously, for some peoplewhat's worse in their life might
be different.
For others.
Obviously, the stereotypicalcar accidents, gunshot wounds,
you know, cardiac arrest, thingslike that, obviously those are
pretty dramatic.
But I mean, we get calls forsome of the silliest things that
you would imagine, you know.
And people you know call youfor my stuff my toe three days
(27:27):
ago.
I still can't walk, or I, youknow, my nose has been bleeding
for 20 minutes.
Oh my god, what am to do To?
There's a snake in my house.
Can you get it?
You know.
So when they dial 911, theyexpect, you know, for us to
handle everything from.
Oh, you know, there's a leak inmy apartment.
They told me to call you guys.
(27:48):
And man, we're not plumbers,but let's see what we can do,
what that has allowed me.
Man, we're not plumbers, butlet's see what we can do.
What that has allowed me goingback to answering your question
is helping people.
You know, I mean, when you getinto the medical profession,
most of the people who whetherit be doctors, physician
assistants, nurses, whatever itis therapists the desire is to
help people, and so I've beenable to educate people as well.
(28:09):
Uh, about the, the, the healthcare system, which in some
communities is pretty messed upstill, but especially people who
are not insured or underinsured.
We are their primary carephysicians, unfortunately.
What happened?
Well, my blood pressure is high.
Okay, have you seen your doctor?
No, because I have to wait twomonths for a visit or they don't
have any.
I have to wait a month.
(28:31):
So you go there and you taketheir blood pressure and you
educate them.
It's take.
You take your medication?
No, because it's too expensive.
Well, if you go here, theymight be able to give it to you
for cheaper, and so it's just,basically, it's like you're the
community liaison and and that'ssomething that I've appreciated
as well, you know, besidestrying to keep people calm and
and things like that duringtheir worst time, it's it's it
(28:52):
time.
It's been something that gaveme a lot of gratification as
well.
So that's kind of where I kindof tied it in with all my
healthcare experience where thepatient is number one.
You know you treat everybodylike it's your mom, your dad,
your grandma, your grandpa andyou do well.
So I've been pretty fortunateto be at that point.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Nice and when it comes to, obviously, career
changes and people who arelooking.
You know what kind of advicewould you give people who are
like in a stump and they're likeman?
Maybe I should go do somethingdifferent, but you know, I'm
afraid.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Yeah, of course.
I mean I was afraid just to gofrom a full-time hours to
part-time hours just to go tothe fire academy.
I mean my wife was workingpart-time hours just to go to
the fire academy.
I mean my wife was workingpart-time because my son was
still young, so you know she wasawesome.
She stepped up and she startedworking the full-time hours
while I was, uh, going to theacademy.
So I didn't see her for acouple days because she worked
in the morning, uh, I was withmy son in the morning, uh, or
(29:50):
working, depending on the day ofthe week, and then I have to go
drop them off at my mom's house, and so that hour and a half,
two hours where I had to leaveto go to the fire academy and my
wife got off work to pick themup, so I didn't see her till
maybe Sundays on certainoccasions.
So that was tough.
But you know, like I said, youmake it happen, and so the
(30:10):
advice that I tell people is doit for the right reasons,
because the worst thing you cando is be at a job that you were
your miserable, and while Ienjoyed my other work in the
health care setting, in thehospital setting.
The bad part is that I had nolife because I was working, like
I said, monday through Fridays,weekends for sure.
(30:32):
Because I was working, like Isaid, monday through Fridays,
weekends for sure, and I wasmissing my son growing up and I
couldn't coach him in soccer, Icouldn't see him play basketball
.
You know his first words.
So those are things I didn'twant to miss.
And learning about firefightingand all the stories, because
that's one thing I can guaranteeyou You'll never meet a
firefighter that likes beinglight duty or that enjoys doing
(30:53):
a 40-hour work week.
Most of them that are 40-hourwork week is because you've
either gotten older or,unfortunately, an injury has
sidelined them and they'repretty good at whatever it may
be, but being on light duty fora prolonged period of time,
you'll never find one, becausethat's how much we love the
profession and how much the jobmeans to us.
(31:13):
So I understood that watchingand working with some of these,
uh, then patients of mine, uh,and yeah, you had a knee
replacement.
Yeah, the doctor told me, inthree months, but I need to get
back in a month, I'm going crazy.
I miss the guys.
I miss the frat, the firehouse,which I like to call the frat
house, which and who's been amember of the fraternity can
understand that you build acamaraderie.
(31:34):
It's like family.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
It's like playing a sport.
People who play sports younever want to quit playing a
sport.
Even now I haven't playedfootball in 27 years.
If I could go back and play onemore game, one more down in
high school again, I would do itin a heartbeat.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
I'm the best, uh, tv coach man.
I'm yelena tv for every soccergame I see, and and I comment on
it and, of course, two secondslater, the sportscaster.
Just that's what I said.
You know, sportscaster.
But but yeah, no, if you findyour passion and you find
something that drives you andand, and it's not work, I enjoy
going to work.
You know, I don't call out sickbecause I mean I've called out
(32:14):
sick when my wife was sick or myson was sick, not because I was
sick, because I love going towork, you know, and so that's
been a plus.
So you're able to find apassion, something that you know
just drives you, and thenyou're lucky, you're lucky and
you just need to change andexperiment until you find I
(32:34):
never thought I was going to bea firefighter.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
I mean, I was going to be a professional soccer
player and I was going to be adoctor and then maybe a physical
therapist, and I'm having morefun doing firefighting than
teaching now yeah, I think Ithink one of the um, hardest
things, I think growing up, youknow, one of the things I think
is a sign that you've grown upis being able to, like, change
your plans and realize thingscan go a little different and
(32:56):
try something different, to trysomething new.
Yeah, and convince yourself tomake those moves, because it is
scary, it's never, never goingto be easy.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
And I can tell you, the scariest moment for me was
the day I realized I was notgoing to play professional
soccer, the day I realized I wasnot going to play professional
soccer.
That because since I was a kid Imean since I was I mean, my
earliest memory was alwaysplaying soccer, organized teams,
you know, travel teams and mydays off from practice or games.
(33:25):
I was out there running 10, 15miles.
I was preparing to get to thatpoint and then when I hurt my
back, it was like that has hurtme more than any other career
change that I've had in the past.
I guess that taught me not tobe as afraid of change.
You know, like mentioning nowthe career change from working
(33:46):
in healthcare to becoming afirefighter, I mean like it was
devastating to me not being ableto pursue the dream of playing
professional soccer.
That's how much it meant.
So, but it also taught me thatyou know what you know, uh, for
for a lot of us who grew up inthe church, they always said you
know, if you want to make Godlaugh, tell him your plans.
(34:08):
You know, and and that's how Iwas like you know what, what's
gonna happen next, and you knowyou go by faith and and things
will happen.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
So yeah, yeah, definitely man.
That's great words to live byman.
So and so, at this point inyour career, you know you're,
you're teaching now, right, isthat?
Is that your next progressionto your next stage in your
career?
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Not necessarily.
I kind of got into it becauseyou know firefighting, you know
we work a weird schedule.
My department, we work 24-hourshifts but we're off for 48
hours, so 24 on, 48 off.
So I faced to find myselfcoming home, you know, yeah,
(34:53):
helping around the house andclean, and my good you know,
luckily, you know we're uh, wedon't, we don't make too much of
a mess now, the biggest mess isour dogs, but and then I'm home
and then, okay, what do I?
My son's in school and I justcaught myself just relaxing,
maybe reading, because you knowI still like enjoy reading.
But then I feel like I was notbeing productive anymore on my
days off.
So they told me they werelooking for some instructors at
(35:15):
the fire Academy and I'm likeyou know what, let me go for it.
And I did, and and and it'sbeen pretty fun.
It's been pretty fun because alot of these, well, kids I say
kids, cause all of them areyounger than me oh yeah, all
these young adults go into theAcademy, are now working with me
.
Some are working for otherdepartments.
I get to see them and you knowit's been pretty fulfilling to
(35:37):
see them also pursue their goalsand get hired a lot earlier
than me.
I mean, you got 19 girls whoare firefighters.
Now I'm like bro, you don'teven shave yet and you're
already a firefighter.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
How awesome is that what kind of advice do you give
them for?
Or to anybody who says you know, I'd like to become a
firefighter, you know what do Ineed to do to become one um,
well, find out in your localdepartments what they require to
hire.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
For us, um, most departments of south florida you
have you're required to bestate certified as a firefighter
, uh, to have your, yourcertificate as an EMT and, many
cases, uh certificate as a as aparamedic.
So the fire academy could be inbetween six months to a year,
depending where you go, whatstate.
Emt could be one semester andparamedics is two and a half
(36:28):
years.
So, um, pursue it, if that'swhat you want, you know, and
make it happen and startapplying.
Start applying for thedifferent departments and then,
once you get hired, depending onthe department.
