The Flames of Determination: Colombian Immigrant to Miami Firefighter - Giovanni Abril

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.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

This is Raul Lopez, and you're listening to how Do you Save Success in Spanglish? The path to success isn't easy For minorities and people of color. Many attempt this journey with little to no guidance. Join me as I sit down with individuals who share their stories of perseverance so that together, we can learn how to save success in Spanglish. What's good, mi gente? Welcome back, it's your boy, raul. Thank you for joining us today. Today, on how Do you Say Success in Spanglish, I have a very good friend of mine, giovanni Abril. Giovanni Gio, how's it going, man?

Speaker 2: 0:42

It's going well, thank you. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1: 0:49

Thank you for joining me. I hope you're enjoying the warm weather in Miami while I'm freezing my tail off up here in Connecticut.

Speaker 2: 0:52

Yeah, don't feel bad. It's a Florida winter right now. It dropped to like the low 50s.

Speaker 1: 0:57

Oh yeah, we were like at 29 yesterday, so I don't pity you, man, but thank you so much, gio. You are a firefighter, so let me just start off with a little bit introduction about you. So, after eight 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 two years later was hired by Miami-Dade County Fire Rescue. Giovanni has added many certifications to his resume, such as EMT, paramedic, hazardous materials technician and specialist hazardous tox medic, wildlife firefighter, aircraft rescue firefighter driver operator, fire engine and aerial truck fire instructor, three live fire training instructor, and 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. Welcome, gio.

Speaker 2: 2:03

Thank you, appreciate it, appreciate you having me.

Speaker 1: 2:05

Yeah, I appreciate you coming and obviously I've known you because once again, transparency for everybody you're one of my fraternity brothers, so I've known you for quite some time. You're also from Boston University, so you've kind of been all over the place.

Speaker 2: 2:25

So I guess to start off, tell me a little, a little bit. You know who is Giovanni Giovanni Brill. I'm like you said, I'm a firefighter now, which is definitely not just a career change but a lifestyle change. But I was born in Columbia. When I was a few months old my parents moved to New York City, you know, searching for that American dream like everybody else, and it was a. It was hard. I mean, it was great memories growing up in New York City for the formation, formational years, and when I was in middle school we moved down to the Miami area, hialeah, one of the first cities I worked for as a firefighter years later. But I didn't like it. I was so used to the moving up north and the crowd. It was just a different culture, even though down here is obviously very bilingual, it's just a different culture. So I wanted to go back north and I used college as an escape.

Speaker 2: 3:14

I applied to a lot of schools in the northeast. Most of the school that I applied actually every school I applied to had a couple things in common. Number one they had to have a division one soccer program. I was. That was. That was truly my first love. My dream was to play soccer in Europe. So they had to have a good soccer program and I was a pre-med student. I wanted to, you know, pursue something in the healthcare field, and so that's what brought me to Boston. They gave me a pretty good scholarship so I couldn't say no. Yeah, syracuse gave me a full ride, but I opted for, uh, boston University.

Speaker 1: 3:51

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 decided to go to BU as well. So sometimes, uh, you know, but uh, did you play soccer that year?

Speaker 2: 4:03

I actually redshirted the summer before going away to college. I hurt my back in a soccer tournament. You know it was my team versus a team that was visiting from Jamaica. It was an international tournament and I hurt my back pretty bad. I ended up having surgery at the end of my freshman year. So freshman year was a blur. I spent most of my time, you know, visiting doctors and physical therapy and pain medications and so I could barely walk. So freshman year was it was a tough year for me. I had surgery, like my last day, may 7th, 1993, of my freshman year, may 8th, at seven in the morning I was at the hospital about to have back surgery.

Speaker 1: 4:44

So so you're dealing with um. I'm assuming a childhood dream of pursuing soccer at a professional level with an injury, starting college and doing pre-med Correct Uh, about a thousand miles away from home.