You know you have some smalldepartments that are, you know,
three, four or five stations, um, that may not have that much
(36:49):
opportunity for growth versus mydepartment.
My department is the largest inSoutheast, the fifth or sixth
largest in the country, andwe're in the water.
So if you want to be a scubadiving, if you're a scuba diver,
we have that.
Be a paramedic on a helicopter,we have that.
Be a paramedic on a boat, boatcaptains, we have that.
We have swamp boats.
(37:11):
You know we have tons of firetrucks, ladder trucks, we have
hazmat teams, we have technicalrescue teams.
We have airport fire, so mydepartment has allowed us to
pursue, even within firefighting, all these different interests
and that's what allowed me topursue all different
certifications until I found myniche.
My niche was hazmat.
(37:33):
All different certificationsuntil I found my niche.
My niche was hazmat.
You know, taking chemistry inhigh school and college and all
this other stuff.
It kind of drew me and that'swhy I pursued it and I'm part of
the hazmat team.
So it's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
Nice.
No, that's awesome, dude, and Ijust keep thinking.
You said swamps, I'm I'm sureyou get.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
you do a lot of alligators too, um, myself, no,
uh, you know I stay in my lane.
You know we do have ourwrangling, uh, alligator guys
and snake guys.
Uh, we do, we did have, or wedo have a venom program as well,
uh, which you know.
Actually some of our captainshave featured in Animal Planet,
(38:14):
you know, and things like that,doing that, dealing with snakes
and all that you find here inthe Everglades and poison spikes
and all this other stuff.
So they pursued it.
They were pretty good at it,but, yeah, not me.
Alligators, I mean, they lookgood from a distance and that's
why I, like I was a recreationalscuba diver but I don't do it
(38:35):
for the department, because youknow to go into some of these
waters and there may bealligators or water moccasins,
yeah, they can have that nice,nice and and so what is the
difference between volunteerfirefighters and a regular
firefighter?
(38:59):
Well, volunteer firefighters,which is most of the country
fire departments, more ruralareas or smaller communities
that may not have the tax incometo be able to pay professional
firefighters the tax income tobe able to pay professional
firefighters so the big citiesyou know most.
Most, if not all, of oursalaries come from taxes.
So if you have a good tax baseyou're able to afford better
(39:23):
policing, better firefighting,better social services, things
like that.
So that's the main.
The main different volunteerscould be.
You could become a volunteerfirefighter in your community if
(39:55):
your department does not havepaid professionals.
You go to a fire academy.
They'll teach you the basicsand you'll respond.
You'll get a beeper car or yougo to the nearest fire station
to you.
You'll jump in their fire truckand then go to whatever the
scene is versus us.
We go, we live in the firehouse24 hours at a time, so we're
taking off from the firehouseand, of course, the pay is
commensurate to experience,certifications and things like
(40:15):
that.
So ranking, of course.
So that's the main difference.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
And retirement.
What's usually the retirementage for firefighters?
Is it young or is it about thesame as everyone else?
Because I don't know if I'veseen many 65-year-old
firefighters.
Yeah, no, I mean.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Well, you'll have your 65-year-olds here and there
.
I mean, every department setsit different To become a
firefighter.
Certain departments cap it at29.
Some at 28.
I know New York City has a.
I may be wrong, but I know NewYork City.
I think they cap it at 29 yearsold.
So if you're 35 years old, youwant to pursue firefighting in
New York City.
So if you're 35 years old, youwant to pursue firefighting in
(40:52):
New York City, you may not beable to.
My department we hire40-year-olds, 45-year-olds, who
are in great shape, who have allthe certifications and they
meet all the requirements andthey pass.
You know, oh, this is my secondcareer, or you know, whatever
case may be.
So, age-wise, there is norestrictions.
Well, some departments don'thave restrictions.
(41:12):
There is no restrictions.
Well, some departments don'thave restrictions In terms of
retirement.
For the most part they haveeither 20 years or 55 years of
age, or 25 years of service or55 years of age, depending.
And then your retirement is apercentage of your highest few
years, some do highest threeyears, highest five years.
(41:33):
They'll give you a percentageof that in retirement.
So it really depends on thecity or the county or the state
or the community you work for.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
What do most firefighters do once they retire
?
Do they just enjoy life or dothey stay?
Speaker 2 (41:49):
busy.
Well, most of us have secondjobs because our schedule, even
though we work 96 hoursbi-weekly, you know we just do
it 24 hour blocks at a time, sowe're 48 hours every week.
But you know, like I said, 24hours on, 48 off, so during the
48 hours we have, like you know,for example, my captain, he's
(42:10):
an ac tech and he has somefamily business.
Another buddy of mine, one ofmy lieutenants, he has his own
roofing company.
We have guys who are physicaltherapists, who are attorneys,
who are physician assistants,who are nurses, so instructors,
which is something that I amdoing now because it works with
my schedule now.
So we all have different jobs.
(42:30):
So once they retire, we kind ofstay tied into usually our
second jobs.
Yeah, nice, uh.
Yeah, just to keep itinteresting, I tell my wife, if
I retire, uh, I already have myage, I'm retiring the age of 58,
that's my goal, so I'm eightyears away, um, but um, you know
, by that point I'll have 30,like 30, 30 years of service.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
Nice.
That's awesome, and so I guessyou know.
One of the big things too isyou've come a long way, you've
dealt with a lot of differentthings.
You know you've started yourcareer as one of these soccer
and do all this stuff.
Obviously a lot of life lessonslearned.
If you could go back and backand, you know, start telling
yourself some.
Uh, give yourself some advice.
(43:16):
What's something you tellyourself?
Speaker 2 (43:18):
um, yeah, the best advice I can give myself is just
, whatever you do 100, you knowfind it.
You're not always noteverything that you dreamt of is
going to come true, and that'sokay.
You can't just tie your entireexistence to a dream.
You know a lot of people that Iknow have been able to pursue
(43:39):
their dreams and they're happy.
A lot of people that I've methave pursued their dreams and
are miserable.
So, you know, if the mostimportant thing is find
something that makes you happyand I think that is an
accomplishment in itself Ifmoney, you know, being able to
pay your bills all that willcome in play, it will fall into
place.
But just finding your passionand being happy with what you do
(44:03):
, that you know, whether yousleep an hour or two hours, you
wake up ready to go to work Ithink that's a win.
So, finding your passion,whatever it is, and don't be
afraid to experiment I mean, Iwas forced to, uh, do career
changes and some people have theluxury to take the time and
change and and pursue it.
(44:23):
Other people have no choicejust, whatever you do, you know,
don't do it just for the money,do it for the passion.
And and that's something Istill tell my students why are
you going to be a firefighter?
Oh, my dad told me.
You know what you're telling me.
The fact that your dad told youyou're not going to enjoy it,
you know.
Oh, you know, if you can tellsomebody who really wants
(44:43):
something.
By the way, they talk aboutwhat they're pursuing.
I wanted to be a doctor.
I was a kid.
I used to operate on my dollsand I used to cut open my
sister's dolls and I used to cut.
You know, you can see thepassion from the kid and they
pursue it.
That's great.
You know, I have to break mycomputer, you know, and then I
put it back together and thenyou know that that's their
passion, and and and, and thathappens for a lot of us.
(45:05):
You know, for me, like I said,for me, was it just happened to
be that meeting the right peopleat the right time in my life
led me to what I didn't know wasgoing to be my passion.
And here I am nice.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
Well, I appreciate that and it's yeah.
I'm sure it's something yousaid.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
You tell your son too because you know it's funny, my
son, uh, you know he's when hewas a little he used to be all
like, oh my god, dad, so whathappened today?
Did you see blood?
You see any bones?
Did he see you know guts comingout?
You know, like you know,whatever little kid would ask
you, and you know, of course, Inever told them all the blood
and guts stories that,unfortunately, I was.
I was, uh, you know,encountering that, but you know,
(45:44):
I flowered and making some pgfor him.
He was always like, wow, youknow.
And so when he was, uh, fouryears old, I took him to that
bodies exhibition.
I don't know if you rememberyeah you know, like, let me see
how squeamish she is.
You know, it's one day I wasoff of work and, like you know,
uh, they get with firefighterlike 50 percent off.
Like you know what, let's do it.
My wife was working, so we then, me and him, on a field trip.
(46:04):
I'm like let me see howsqueamish she is.
And I thought he was gonna belike what is that man?
My son was like a mechanicunder hood.
Wow, bobby, is that where thatpoopy comes out?
Oh, and you know, he was justso curious and I'm like you know
what?
This kid's going to be?
Something in the healthcare.
And you know he used to come tothe firehouse and get on the,
you know, put the helmet and putthe gear and get in the truck,
(46:25):
climb up, and so, as he gotolder, like yeah, so you're
going to be a firefighter, he'slike, nah, as he was applying
for college, what do you want todo?
And you know asking himquestions over the years until
he finally found, you know whathe pursued nursing.
You know he got his BSN andhe's been working as a nurse for
a year now.
So he found his passion and helikes it and to this day, you
(46:49):
know we can talk the lingo, oh,not today.
I was doing this procedure andthat procedure, this, that, this
and that, and you know he'spassionate about it, he talks
about it and you know that to meis fulfillment, because he
found what he likes and he foundit young.
You know he was 21 when hegraduated from college, so you
know he's a puppy.
And he found his passion, whichis good.
Speaker 1 (47:10):
That's awesome man.
Speaker 2 (47:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:12):
Yeah, I guess it's all kind of ties in back to my
last question, which I think youprobably already kind of
answered.
But you know how do you saysuccess in Spanish?
Speaker 2 (47:21):
Yeah, I mean exactly.
I mean finding your passion,being happy and just knowing
that as you look back, you knowyou're able to kind of one up
your parents.
You know your parents came tothis country generation latinos
here, or whatever case may be,and they may.
They worked odd jobs thing thatthey probably did not educate
(47:42):
themselves on, but they made ithappen.
Waiting tables, busing, youknow, doing this, mopping,
sweeping, cleaning, uh, which Iused to do with my parents at
night I used to go clean banksin new york city.
I remember that 12 midnight I'mon, you know, I'm sitting on the
little shiny machine whateveryou call those to polish floors
and my sister and I had to holddown for dear life, and that was
fun, and my dad used to, thatwas one of his many jobs.
(48:04):
But, um, you know, and theystruggled, they made it happen,
they put four kids throughcollege, and you know.
So now it's like now, what canwe do to see how successful they
are and can we play one up onthem, you know?
So that to me is being able tobe successful and and, and you
(48:24):
know, playing, improving fromwhere your parents left off,
which is the same thing I tellmy son.
Okay, you know I went to college, I got my bachelor's and then I
was able to get extracertification in this.
So now you have to go for atleast your master's and then
start earlier, start younger.
And luckily he was able tostart his life debt-free from
college loans, because we madesure that that was something
(48:46):
that we don't want him tostruggle with, my wife and I.
So it worked out.
We've been blessed in thatsense.
So, like I said, just pursueyour passion, something that's
gonna, you know, wake up and youknow you can tell your passion
by the way you talk about ityeah, kind of like bro.
Speaker 1 (49:02):
It's funny because it's a very immigrant response
with uh, you know, you know, doyou do better than what your
parents did and hope that yourkids do better than you?
Because you know, exactly, youknow that's exactly all the
sacrifice they did motivates meto keep going harder and
motivates me to make my lifeeasier for my daughters that she
could hopefully make it easierfor herself too.
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (49:21):
But it's also and not that I'm always hoping for them
to do but we all need to learnto struggle a little bit.
That struggle will help youdevelop into the person that you
are meant to be.
Will help you develop into theperson that you are meant to be,
Because if you have everythingso good you know, especially at
(49:43):
an early age, and then you know,like, like I see myself, when I
when I because of my backinjury, my back surgery which
surprisingly never reallyaffected me in fire Academy, and
all this other stuff in mycareer.
But you know, when I came tothe realization that I had to
give up my lifelong dream, I'mglad it happened to me when I
was young, Because imaginefinding out that the dream
you've wanted to pursue yourwhole life and you're in your
(50:04):
20s and your 30s and then youcome to the realization that
you're not gonna be able toaccomplish it.
That I would consider scary.
Getting close to your middle ageand realizing that's not going
to happen for you, at that pointI think it's scarier.
So you want to see your kidsstruggle as much as you want to
be there to catch them, pickthem up.
You know it's good for them tohave their little struggles.
(50:26):
I mean, obviously we don't wantanything tragic or anything but
struggle is good, it buildsresilience and it builds
character and it also gives youthat introspection to see how
tough we really are and how wehandle stress and stressful
situations.
And I think that also helps mein my career.
You know all the stuff I'veseen.
I sleep good at night.
I don't have nightmares, Idon't have ghosts, I don't see
(50:49):
faces, you know, even thoughI've had some pretty tragic
events in firefighting becausethe career that you know.
But so I've been pretty, prettylucky in that and I think all
the struggles I went through,the things that I've seen,
helped me become, you know,stronger.
Speaker 1 (51:04):
Nice, well, amazing man, thank you so much for
coming on today and sharing yourstory.
You know, you know, I'm so gladto hear you know, the passion
is still alive in you.
Speaker 2 (51:15):
So I mean, you know, unfortunately, the passion is
still alive in you.
Unfortunately, the body'sslowing down.
I'll be turning 50.
That's why I enjoy driving.
Now I'm able to drive the firetruck full time.
It's not as physicallydemanding as jumping in and out
of the truck.
I still get to do that.
That's fun.
Speaker 1 (51:37):
The mind's still sharp, there we go.
That's all it can be right.
Thank you so much.
I really appreciate you beinghere, man.
Speaker 2 (51:44):
No problem, man, I appreciate you having me on and
continued success with this show.
I've listened to all theepisodes and I'm glad to hear
that it's doing well for you aswell.
Congratulations on that.
Speaker 1 (51:54):
I'm glad to hear that it's doing well for you as well
.
So congratulations on that.
Well, thank you, man.
I really appreciate it.
Man.
So and you know, for everyoneelse, you know thank you so much
for joining, and I hope you'lljoin me again next time as we
continue to learn how to saysuccess in Spanish.
Thanks for watching.
This is Raul Lopez, and you're listening to how Do
you Save Success in Spanglish?
The path to success isn't easyFor minorities and people of
color.
Many attempt this journey withlittle to no guidance.
Join me as I sit down withindividuals who share their
stories of perseverance so thattogether, we can learn how to
save success in Spanglish.
What's good, mi gente?
(00:31):
Welcome back, it's your boy,raul.
Thank you for joining us today.
Today, on how Do you SaySuccess in Spanglish, I have a
very good friend of mine,giovanni Abril.
Giovanni Gio, how's it going,man?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
It's going well, thank you.
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Thank you for joining me.
I hope you're enjoying the warmweather in Miami while I'm
freezing my tail off up here inConnecticut.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yeah, don't feel bad.
It's a Florida winter right now.
It dropped to like the low 50s.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Oh yeah, we were like at 29 yesterday, so I don't
pity you, man, but thank you somuch, gio.
You are a firefighter, so letme just start off with a little
bit introduction about you.
So, after eight years inhealthcare, and at the
suggestion of his wife, giovannidecided to go back to school
and pursue his childhood dreamof becoming a firefighter.
In 2004, he was hired as a paidprofessional firefighter by the
(01:20):
city of Hialeah Fire RescueDepartment and two years later
was hired by Miami-Dade CountyFire Rescue.
Giovanni has added manycertifications to his resume,
such as EMT, paramedic,hazardous materials technician
and specialist hazardous toxmedic, wildlife firefighter,
aircraft rescue firefighterdriver operator, fire engine and
aerial truck fire instructor,three live fire training
(01:42):
instructor, and in 2015, hebegan working on a part-time
basis as an adjunct facultyinstructor at Miami-Dade Fire
Academy at Miami-Dade CollegeNorth Campus and, as Gio puts it
, it has been a great experienceto help inspire and motivate
young men and women withinstruction on how to achieve
their goals of serving theircommunity.
Welcome, gio.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Thank you, appreciate it, appreciate you having me.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Yeah, I appreciate you coming and obviously I've
known you because once again,transparency for everybody
you're one of my fraternitybrothers, so I've known you for
quite some time.
You're also from BostonUniversity, so you've kind of
been all over the place.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
So I guess to start off, tell me a little, a little
bit.
You know who is GiovanniGiovanni Brill.
I'm like you said, I'm afirefighter now, which is
definitely not just a careerchange but a lifestyle change.
But I was born in Columbia.
When I was a few months old myparents moved to New York City,
you know, searching for thatAmerican dream like everybody
(02:46):
else, and it was a.
It was hard.
I mean, it was great memoriesgrowing up in New York City for
the formation, formational years, and when I was in middle
school we moved down to theMiami area, hialeah, one of the
first cities I worked for as afirefighter years later.
But I didn't like it.
I was so used to the moving upnorth and the crowd.
It was just a different culture, even though down here is
(03:08):
obviously very bilingual, it'sjust a different culture.
So I wanted to go back northand I used college as an escape.
I applied to a lot of schools inthe northeast.
Most of the school that Iapplied actually every school I
applied to had a couple thingsin common.
Number one they had to have adivision one soccer program.
I was.
That was.
That was truly my first love.
(03:28):
My dream was to play soccer inEurope.
So they had to have a goodsoccer program and I was a
pre-med student.
I wanted to, you know, pursuesomething in the healthcare
field, and so that's whatbrought me to Boston.
They gave me a pretty goodscholarship so I couldn't say no
.