Speaker 2: 5:03

Exactly. Yeah, all that, all that you know, boiling to one, and you know, like most, to maintain your scholarship I think I don't know if it's changed but you have to maintain a 2.3 gpa or you're going to get an information. I think I got a 2.35 my freshman 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 for prolonged periods of time, stand, and with the cold I was always stiff and shivering and so it was tough for me. So I had surgery. So that summer, between my freshman and sophomore year, I came back home to Florida and I rehabbed. A buddy of mine was doing his internship at a physical therapy office and they helped me rehab and that's when I fell in love with the physical therapy field and I kind of started pursuing rehab in that area. So fast forward to sophomore year, and for me my sophomore year was my freshman year yeah, because I was doing all the things I couldn't do.

Speaker 2: 5:59

I was out, running, riding bike, playing soccer, building up, uh, everything that I had lost. And so at the end of my sophomore year I tried out. They had open trials for the soccer team, so it was a. Over 100 individuals came out tried out and I was lucky enough to be the only one selected from that group and I was invited to be part of the team on a practice squad. Eventually I ended up red shirting.

Speaker 2: 6:22

So my junior year it was. It was great for my ego from being told by a doctor I was never gonna run again. Maybe even golf was too rough for me. Give up my dream of soccer to making at that time, my, my friend. My junior year b was ranked number one in the nation division one soccer. So of course it was great for my ego. And but unfortunately, since I wasn't a scholarship kid, I couldn't't do two-a-days or three-a-day practices because I had to work, I had to go to class, I didn't have scholarship. So I ended up giving up that dream of pursuing college soccer and just played intramurals the rest of junior year and senior year.

Speaker 1: 7:01

And as far as pre-med goes, did you always want to be a doctor as well before?

Speaker 2: 7:05

oh, yeah, yeah that was a dream that I had. You know anyway, like I think you've mentioned other podcasts, when you're growing up as a latino, you want to be the doctor, a lawyer or an engineer. You know if you can be even better yeah, exactly, yeah so, uh, but I did, I did enjoy it.

Speaker 2: 7:21

I mean, even high school I had, uh, you know I took all the hard classes and the, the honors and the fruit and a few, uh, advanced placement. You know that I could and I loved it, so I pursued it. I did. My declared major was exercise physiology, but then on my pre-med requirements, I try to fit in in between them or take them as extra classes if my schedule allowed. So there was times I was taking five classes a semester.

Speaker 1: 7:48

So you ended up studying exercise physiology, correct. What were you planning to do Physical therapy with that?

Speaker 2: 7:55

Well, eventually I was kind of like I said through my injury I started looking into physical therapy. So I applied right after graduating or during my senior year. I tried to apply for entry-level master's that's what was a requirement at the time. All the different schools, but there weren't that many I was trying to get into BU didn't take me and some of the other schools, so unfortunately I didn't get into any of the master's programs. So I was kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place, because what can I do with my pre-med requirements and a degree in excess physiology, which was a dying field because physical therapy and occupational therapy were the growing fields in health care. So I moved to New York and I became a personal trainer and I was doing pretty well in New York City. I worked for Equinox for a little bit and for the 92nd street Y, and then I had clients on the side and I did pretty well. I was able to pay off my school loans in eight months nice, that's awesome.

Speaker 1: 8:56

Yeah, a lot of us are still paying them off, uh, 20 years later.

Speaker 2: 9:00

So I was pretty lucky. I mean, obviously, uh, bu was kind of expensive, but the amount of money that I owed was a fraction of what most people do. So personal training in New York City actually was a surprise in a good way. I was able to pay him off and so I was debt-free before I even, you know, started pursuing the marriage and all that. So I came in debt-free. I was a good candidate.

Speaker 1: 9:25

So when did you get married?

Speaker 2: 9:27

I got married in 1999. So three, almost four years after graduating college I met my wife, my first job in New York city, and, uh, you know we were friends. You know I was hanging out with friends and brothers and clubbing and she was doing the same thing. And you know we were friends. You know I was hanging out with friends and brothers and clubbing and she was doing the same thing. And you know we're both in and out of relationships. And when I left that job we became good friends and then, since we weren't working together anymore, we kind of stayed in contact and eventually one thing led to another and we're celebrating our 25th year this 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 moved in. We moved down in. Well, I moved down here in December 98. She came down a couple months after and it was a tough transition because in New York City I was getting paid pretty well doing personal training. I came down here like I'm going to start building my clientele base but over here, you know, people are I'm not saying more fit, but they don't view personal training like they do in other places and willing to pay the money. They're willing to pay me a fraction of it.