Yeah, syracuse gave me a fullride, but I opted for, uh,
(03:50):
boston University.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
So oh yeah, no, it's um.
I didn't get a full ride at BU,but I did get some other offers
at other schools, but I decidedto go to BU as well.
So sometimes, uh, you know, butuh, did you play soccer that
year?
Speaker 2 (04:03):
I actually redshirted the summer before going away to
college.
I hurt my back in a soccertournament.
You know it was my team versusa team that was visiting from
Jamaica.
It was an internationaltournament and I hurt my back
pretty bad.
I ended up having surgery atthe end of my freshman year.
So freshman year was a blur.
I spent most of my time, youknow, visiting doctors and
(04:27):
physical therapy and painmedications and so I could
barely walk.
So freshman year was it was atough year for me.
I had surgery, like my last day, may 7th, 1993, of my freshman
year, may 8th, at seven in themorning I was at the hospital
about to have back surgery.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
So so you're dealing with um.
I'm assuming a childhood dreamof pursuing soccer at a
professional level with aninjury, starting college and
doing pre-med Correct Uh, abouta thousand miles away from home.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Exactly.
Yeah, all that, all that youknow, boiling to one, and you
know, like most, to maintainyour scholarship I think I don't
know if it's changed but youhave to maintain a 2.3 gpa or
you're going to get aninformation.
I think I got a 2.35 myfreshman year and I was without
attending class, you know,learning remotely.
It was just a pain, literally,because I couldn't, couldn't
walk, I couldn't walk, sit forprolonged periods of time, stand
(05:25):
, and with the cold I was alwaysstiff and shivering and so it
was tough for me.
So I had surgery.
So that summer, between myfreshman and sophomore year, I
came back home to Florida and Irehabbed.
A buddy of mine was doing hisinternship at a physical therapy
office and they helped me rehaband that's when I fell in love
with the physical therapy fieldand I kind of started pursuing
(05:49):
rehab in that area.
So fast forward to sophomoreyear, and for me my sophomore
year was my freshman year yeah,because I was doing all the
things I couldn't do.
I was out, running, riding bike,playing soccer, building up, uh
, everything that I had lost.
And so at the end of mysophomore year I tried out.
They had open trials for thesoccer team, so it was a.
(06:11):
Over 100 individuals came outtried out and I was lucky enough
to be the only one selectedfrom that group and I was
invited to be part of the teamon a practice squad.
Eventually I ended up redshirting.
So my junior year it was.
It was great for my ego frombeing told by a doctor I was
never gonna run again.
Maybe even golf was too roughfor me.
Give up my dream of soccer tomaking at that time, my, my
(06:34):
friend.
My junior year b was rankednumber one in the nation
division one soccer.
So of course it was great formy ego.
And but unfortunately, since Iwasn't a scholarship kid, I
couldn't't do two-a-days orthree-a-day practices because I
had to work, I had to go toclass, I didn't have scholarship
.
So I ended up giving up thatdream of pursuing college soccer
(06:56):
and just played intramurals therest of junior year and senior
year.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
And as far as pre-med goes, did you always want to be
a doctor as well before?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
oh, yeah, yeah that was a dream that I had.
You know anyway, like I thinkyou've mentioned other podcasts,
when you're growing up as alatino, you want to be the
doctor, a lawyer or an engineer.
You know if you can be evenbetter yeah, exactly, yeah so,
uh, but I did, I did enjoy it.
I mean, even high school I had,uh, you know I took all the hard
classes and the, the honors andthe fruit and a few, uh,
(07:28):
advanced placement.
You know that I could and Iloved it, so I pursued it.
I did.
My declared major was exercisephysiology, but then on my
pre-med requirements, I try tofit in in between them or take
them as extra classes if myschedule allowed.
So there was times I was takingfive classes a semester.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
So you ended up studying exercise physiology,
correct.
What were you planning to doPhysical therapy with that?
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Well, eventually I was kind of like I said through
my injury I started looking intophysical therapy.
So I applied right aftergraduating or during my senior
year.
I tried to apply forentry-level master's that's what
was a requirement at the time.
All the different schools, butthere weren't that many I was
(08:19):
trying to get into BU didn'ttake me and some of the other
schools, so unfortunately Ididn't get into any of the
master's programs.
So I was kind of stuck betweena rock and a hard place, because
what can I do with my pre-medrequirements and a degree in
excess physiology, which was adying field because physical
therapy and occupational therapywere the growing fields in
health care.
So I moved to New York and Ibecame a personal trainer and I
(08:42):
was doing pretty well in NewYork City.
I worked for Equinox for alittle bit and for the 92nd
street Y, and then I had clientson the side and I did pretty
well.
I was able to pay off my schoolloans in eight months nice,
that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Yeah, a lot of us are still paying them off, uh, 20
years later.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
So I was pretty lucky .
I mean, obviously, uh, bu waskind of expensive, but the
amount of money that I owed wasa fraction of what most people
do.
So personal training in NewYork City actually was a
surprise in a good way.
I was able to pay him off andso I was debt-free before I even
, you know, started pursuing themarriage and all that.
(09:22):
So I came in debt-free.
I was a good candidate.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
So when did you get married?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
I got married in 1999 .
So three, almost four yearsafter graduating college I met
my wife, my first job in NewYork city, and, uh, you know we
were friends.
You know I was hanging out withfriends and brothers and
clubbing and she was doing thesame thing.
And you know we were friends.
You know I was hanging out withfriends and brothers and
clubbing and she was doing thesame thing.
And you know we're both in andout of relationships.
(09:49):
And when I left that job webecame good friends and then,
since we weren't workingtogether anymore, we kind of
stayed in contact and eventuallyone thing led to another and
we're celebrating our 25th yearthis year nice congratulations.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Yeah, thank you, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yeah, and so were you guys staying in New York the
whole time when you guys movedin.
We moved down in.
Well, I moved down here inDecember 98.
She came down a couple monthsafter and it was a tough
transition because in New YorkCity I was getting paid pretty
well doing personal training.
(10:26):
I came down here like I'm goingto start building my clientele
base but over here, you know,people are I'm not saying more
fit, but they don't viewpersonal training like they do
in other places and willing topay the money.
They're willing to pay me afraction of it.
I got to do something with mylife and that's when I started
pursuing getting back intophysical therapy, so pursuing my
(10:47):
, getting my degrees and firstas a physical therapy assistant
and moving on eventuallyphysical therapy.
But it was just tough becausethen my son came along and you
know when you have to work andpay the bills you do whatever
you got to do and you knowfulltime work, full-time school
was not in in my uh, in mypurview at that point so, so
(11:10):
you've kind of been all over theplace, you know, I think.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Uh, columbia back up to new york, back down to
florida, back up to boston witha stint in houston for a year
and a half yeah, and so one.
One of the one of the thingsthat you did you talked about in
your pre-interview that Ithought was interesting is that
you you said one of thechallenges was being neither
neither here neither there.
You know what were some of thechallenges for you with that.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Well, I mean growing up in a very Colombian household
because I was in my parents.
Now, obviously, with the yearsbeing here, they learned English
but everything was in Spanishat home.
So of course I had theColombian accent and the culture
, the food, everything wasnatural to me.
Going away to college, you knowvery Colombian myself, you know
(11:59):
very Latino and meeting otherLatino students at BU was great,
but it was awkward because Iwas a member of Latinos Unidos,
which is the Latino organizationon campus.
So right after my sophomoreyear I became very active.
Junior and senior years I waspresident of Latinos Unidos and
(12:19):
we had a great collaborationwith other members and we had a
great time.
But I also started theColombian Student Association so
I was inviting Colombians.
But a lot of these Colombianswho were from Colombia used to
tell me you're not Colombian,you're a gringo.
Like what do you mean?
I'm a gringo, I was born inColombia, I speak the language,
I know the culture, yeah, butyou're a gringo, you're
(12:40):
Americanized, you're not reallyColombian.
So I've always had thatstruggle here.
Even when I had to go visit theColombian consulate in Boston,
it's like oh, I'm sorry, you'rewho, from where?
Oh, okay, oh, excuse me,because you know, the
ambassador's son or whateverthat goes to Harvard or MIT.
I have to give them time andattention and I'm like, well, I
(13:00):
need my passport, I need to takecare of my ID, how do I do that
?
So it was always that issuethat I dealt with, which kind of
sucks.
And that's kind of beensomething that happens every
time you travel.
You know, when I go back hometo Colombia I was there a couple
weeks ago, it's you know nowthat I speak English a lot more
(13:26):
often, obviously, than I doSpanish, you know, you kind of
get stuck a little bit.
You forget certain words orthings like that.
So now over there they're likeoh yeah, you are gringo, you
know Americano.
So that's always been an issue.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Yeah, it's funny too, because it was a Columbia
moment that made me feel theworst about myself in my life.