Speaker 2: 10:40

I got to do something with my life and that's when I started pursuing getting back into physical therapy, so pursuing my, getting my degrees and first as a physical therapy assistant and moving on eventually physical therapy. But it was just tough because then my son came along and you know when you have to work and pay the bills you do whatever you got to do and you know fulltime work, full-time school was not in in my uh, in my purview at that point so, so you've kind of been all over the place, you know, I think.

Speaker 1: 11:14

Uh, columbia back up to new york, back down to florida, back up to boston with a stint in houston for a year and a half yeah, and so one. One of the one of the things that you did you talked about in your pre-interview that I thought was interesting is that you you said one of the challenges was being neither neither here neither there. You know what were some of the challenges 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 years being here, they learned English but everything was in Spanish at home. So of course I had the Colombian accent and the culture, the food, everything was natural to me. Going away to college, you know very Colombian myself, you know very Latino and meeting other Latino students at BU was great, but it was awkward because I was a member of Latinos Unidos, which is the Latino organization on campus. So right after my sophomore year I became very active. Junior and senior years I was president of Latinos Unidos and we had a great collaboration with other members and we had a great time. But I also started the Colombian Student Association so I was inviting Colombians.

Speaker 2: 12:28

But a lot of these Colombians who 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 in Colombia, I speak the language, I know the culture, yeah, but you're a gringo, you're Americanized, you're not really Colombian. So I've always had that struggle here. Even when I had to go visit the Colombian consulate in Boston, it's like oh, I'm sorry, you're who, from where? Oh, okay, oh, excuse me, because you know, the ambassador's son or whatever that goes to Harvard or MIT.

Speaker 2: 12:57

I have to give them time and attention and I'm like, well, I need my passport, I need to take care of my ID, how do I do that? So it was always that issue that I dealt with, which kind of sucks. And that's kind of been something that happens every time you travel. You know, when I go back home to Colombia I was there a couple weeks ago, it's you know now that I speak English a lot more often, obviously, than I do Spanish, you know, you kind of get stuck a little bit. You forget certain words or things like that. So now over there they're like oh 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 the worst about myself in my life. I live in a very predominantly Colombian area, so I grew up, I have Colombian uncles and so and the lady who lived downstairs from me was this older Colombian lady and she was asking me something in Spanish and I was trying to answer her back and she's like you should be ashamed of yourself for not being able to speak Spanish. And I literally stopped speaking Spanish for like five years, like I would not respond to anybody in Spanish, I would just speak, I would go to school. There's all these Colombian kids that I knew that would talk to me in Spanish you know Puerto Rican Dominicans and they'll speak to me in Spanish and I just would respond in English. And so we communicate because I understood 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 and communicating in Spanish, but I could see that you know they don't treat you the same in certain areas, in certain fields, or you know. So you kind of become a little conscious, you know, self-conscious about it. But you know, I actually became one of those people who are very adamant, like you know what'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 a little bit adamant about making sure that we don't lose our culture because, yeah, we're american, we've been blessed to have a lot of more opportunities being here in this country, but you know, this is a country of immigrants and and you shouldn't shy away from from what made you you and and what you bring to 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 lot of us american, the Latino Americans that live here. You know, you go, like I said same thing, I'd go to Peru. And oh, it was funny, we were going 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 to be like 25 soles to go to this place and my cousin's putting it back. He's like no senor, el gringo está adelante. Acá estamos peruanos. He's like don't try to fuck with us, like don't try to overcharge us because you think we'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 or something 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 what point did you like, were you having struggles, working or did you not enjoy the work you were looking for in physical therapy that you decided to switch careers, or what made you decide to switch?