I live in a very predominantlyColombian area, so I grew up, I
have Colombian uncles and so andthe lady who lived downstairs
from me was this older Colombianlady and she was asking me
something in Spanish and I wastrying to answer her back and
she's like you should be ashamedof yourself for not being able
(14:04):
to speak Spanish.
And I literally stoppedspeaking Spanish for like five
years, like I would not respondto anybody in Spanish, I would
just speak, I would go to school.
There's all these Colombiankids that I knew that would talk
to me in Spanish you knowPuerto Rican Dominicans and
they'll speak to me in Spanishand I just would respond in
English.
And so we communicate because Iunderstood them, but I was just
always intimidated.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
You get self-conscious about it, and
that's one thing that for myself, I never felt intimidated about
speaking Spanish andcommunicating in Spanish, but I
could see that you know theydon't treat you the same in
certain areas, in certain fields, or you know.
So you kind of become a littleconscious, you know,
(14:45):
self-conscious about it.
But you know, I actually becameone of those people who are
very adamant, like you knowwhat's your name?
Oh, you know Perez.
No, not Perez, it's Perez.
You know it's Rodriguez.
Roll your R's.
There's a Z at the end.
So you know, I kind of became alittle bit adamant about making
sure that we don't lose ourculture because, yeah, we're
american, we've been blessed tohave a lot of more opportunities
(15:07):
being here in this country, butyou know, this is a country of
immigrants and and you shouldn'tshy away from from what made
you you and and what you bringto this melting pot or whatever
you want to call it.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
So yeah, that's it's.
It's a hard balance for a lotof us american, the Latino
Americans that live here.
You know, you go, like I saidsame thing, I'd go to Peru.
And oh, it was funny, we weregoing in a taxi in Peru and the
taxi driver saw me, you know,wearing much more expensive
clothing than like my cousins,and stuff, because I'm coming
from America.
And he's like oh, it's going tobe like 25 soles to go to this
(15:40):
place and my cousin's putting itback.
He's like no senor, el gringoestá adelante.
Acá estamos peruanos.
He's like don't try to fuckwith us, like don't try to
overcharge us because you thinkwe're American.
And so he's like 15, 15, 15.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
He's like okay, exactly, but yeah, dude, so
Overcome that that's it.
You learn like, oh, okay it orsomething for the next time for
real, yep, yep, um.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Well, so, going back to your, your journey, brother
and um, you know you, at whatpoint did you like, were you
having struggles, working or didyou not enjoy the work you were
looking for in physical therapythat you decided to switch
careers, or what made you decideto switch?
Speaker 2 (16:19):
um, I was working when I moved down.
I was working in this physicaltherapy clinic and they laid me
off.
They laid me off after Itrained three different
directors because I wasn't adegree.
My degree was not in physicaltherapy.
So, because of the way thecontract was written, they had
to hire as a director for thatthose clinics a physical
(16:40):
therapist, even though there wasa transition.
Transition the first physicaltherapist that I worked for he
left.
He actually got tired ofphysical therapy, became a
firefighter.
Um, so you know, we had talkedabout it.
I remember when I was a kid Iwanted to be that too, but I,
you know, he told me you shouldcome to the fire academy with me
, we should do it together.
But you know, I was like youknow, my son was only, I think
(17:01):
he was maybe a year old like no,I gotta, I can't take time off
and go back to school, you knowthat kind of mentality, not
really researching how it went.
And then for the city ofHialeah, some of their workers,
firefighters, to come through,and that's how I started
learning more about how it wasthe academy, the lifestyle, the
work, the benefits, all thatother stuff, and it kind of left
(17:24):
a seed in my head.
So he left.
We got another therapist who washired, so I had to train her on
how to use the computers, howto do the system where the
paperwork insurance, because Ihad to teach her how to do
everything, but she was the onegetting all the big bucks.
So of course I asked hey,listen, I'm doing the training,
I'm doing this.
Can you compensate me?
Maybe give me a couple bucksraised for the work?
(17:45):
No, sorry, I can't do that this.
And that that lady ended upgoing because she got a better
offer somewhere else.
Another one came along, she wasgreat, I trained her as well.
Same thing.
And then the day beforeThanksgiving they told me oh, by
the way, this is going to beyour last week.
Here's a servant's check.
(18:07):
Uh, apologize, but we'reletting you go.
So they did, let me go.
So of course, the day beforethanksgiving, christmas is
around the corner, and then Ihave no work, no job.
So my best friend from highschool that I told you uh helped
me rehab.
That was doing the internshipin in one of the local hospitals
, in the physical therapydepartment, and like, hey, do
you know anything in thehospital?
Somebody's hiring.
Actually, yeah, we're hiring.
Boom, I got hired, like twoweeks later, thankfully, um.
(18:28):
And so I worked for thehospital for a couple years.
And same thing when I was there, um, I was working with a lot
of what we call specialpopulations, people who had
chronic injuries, had chronicdiseases, and you know, since
most insurances only pay threetimes a week, times four weeks
or whatever, and once theinsurance plan went out, I used
(18:51):
to work with them almost like aphysical therapy slash, personal
trainer mentality, trying toget them back to get ready to
work, because a lot of peopleneeded to get back to work so
they can make more money.
And that's how I met otherfirefighters who said man, you
know what?
You'd be a great firefighter,you can do this and you can do
that.
You have this time off, andthen you seem like you're very
(19:11):
good with people and I said youknow what?
Let me go ahead and find out.
What's this whole ordeal withFire Academy?
And I did.
I ended up signing up withanother buddy of mine that was
working with me, who was in thesame struggle, cause we were
working basically Monday throughSunday, you know, and he had a
newborn.
My son was already growing up.
I'm like we need to have spentsome time with the families.
(19:32):
You know we're missingbirthdays and kids parties
because we were working theweekends.
And so we went to a fireAcademy on a part-time basis.
And then we were working on apart-time basis, uh, for six
months, you know.
And uh, from there, I mean itwas tough.
I was sleeping maybe threehours a night because my, my
wife and my son went to bedaround 10.
(19:53):
From 10 to 2 o'clock in themorning, that was my study time.
Everything was quiet in thehouse, studying, making sure I
did everything.
Good, boom.
And then, right after graduationfrom the fire academy, went
right into emt school and uh,but I started applying to all
these different departmentswhile I was in emt school and I
got a call back from the city ofhylea hey, we're going to give
(20:15):
you conditional.
You have to make sure you passthe national certification as an
emt, no problem, and that's it.
It happened real fast for me.
So in that, that way, I wasblessed, because a lot of guys
that I've worked with currentlyor have worked with in the past
some of them waited six, seven,eight years to get the call that
it took me from starting thefire academy to getting hired a
(20:37):
year.
Some of these guys went to theacademy, went to EMT school,
became paramedics, applied here,applied there, six, seven,
eight, eight years later theyfinally got hired.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
So in that sense I've been blessed nice, and how old
were you when this happened?
30 years old when I uh changedso you were 30 married with a
kid uh bills, bills paysresponsibilities and it's funny
because you think back, you knowlike college and I'm like, oh
man, you know responsibility andyou know partying and staying
(21:09):
up to three and I'm like man.
I can't believe you know youlook back like man.
I can't believe we stayed up tolike three in the morning, four
in the morning, partying, andthen you get to like your 30s or
40s and you're like man.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
I can't believe I'm staying up to three, four I mean
, when it came to studying, Ialways felt motivated because,
you know the back of my mind,you're always told, no, you
can't do that or you can't dothis.
And that was my driving force,especially through high school.
(21:39):
I had a guidance counselor whoyou know, a white guy, nice guy.
But when it came to apply tocollege, he used to tell us yeah
, you know what?
Yeah, you're a good student,You're in your top 1% of your
graduating high school class.
You shouldn't apply to BU, youshouldn't apply to a school
because you're not going to getin.
You should apply to thecommunity college or maybe
technical school.
(21:59):
And I go, wait a minute, betterGPA than all these other people
.
And you're not discouragingthem from applying.
Why me?
So it was always that.
You know, I got to prove peoplewrong mentality and I'm smarter
than most people say.
Not only that, I can think intwo languages, do math in two
languages.
I always had that kind of chipon the shoulder.
So when it came to studying,I've always had that, but also,
(22:22):
of course, like you say now,with a wife and kid.
It just adds to the desire tosucceed.
You always say you want toprovide and whatever it takes.
You know you work 60 hours, 100hours a week, whatever hours a
week you make it happen yeah, no, it's funny too because you,
you as
Speaker 1 (22:43):
a father and a husband as well.
It's like there's these weirdmotivations to do better and
it's like I was living kind oflike this for a long time, and
then I got married to have kidsand I just started pushing
myself a lot more, you know,because you have something to
work for.
So yeah exactly.
And so, as far as like umfirefighter, firefighter school,
you know what's like afirefighter academy, like like
(23:04):
what do you what?
Speaker 2 (23:05):
is it?
I always say fire academy islike a paramilitary uh
institution.