Speaker 2: 16:19

um, I was working when I moved down. I was working in this physical therapy clinic and they laid me off. They laid me off after I trained three different directors because I wasn't a degree. My degree was not in physical therapy. So, because of the way the contract was written, they had to hire as a director for that those clinics a physical therapist, even though there was a transition.

Speaker 2: 16:43

Transition the first physical therapist that I worked for he left. He actually got tired of physical therapy, became a firefighter. Um, so you know, we had talked about it. I remember when I was a kid I wanted to be that too, but I, you know, he told me you should come to the fire academy with me, we should do it together. But you know, I was like you know, my son was only, I think he was maybe a year old like no, I gotta, I can't take time off and go back to school, you know that kind of mentality, not really researching how it went. And then for the city of Hialeah, some of their workers, firefighters, to come through, and that's how I started learning more about how it was the academy, the lifestyle, the work, the benefits, all that other stuff, and it kind of left a seed in my head. So he left.

Speaker 2: 17:27

We got another therapist who was hired, so I had to train her on how to use the computers, how to do the system where the paperwork insurance, because I had to teach her how to do everything, but she was the one getting 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 bucks raised for the work? No, sorry, I can't do that this. And that that lady ended up going because she got a better offer somewhere else. Another one came along, she was great, I trained her as well. Same thing. And then the day before Thanksgiving they told me oh, by the way, this is going to be your last week. Here's a servant's check. Uh, apologize, but we're letting you go. So they did, let me go. So of course, the day before thanksgiving, christmas is around the corner, and then I have no work, no job. So my best friend from high school that I told you uh helped me rehab. That was doing the internship in in one of the local hospitals, in the physical therapy department, and like, hey, do you know anything in the hospital? Somebody's hiring. Actually, yeah, we're hiring. Boom, I got hired, like two weeks later, thankfully, um. And so I worked for the hospital for a couple years. And same thing when I was there, um, I was working with a lot of what we call special populations, people who had chronic injuries, had chronic diseases, and you know, since most insurances only pay three times a week, times four weeks or whatever, and once the insurance plan went out, I used to work with them almost like a physical therapy slash, personal trainer mentality, trying to get them back to get ready to work, because a lot of people needed to get back to work so they can make more money.

Speaker 2: 19:02

And that's how I met other firefighters 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, and then you seem like you're very good with people and I said you know what? Let me go ahead and find out. What's this whole ordeal with Fire Academy? And I did.

Speaker 2: 19:18

I ended up signing up with another buddy of mine that was working with me, who was in the same struggle, cause we were working basically Monday through Sunday, you know, and he had a newborn. My son was already growing up. I'm like we need to have spent some time with the families. You know we're missing birthdays and kids parties because we were working the weekends. And so we went to a fire Academy on a part-time basis. And then we were working on a part-time basis, uh, for six months, you know.

Speaker 2: 19:46

And uh, from there, I mean it was tough. I was sleeping maybe three hours a night because my, my wife and my son went to bed around 10. From 10 to 2 o'clock in the morning, that was my study time. Everything was quiet in the house, studying, making sure I did everything. Good, boom.

Speaker 2: 20:01

And then, right after graduation from the fire academy, went right into emt school and uh, but I started applying to all these different departments while I was in emt school and I got a call back from the city of hylea hey, we're going to give you conditional. You have to make sure you pass the national certification as an emt, no problem, and that's it. It happened real fast for me. So in that, that way, I was blessed, because a lot of guys that I've worked with currently or have worked with in the past some of them waited six, seven, eight years to get the call that it took me from starting the fire academy to getting hired a year. Some of these guys went to the academy, went to EMT school, became paramedics, applied here, applied there, six, seven, eight, eight years later they finally got hired.

Speaker 1: 20:47

So in that sense I've been blessed nice, and how old were you when this happened?

Speaker 1: 20:52

30 years old when I uh changed so you were 30 married with a kid uh bills, bills pays responsibilities and it's funny because you think back, you know like college and I'm like, oh man, you know responsibility and you know partying and staying up to three and I'm like man. I can't believe you know you look back like man. I can't believe we stayed up to like three in the morning, four in the morning, partying, and then 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, I always felt motivated because, you know the back of my mind, you're always told, no, you can't do that or you can't do this. And that was my driving force, especially through high school. I had a guidance counselor who you know, a white guy, nice guy. But when it came to apply to college, 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, you shouldn't apply to a school because you're not going to get in. You should apply to the community college or maybe technical school. And I go, wait a minute, better GPA than all these other people. And you're not discouraging them from applying. Why me?

Speaker 2: 22:06

So it was always that. You know, I got to prove people wrong mentality and I'm smarter than most people say. Not only that, I can think in two languages, do math in two languages. I always had that kind of chip on the shoulder. So when it came to studying, I've always had that, but also, of course, like you say now, with a wife and kid. It just adds to the desire to succeed. You always say you want to provide and whatever it takes. You know you work 60 hours, 100 hours 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 weird motivations to do better and it's like I was living kind of like this for a long time, and then I got married to have kids and 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 um firefighter, firefighter school, you know what's like a firefighter academy, like like what do you what?

Speaker 2: 23:05

is it? I always say fire academy is like a paramilitary uh institution. I'm not military uh, you know, obviously respect to them. The bootcamp you have to go and be able to perform under stress, under duress, but on top of just physical activities you also function in high temperature areas because obviously you're going to be going 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 physically demanding.

Speaker 2: 23:39

And somebody who you know was a soccer 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 spin instructor and all that other stuff that I was able to do. The physical portion was the easy part. The hard part was, you know, just getting mentally ready to put your life on the line if need be. So it was. It was one of those things that, uh, but it was fun. The adrenaline rush.

Speaker 2: 24:06

I didn't think it was going to be that great because when I got into it I don't know how it is in most of the parts of the country, but here in South Florida, even though you're a firefighter, paramedic, you can be both and function in a fire truck.

Speaker 2: 24:20

It's not like New York City where you have fires on one side, ems is the other side. We kind of do everything. So in my fire truck we have ALS equipment, advanced life support equipment, ids, medications, all that and of course we have tons of hoses and a 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 to more of the medical aspect being a paramedic, but because obviously my background and pre-med and all that, all that came easy to me. But then once I got into the first burn at the fire academy, the adrenaline rush, it was exciting and you know you look forward to another fire and breaking things and you know saving things and jumping out windows and all the things that you kind of get over glorified on TV. But that's pretty much the passion that you build and it's been with me to this day.

Speaker 1: 25:17

I was going to ask you know.

Speaker 1: 25:18

I do want to get into the medical stuff aspect of it as well. But you know that, overcoming that fear because I'm sure there's that initial fear of like what the hell am I signing up for? Yeah, Natural instinct is to run away from the fire and you're signing up to run into the fire I was like, what did you have to do to try to get yourself hyped up and overcome that initially? You know, because I'm sure it was 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, the adrenaline 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 I was was afraid of heights. So when you're climbing the 100 foot ladders or doing things at the edge of buildings and rappelling and things like that that we kind of train for, I was surprisingly more gung-ho about it than I thought I would be. I thought I was going to be a little bit afraid of that, but no, but that was pretty cool. So I actually was pleasantly surprised how well I handled stress.

Speaker 1: 26:27

Nice and do you? Feel like you were able to find a good balance from what, like you, wanted to go to school for in some sort of medical field. And now you're actually kind of doing EMT and you know you have a crap load of certifications for 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 thing people hear firefighter. What's the worst call you've ever been to, you know. We, unfortunately for the community, called thousand nine one one. Um, they're never going to call us. Hey, come hang out at a birthday party or come to our. They're always going to call us when it's their worst moment in their life.