I'm not military uh, you know,obviously respect to them.
The bootcamp you have to go andbe able to perform under stress
, under duress, but on top ofjust physical activities you
also function in hightemperature areas because
(23:29):
obviously you're going to begoing into a fire, not
necessarily run away from it,and on top of all that, being
able to carry heavy equipment.
So it is very physicallydemanding.
And somebody who you know was asoccer player I ran half
marathons and 10Ks and all that.
The physical portion, you know,being a, I was a personal
trainer for many years and spininstructor and all that other
(23:51):
stuff that I was able to do.
The physical portion was theeasy part.
The hard part was, you know,just getting mentally ready to
put your life on the line ifneed be.
So it was.
It was one of those things that, uh, but it was fun.
The adrenaline rush.
I didn't think it was going tobe that great because when I got
into it I don't know how it isin most of the parts of the
(24:11):
country, but here in SouthFlorida, even though you're a
firefighter, paramedic, you canbe both and function in a fire
truck.
It's not like New York Citywhere you have fires on one side
, ems is the other side.
We kind of do everything.
So in my fire truck we have ALSequipment, advanced life
(24:32):
support equipment, ids,medications, all that and of
course we have tons of hoses anda lot of water and ladders,
tools and all that other stuff.
So we function, uh, you know,in that duality in a way.
So I was looking forward tomore of the medical aspect being
a paramedic, but becauseobviously my background and
pre-med and all that, all thatcame easy to me.
(24:53):
But then once I got into thefirst burn at the fire academy,
the adrenaline rush, it wasexciting and you know you look
forward to another fire andbreaking things and you know
saving things and jumping outwindows and all the things that
you kind of get over glorifiedon TV.
But that's pretty much thepassion that you build and it's
(25:14):
been with me to this day.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
I was going to ask you know.
I do want to get into themedical stuff aspect of it as
well.
But you know that, overcomingthat fear because I'm sure
there's that initial fear oflike what the hell am I signing
up for?
Yeah, Natural instinct is torun away from the fire and
you're signing up to run intothe fire I was like, what did
you have to do to try to getyourself hyped up and overcome
(25:38):
that initially?
You know, because I'm sure itwas pretty of a struggle I mean,
well, you know what I can't say?
Speaker 2 (25:43):
um, at least I can't say that I was ever afraid.
It was more like, uh, theadrenaline rush always took over
like, oh my god, oh my god,it's getting hot, oh, this is
cool.
Okay, how much you know.
So it became that mental game,uh, and and you just learn to
exercise the mind.
One thing that I, um thought Iwas was afraid of heights.
(26:05):
So when you're climbing the 100foot ladders or doing things at
the edge of buildings andrappelling and things like that
that we kind of train for, I wassurprisingly more gung-ho about
it than I thought I would be.
I thought I was going to be alittle bit afraid of that, but
no, but that was pretty cool.
So I actually was pleasantlysurprised how well I handled
(26:26):
stress.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
Nice and do you?
Feel like you were able to finda good balance from what, like
you, wanted to go to school forin some sort of medical field.
And now you're actually kind ofdoing EMT and you know you have
a crap load of certificationsfor a whole variety of different
things you know.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Yeah, and the good thing is that the capital people
, you know the first thingpeople hear firefighter.
What's the worst call you'veever been to, you know.
We, unfortunately for thecommunity, called thousand nine
one one.
Um, they're never going to callus.
Hey, come hang out at abirthday party or come to our.
They're always going to call uswhen it's their worst moment in
(27:06):
their life.
Obviously, for some peoplewhat's worse in their life might
be different.
For others.
Obviously, the stereotypicalcar accidents, gunshot wounds,
you know, cardiac arrest, thingslike that, obviously those are
pretty dramatic.
But I mean, we get calls forsome of the silliest things that
you would imagine, you know.
And people you know call youfor my stuff my toe three days
(27:27):
ago.
I still can't walk, or I, youknow, my nose has been bleeding
for 20 minutes.
Oh my god, what am to do To?
There's a snake in my house.
Can you get it?
You know.
So when they dial 911, theyexpect, you know, for us to
handle everything from.
Oh, you know, there's a leak inmy apartment.
They told me to call you guys.
(27:48):
And man, we're not plumbers,but let's see what we can do,
what that has allowed me.
Man, we're not plumbers, butlet's see what we can do.
What that has allowed me goingback to answering your question
is helping people.
You know, I mean, when you getinto the medical profession,
most of the people who whetherit be doctors, physician
assistants, nurses, whatever itis therapists the desire is to
help people, and so I've beenable to educate people as well.
(28:09):
Uh, about the, the, the healthcare system, which in some
communities is pretty messed upstill, but especially people who
are not insured or underinsured.
We are their primary carephysicians, unfortunately.
What happened?
Well, my blood pressure is high.
Okay, have you seen your doctor?
No, because I have to wait twomonths for a visit or they don't
have any.
I have to wait a month.
(28:31):
So you go there and you taketheir blood pressure and you
educate them.
It's take.
You take your medication?
No, because it's too expensive.
Well, if you go here, theymight be able to give it to you
for cheaper, and so it's just,basically, it's like you're the
community liaison and and that'ssomething that I've appreciated
as well, you know, besidestrying to keep people calm and
and things like that duringtheir worst time, it's it's it
(28:52):
time.
It's been something that gaveme a lot of gratification as
well.
So that's kind of where I kindof tied it in with all my
healthcare experience where thepatient is number one.
You know you treat everybodylike it's your mom, your dad,
your grandma, your grandpa andyou do well.
So I've been pretty fortunateto be at that point.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Nice and when it comes to, obviously, career
changes and people who arelooking.
You know what kind of advicewould you give people who are
like in a stump and they're likeman?
Maybe I should go do somethingdifferent, but you know, I'm
afraid.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Yeah, of course.
I mean I was afraid just to gofrom a full-time hours to
part-time hours just to go tothe fire academy.
I mean my wife was workingpart-time hours just to go to
the fire academy.
I mean my wife was workingpart-time because my son was
still young, so you know she wasawesome.
She stepped up and she startedworking the full-time hours
while I was, uh, going to theacademy.
So I didn't see her for acouple days because she worked
in the morning, uh, I was withmy son in the morning, uh, or
(29:50):
working, depending on the day ofthe week, and then I have to go
drop them off at my mom's house, and so that hour and a half,
two hours where I had to leaveto go to the fire academy and my
wife got off work to pick themup, so I didn't see her till
maybe Sundays on certainoccasions.
So that was tough.
But you know, like I said, youmake it happen, and so the
(30:10):
advice that I tell people is doit for the right reasons,
because the worst thing you cando is be at a job that you were
your miserable, and while Ienjoyed my other work in the
health care setting, in thehospital setting.
The bad part is that I had nolife because I was working, like
I said, monday through Fridays,weekends for sure.
(30:32):
Because I was working, like Isaid, monday through Fridays,
weekends for sure, and I wasmissing my son growing up and I
couldn't coach him in soccer, Icouldn't see him play basketball
.
You know his first words.
So those are things I didn'twant to miss.
And learning about firefightingand all the stories, because
that's one thing I can guaranteeyou You'll never meet a
firefighter that likes beinglight duty or that enjoys doing
(30:53):
a 40-hour work week.
Most of them that are 40-hourwork week is because you've
either gotten older or,unfortunately, an injury has
sidelined them and they'repretty good at whatever it may
be, but being on light duty fora prolonged period of time,
you'll never find one, becausethat's how much we love the
profession and how much the jobmeans to us.
(31:13):
So I understood that watchingand working with some of these,
uh, then patients of mine, uh,and yeah, you had a knee
replacement.
Yeah, the doctor told me, inthree months, but I need to get
back in a month, I'm going crazy.
I miss the guys.
I miss the frat, the firehouse,which I like to call the frat
house, which and who's been amember of the fraternity can
understand that you build acamaraderie.
(31:34):
It's like family.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
It's like playing a sport.
People who play sports younever want to quit playing a
sport.
Even now I haven't playedfootball in 27 years.
If I could go back and play onemore game, one more down in
high school again, I would do itin a heartbeat.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
I'm the best, uh, tv coach man.
I'm yelena tv for every soccergame I see, and and I comment on
it and, of course, two secondslater, the sportscaster.
Just that's what I said.
You know, sportscaster.
But but yeah, no, if you findyour passion and you find
something that drives you andand, and it's not work, I enjoy
going to work.
You know, I don't call out sickbecause I mean I've called out
(32:14):
sick when my wife was sick or myson was sick, not because I was
sick, because I love going towork, you know, and so that's
been a plus.
So you're able to find apassion, something that you know
just drives you, and thenyou're lucky, you're lucky and
you just need to change andexperiment until you find I
(32:34):
never thought I was going to bea firefighter.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
I mean, I was going to be a professional soccer
player and I was going to be adoctor and then maybe a physical
therapist, and I'm having morefun doing firefighting than
teaching now yeah, I think Ithink one of the um, hardest
things, I think growing up, youknow, one of the things I think
is a sign that you've grown upis being able to, like, change
your plans and realize thingscan go a little different and
(32:56):
try something different, to trysomething new.