Speaker 2: 27:07

Obviously, for some people what's worse in their life might be different. For others. Obviously, the stereotypical car accidents, gunshot wounds, you know, cardiac arrest, things like that, obviously those are pretty dramatic. But I mean, we get calls for some of the silliest things that you would imagine, you know. And people you know call you for my stuff my toe three days ago. I still can't walk, or I, you know, 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, they expect, you know, for us to handle everything from. Oh, you know, there's a leak in my apartment. They told me to call you guys. And man, we're not plumbers, but let's see what we can do, what that has allowed me. Man, we're not plumbers, but let's see what we can do. What that has allowed me going back to answering your question is helping people.

Speaker 2: 27:56

You know, I mean, when you get into the medical profession, most of the people who whether it be doctors, physician assistants, nurses, whatever it is therapists the desire is to help people, and so I've been able to educate people as well. Uh, about the, the, the health care system, which in some communities is pretty messed up still, but especially people who are not insured or underinsured. We are their primary care physicians, unfortunately. What happened? Well, my blood pressure is high. Okay, have you seen your doctor? No, because I have to wait two months for a visit or they don't have any. I have to wait a month.

Speaker 2: 28:31

So you go there and you take their blood pressure and you educate them. It's take. You take your medication? No, because it's too expensive. Well, if you go here, they might 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's something that I've appreciated as well, you know, besides trying to keep people calm and and things like that during their worst time, it's it's it time. It's been something that gave me a lot of gratification as well. So that's kind of where I kind of tied it in with all my healthcare experience where the patient is number one. You know you treat everybody like it's your mom, your dad, your grandma, your grandpa and you do well. So I've been pretty fortunate to be at that point.

Speaker 1: 29:10

Nice and when it comes to, obviously, career changes and people who are looking. You know what kind of advice would you give people who are like in a stump and they're like man? Maybe I should go do something different, but you know, I'm afraid.

Speaker 2: 29:25

Yeah, of course. I mean I was afraid just to go from a full-time hours to part-time hours just to go to the fire academy. I mean my wife was working part-time hours just to go to the fire academy. I mean my wife was working part-time because my son was still young, so you know she was awesome. She stepped up and she started working the full-time hours while I was, uh, going to the academy. So I didn't see her for a couple days because she worked in the morning, uh, I was with my son in the morning, uh, or working, depending on the day of the 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 leave to go to the fire academy and my wife got off work to pick them up, so I didn't see her till maybe Sundays on certain occasions. So that was tough.

Speaker 2: 30:06

But you know, like I said, you make it happen, and so the advice that I tell people is do it for the right reasons, because the worst thing you can do is be at a job that you were your miserable, and while I enjoyed my other work in the health care setting, in the hospital setting. The bad part is that I had no life because I was working, like I said, monday through Fridays, weekends for sure. Because I was working, like I said, monday through Fridays, weekends for sure, and I was missing my son growing up and I couldn't coach him in soccer, I couldn't see him play basketball. You know his first words. So those are things I didn't want to miss.

Speaker 2: 30:43

And learning about firefighting and all the stories, because that's one thing I can guarantee you You'll never meet a firefighter that likes being light duty or that enjoys doing a 40-hour work week. Most of them that are 40-hour work week is because you've either gotten older or, unfortunately, an injury has sidelined them and they're pretty good at whatever it may be, but being on light duty for a prolonged period of time, you'll never find one, because that's how much we love the profession and how much the job means to us. So I understood that watching and working with some of these, uh, then patients of mine, uh, and yeah, you had a knee replacement. Yeah, the doctor told me, in three 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 a member of the fraternity can understand that you build a camaraderie. It's like family.

Speaker 1: 31:38

It's like playing a sport. People who play sports you never want to quit playing a sport. Even now I haven't played football in 27 years. If I could go back and play one more game, one more down in high school again, I would do it in a heartbeat.

Speaker 2: 31:53

I'm the best, uh, tv coach man. I'm yelena tv for every soccer game I see, and and I comment on it and, of course, two seconds later, the sportscaster. Just that's what I said. You know, sportscaster. But but yeah, no, if you find your passion and you find something that drives you and and, and it's not work, I enjoy going to work. You know, I don't call out sick because I mean I've called out sick when my wife was sick or my son was sick, not because I was sick, because I love going to work, you know, and so that's been a plus. So you're able to find a passion, something that you know just drives you, and then you're lucky, you're lucky and you just need to change and experiment until you find I never thought I was going to be a firefighter.