Yeah, and convince yourself tomake those moves, because it is
scary, it's never, never goingto be easy.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
And I can tell you, the scariest moment for me was
the day I realized I was notgoing to play professional
soccer, the day I realized I wasnot going to play professional
soccer.
That because since I was a kid Imean since I was I mean, my
earliest memory was alwaysplaying soccer, organized teams,
you know, travel teams and mydays off from practice or games.
(33:25):
I was out there running 10, 15miles.
I was preparing to get to thatpoint and then when I hurt my
back, it was like that has hurtme more than any other career
change that I've had in the past.
I guess that taught me not tobe as afraid of change.
You know, like mentioning nowthe career change from working
(33:46):
in healthcare to becoming afirefighter, I mean like it was
devastating to me not being ableto pursue the dream of playing
professional soccer.
That's how much it meant.
So, but it also taught me thatyou know what you know, uh, for
for a lot of us who grew up inthe church, they always said you
know, if you want to make Godlaugh, tell him your plans.
(34:08):
You know, and and that's how Iwas like you know what, what's
gonna happen next, and you knowyou go by faith and and things
will happen.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
So yeah, yeah, definitely man.
That's great words to live byman.
So and so, at this point inyour career, you know you're,
you're teaching now, right, isthat?
Is that your next progressionto your next stage in your
career?
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Not necessarily.
I kind of got into it becauseyou know firefighting, you know
we work a weird schedule.
My department, we work 24-hourshifts but we're off for 48
hours, so 24 on, 48 off.
So I faced to find myselfcoming home, you know, yeah,
(34:53):
helping around the house andclean, and my good you know,
luckily, you know we're uh, wedon't, we don't make too much of
a mess now, the biggest mess isour dogs, but and then I'm home
and then, okay, what do I?
My son's in school and I justcaught myself just relaxing,
maybe reading, because you knowI still like enjoy reading.
But then I feel like I was notbeing productive anymore on my
days off.
So they told me they werelooking for some instructors at
(35:15):
the fire Academy and I'm likeyou know what, let me go for it.
And I did, and and and it'sbeen pretty fun.
It's been pretty fun because alot of these, well, kids I say
kids, cause all of them areyounger than me oh yeah, all
these young adults go into theAcademy, are now working with me
.
Some are working for otherdepartments.
I get to see them and you knowit's been pretty fulfilling to
(35:37):
see them also pursue their goalsand get hired a lot earlier
than me.
I mean, you got 19 girls whoare firefighters.
Now I'm like bro, you don'teven shave yet and you're
already a firefighter.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
How awesome is that what kind of advice do you give
them for?
Or to anybody who says you know, I'd like to become a
firefighter, you know what do Ineed to do to become one um,
well, find out in your localdepartments what they require to
hire.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
For us, um, most departments of south florida you
have you're required to bestate certified as a firefighter
, uh, to have your, yourcertificate as an EMT and, many
cases, uh certificate as a as aparamedic.
So the fire academy could be inbetween six months to a year,
depending where you go, whatstate.
Emt could be one semester andparamedics is two and a half
(36:28):
years.
So, um, pursue it, if that'swhat you want, you know, and
make it happen and startapplying.
Start applying for thedifferent departments and then,
once you get hired, depending onthe department.
You know you have some smalldepartments that are, you know,
three, four or five stations, um, that may not have that much
(36:49):
opportunity for growth versus mydepartment.
My department is the largest inSoutheast, the fifth or sixth
largest in the country, andwe're in the water.
So if you want to be a scubadiving, if you're a scuba diver,
we have that.
Be a paramedic on a helicopter,we have that.
Be a paramedic on a boat, boatcaptains, we have that.
We have swamp boats.
(37:11):
You know we have tons of firetrucks, ladder trucks, we have
hazmat teams, we have technicalrescue teams.
We have airport fire, so mydepartment has allowed us to
pursue, even within firefighting, all these different interests
and that's what allowed me topursue all different
certifications until I found myniche.
My niche was hazmat.
(37:33):
All different certificationsuntil I found my niche.
My niche was hazmat.
You know, taking chemistry inhigh school and college and all
this other stuff.
It kind of drew me and that'swhy I pursued it and I'm part of
the hazmat team.
So it's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
Nice.
No, that's awesome, dude, and Ijust keep thinking.
You said swamps, I'm I'm sureyou get.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
you do a lot of alligators too, um, myself, no,
uh, you know I stay in my lane.
You know we do have ourwrangling, uh, alligator guys
and snake guys.
Uh, we do, we did have, or wedo have a venom program as well,
uh, which you know.
Actually some of our captainshave featured in Animal Planet,
(38:14):
you know, and things like that,doing that, dealing with snakes
and all that you find here inthe Everglades and poison spikes
and all this other stuff.
So they pursued it.
They were pretty good at it,but, yeah, not me.
Alligators, I mean, they lookgood from a distance and that's
why I, like I was a recreationalscuba diver but I don't do it
(38:35):
for the department, because youknow to go into some of these
waters and there may bealligators or water moccasins,
yeah, they can have that nice,nice and and so what is the
difference between volunteerfirefighters and a regular
firefighter?
(38:59):
Well, volunteer firefighters,which is most of the country
fire departments, more ruralareas or smaller communities
that may not have the tax incometo be able to pay professional
firefighters the tax income tobe able to pay professional
firefighters so the big citiesyou know most.
Most, if not all, of oursalaries come from taxes.
So if you have a good tax baseyou're able to afford better
(39:23):
policing, better firefighting,better social services, things
like that.
So that's the main.
The main different volunteerscould be.
You could become a volunteerfirefighter in your community if
(39:55):
your department does not havepaid professionals.
You go to a fire academy.
They'll teach you the basicsand you'll respond.
You'll get a beeper car or yougo to the nearest fire station
to you.
You'll jump in their fire truckand then go to whatever the
scene is versus us.
We go, we live in the firehouse24 hours at a time, so we're
taking off from the firehouseand, of course, the pay is
commensurate to experience,certifications and things like
(40:15):
that.
So ranking, of course.
So that's the main difference.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
And retirement.
What's usually the retirementage for firefighters?
Is it young or is it about thesame as everyone else?
Because I don't know if I'veseen many 65-year-old
firefighters.
Yeah, no, I mean.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Well, you'll have your 65-year-olds here and there
.
I mean, every department setsit different To become a
firefighter.
Certain departments cap it at29.
Some at 28.
I know New York City has a.
I may be wrong, but I know NewYork City.
I think they cap it at 29 yearsold.
So if you're 35 years old, youwant to pursue firefighting in
New York City.
So if you're 35 years old, youwant to pursue firefighting in
(40:52):
New York City, you may not beable to.
My department we hire40-year-olds, 45-year-olds, who
are in great shape, who have allthe certifications and they
meet all the requirements andthey pass.
You know, oh, this is my secondcareer, or you know, whatever
case may be.
So, age-wise, there is norestrictions.
Well, some departments don'thave restrictions.
(41:12):
There is no restrictions.
Well, some departments don'thave restrictions In terms of
retirement.
For the most part they haveeither 20 years or 55 years of
age, or 25 years of service or55 years of age, depending.
And then your retirement is apercentage of your highest few
years, some do highest threeyears, highest five years.
(41:33):
They'll give you a percentageof that in retirement.
So it really depends on thecity or the county or the state
or the community you work for.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
What do most firefighters do once they retire
?
Do they just enjoy life or dothey stay?
Speaker 2 (41:49):
busy.
Well, most of us have secondjobs because our schedule, even
though we work 96 hoursbi-weekly, you know we just do
it 24 hour blocks at a time, sowe're 48 hours every week.
But you know, like I said, 24hours on, 48 off, so during the
48 hours we have, like you know,for example, my captain, he's
(42:10):
an ac tech and he has somefamily business.
Another buddy of mine, one ofmy lieutenants, he has his own
roofing company.
We have guys who are physicaltherapists, who are attorneys,
who are physician assistants,who are nurses, so instructors,
which is something that I amdoing now because it works with
my schedule now.
So we all have different jobs.
(42:30):
So once they retire, we kind ofstay tied into usually our
second jobs.
Yeah, nice, uh.
Yeah, just to keep itinteresting, I tell my wife, if
I retire, uh, I already have myage, I'm retiring the age of 58,
that's my goal, so I'm eightyears away, um, but um, you know
, by that point I'll have 30,like 30, 30 years of service.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
Nice.
That's awesome, and so I guessyou know.
One of the big things too isyou've come a long way, you've
dealt with a lot of differentthings.
You know you've started yourcareer as one of these soccer
and do all this stuff.
Obviously a lot of life lessonslearned.
If you could go back and backand, you know, start telling
yourself some.
Uh, give yourself some advice.
(43:16):
What's something you tellyourself?
Speaker 2 (43:18):
um, yeah, the best advice I can give myself is just
, whatever you do 100, you knowfind it.
You're not always noteverything that you dreamt of is
going to come true, and that'sokay.
You can't just tie your entireexistence to a dream.
You know a lot of people that Iknow have been able to pursue
(43:39):
their dreams and they're happy.
A lot of people that I've methave pursued their dreams and
are miserable.
So, you know, if the mostimportant thing is find
something that makes you happyand I think that is an
accomplishment in itself Ifmoney, you know, being able to
pay your bills all that willcome in play, it will fall into
place.
But just finding your passionand being happy with what you do
(44:03):
, that you know, whether yousleep an hour or two hours, you
wake up ready to go to work Ithink that's a win.
So, finding your passion,whatever it is, and don't be
afraid to experiment I mean, Iwas forced to, uh, do career
changes and some people have theluxury to take the time and
change and and pursue it.
(44:23):
Other people have no choicejust, whatever you do, you know,
don't do it just for the money,do it for the passion.
And and that's something Istill tell my students why are
you going to be a firefighter?
Oh, my dad told me.
You know what you're telling me.
The fact that your dad told youyou're not going to enjoy it,
you know.
Oh, you know, if you can tellsomebody who really wants
(44:43):
something.
By the way, they talk aboutwhat they're pursuing.
I wanted to be a doctor.
I was a kid.
I used to operate on my dollsand I used to cut open my
sister's dolls and I used to cut.
You know, you can see thepassion from the kid and they
pursue it.
That's great.
You know, I have to break mycomputer, you know, and then I
put it back together and thenyou know that that's their
passion, and and and, and thathappens for a lot of us.
(45:05):
You know, for me, like I said,for me, was it just happened to
be that meeting the right peopleat the right time in my life
led me to what I didn't know wasgoing to be my passion.
And here I am nice.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
Well, I appreciate that and it's yeah.
I'm sure it's something yousaid.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
You tell your son too because you know it's funny, my
son, uh, you know he's when hewas a little he used to be all
like, oh my god, dad, so whathappened today?
Did you see blood?
You see any bones?
Did he see you know guts comingout?
You know, like you know,whatever little kid would ask
you, and you know, of course, Inever told them all the blood
and guts stories that,unfortunately, I was.
I was, uh, you know,encountering that, but you know,
(45:44):
I flowered and making some pgfor him.
He was always like, wow, youknow.
And so when he was, uh, fouryears old, I took him to that
bodies exhibition.
I don't know if you rememberyeah you know, like, let me see
how squeamish she is.
You know, it's one day I wasoff of work and, like you know,
uh, they get with firefighterlike 50 percent off.
Like you know what, let's do it.
My wife was working, so we then, me and him, on a field trip.
(46:04):
I'm like let me see howsqueamish she is.
And I thought he was gonna belike what is that man?
My son was like a mechanicunder hood.
Wow, bobby, is that where thatpoopy comes out?
Oh, and you know, he was justso curious and I'm like you know
what?
This kid's going to be?
Something in the healthcare.
And you know he used to come tothe firehouse and get on the,
you know, put the helmet and putthe gear and get in the truck,
(46:25):
climb up, and so, as he gotolder, like yeah, so you're
going to be a firefighter, he'slike, nah, as he was applying
for college, what do you want todo?
And you know asking himquestions over the years until
he finally found, you know whathe pursued nursing.
You know he got his BSN andhe's been working as a nurse for
a year now.
So he found his passion and helikes it and to this day, you
(46:49):
know we can talk the lingo, oh,not today.
I was doing this procedure andthat procedure, this, that, this
and that, and you know he'spassionate about it, he talks
about it and you know that to meis fulfillment, because he
found what he likes and he foundit young.
You know he was 21 when hegraduated from college, so you
know he's a puppy.
And he found his passion, whichis good.
Speaker 1 (47:10):
That's awesome man.
Speaker 2 (47:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:12):
Yeah, I guess it's all kind of ties in back to my
last question, which I think youprobably already kind of
answered.
But you know how do you saysuccess in Spanish?
Speaker 2 (47:21):
Yeah, I mean exactly.
I mean finding your passion,being happy and just knowing
that as you look back, you knowyou're able to kind of one up
your parents.
You know your parents came tothis country generation latinos
here, or whatever case may be,and they may.
They worked odd jobs thing thatthey probably did not educate
(47:42):
themselves on, but they made ithappen.
Waiting tables, busing, youknow, doing this, mopping,
sweeping, cleaning, uh, which Iused to do with my parents at
night I used to go clean banksin new york city.
I remember that 12 midnight I'mon, you know, I'm sitting on the
little shiny machine whateveryou call those to polish floors
and my sister and I had to holddown for dear life, and that was
fun, and my dad used to, thatwas one of his many jobs.
(48:04):
But, um, you know, and theystruggled, they made it happen,
they put four kids throughcollege, and you know.
So now it's like now, what canwe do to see how successful they
are and can we play one up onthem, you know?
So that to me is being able tobe successful and and, and you
(48:24):
know, playing, improving fromwhere your parents left off,
which is the same thing I tellmy son.
Okay, you know I went to college, I got my bachelor's and then I
was able to get extracertification in this.
So now you have to go for atleast your master's and then
start earlier, start younger.
And luckily he was able tostart his life debt-free from
college loans, because we madesure that that was something
(48:46):
that we don't want him tostruggle with, my wife and I.
So it worked out.
We've been blessed in thatsense.
So, like I said, just pursueyour passion, something that's
gonna, you know, wake up and youknow you can tell your passion
by the way you talk about ityeah, kind of like bro.
Speaker 1 (49:02):
It's funny because it's a very immigrant response
with uh, you know, you know, doyou do better than what your
parents did and hope that yourkids do better than you?
Because you know, exactly, youknow that's exactly all the
sacrifice they did motivates meto keep going harder and
motivates me to make my lifeeasier for my daughters that she
could hopefully make it easierfor herself too.
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (49:21):
But it's also and not that I'm always hoping for them
to do but we all need to learnto struggle a little bit.
That struggle will help youdevelop into the person that you
are meant to be.
Will help you develop into theperson that you are meant to be,
Because if you have everythingso good you know, especially at
(49:43):
an early age, and then you know,like, like I see myself, when I
when I because of my backinjury, my back surgery which
surprisingly never reallyaffected me in fire Academy, and
all this other stuff in mycareer.
But you know, when I came tothe realization that I had to
give up my lifelong dream, I'mglad it happened to me when I
was young, Because imaginefinding out that the dream
you've wanted to pursue yourwhole life and you're in your
(50:04):
20s and your 30s and then youcome to the realization that
you're not gonna be able toaccomplish it.
That I would consider scary.
Getting close to your middle ageand realizing that's not going
to happen for you, at that pointI think it's scarier.
So you want to see your kidsstruggle as much as you want to
be there to catch them, pickthem up.
You know it's good for them tohave their little struggles.
(50:26):
I mean, obviously we don't wantanything tragic or anything but
struggle is good, it buildsresilience and it builds
character and it also gives youthat introspection to see how
tough we really are and how wehandle stress and stressful
situations.
And I think that also helps mein my career.
You know all the stuff I'veseen.
I sleep good at night.
I don't have nightmares, Idon't have ghosts, I don't see
(50:49):
faces, you know, even thoughI've had some pretty tragic
events in firefighting becausethe career that you know.
But so I've been pretty, prettylucky in that and I think all
the struggles I went through,the things that I've seen,
helped me become, you know,stronger.
Speaker 1 (51:04):
Nice, well, amazing man, thank you so much for
coming on today and sharing yourstory.
You know, you know, I'm so gladto hear you know, the passion
is still alive in you.
Speaker 2 (51:15):
So I mean, you know, unfortunately, the passion is
still alive in you.
Unfortunately, the body'sslowing down.
I'll be turning 50.
That's why I enjoy driving.
Now I'm able to drive the firetruck full time.
It's not as physicallydemanding as jumping in and out
of the truck.
I still get to do that.
That's fun.
Speaker 1 (51:37):
The mind's still sharp, there we go.
That's all it can be right.
Thank you so much.
I really appreciate you beinghere, man.
Speaker 2 (51:44):
No problem, man, I appreciate you having me on and
continued success with this show.
I've listened to all theepisodes and I'm glad to hear
that it's doing well for you aswell.
Congratulations on that.
Speaker 1 (51:54):
I'm glad to hear that it's doing well for you as well
.
So congratulations on that.
Well, thank you, man.
I really appreciate it.
Man.
So and you know, for everyoneelse, you know thank you so much
for joining, and I hope you'lljoin me again next time as we
continue to learn how to saysuccess in Spanish.
Thanks for watching.
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