Speaker 1: 32:35

I mean, I was going to be a professional soccer player and I was going to be a doctor and then maybe a physical therapist, and I'm having more fun doing firefighting than teaching now yeah, I think I think one of the um, hardest things, I think growing up, you know, one of the things I think is a sign that you've grown up is being able to, like, change your plans and realize things can go a little different and try something different, to try something new. Yeah, and convince yourself to make those moves, because it is scary, it's never, never going to be easy.

Speaker 2: 33:05

And I can tell you, the scariest moment for me was the day I realized I was not going to play professional soccer, the day I realized I was not going to play professional soccer.

Speaker 2: 33:12

That because since I was a kid I mean since I was I mean, my earliest memory was always playing soccer, organized teams, you know, travel teams and my days off from practice or games. I was out there running 10, 15 miles. I was preparing to get to that point and then when I hurt my back, it was like that has hurt me more than any other career change that I've had in the past. I guess that taught me not to be as afraid of change. You know, like mentioning now the career change from working in healthcare to becoming a firefighter, I mean like it was devastating to me not being able to pursue the dream of playing professional soccer. That's how much it meant. So, but it also taught me that you know what you know, uh, for for a lot of us who grew up in the church, they always said you know, if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. You know, and and that's how I was like you know what, what's gonna happen next, and you know you go by faith and and things will happen.

Speaker 1: 34:16

So yeah, yeah, definitely man. That's great words to live by man. So and so, at this point in your career, you know you're, you're teaching now, right, is that? Is that your next progression to your next stage in your career?

Speaker 2: 34:31

Not necessarily. I kind of got into it because you know firefighting, you know we work a weird schedule. My department, we work 24-hour shifts but we're off for 48 hours, so 24 on, 48 off. So I faced to find myself coming home, you know, yeah, helping around the house and clean, and my good you know, luckily, you know we're uh, we don't, we don't make too much of a mess now, the biggest mess is our dogs, but and then I'm home and then, okay, what do I?

Speaker 2: 35:01

My son's in school and I just caught myself just relaxing, maybe reading, because you know I still like enjoy reading. But then I feel like I was not being productive anymore on my days off. So they told me they were looking for some instructors at the fire Academy and I'm like you know what, let me go for it. And I did, and and and it's been pretty fun. It's been pretty fun because a lot of these, well, kids I say kids, cause all of them are younger than me oh yeah, all these young adults go into the Academy, are now working with me. Some are working for other departments. I get to see them and you know it's been pretty fulfilling to see them also pursue their goals and get hired a lot earlier than me. I mean, you got 19 girls who are firefighters. Now I'm like bro, you don't even 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 I need to do to become one um, well, find out in your local departments what they require to hire.

Speaker 2: 36:04

For us, um, most departments of south florida you have you're required to be state certified as a firefighter, uh, to have your, your certificate as an EMT and, many cases, uh certificate as a as a paramedic. So the fire academy could be in between six months to a year, depending where you go, what state. Emt could be one semester and paramedics is two and a half years. So, um, pursue it, if that's what you want, you know, and make it happen and start applying. Start applying for the different departments and then, once you get hired, depending on the department. You know you have some small departments that are, you know, three, four or five stations, um, that may not have that much opportunity for growth versus my department.

Speaker 2: 36:53

My department is the largest in Southeast, the fifth or sixth largest in the country, and we're in the water. So if you want to be a scuba diving, if you're a scuba diver, we have that. Be a paramedic on a helicopter, we have that. Be a paramedic on a boat, boat captains, we have that. We have swamp boats. You know we have tons of fire trucks, ladder trucks, we have hazmat teams, we have technical rescue teams. We have airport fire, so my department has allowed us to pursue, even within firefighting, all these different interests and that's what allowed me to pursue all different certifications until I found my niche. My niche was hazmat. All different certifications until I found my niche. My niche was hazmat. You know, taking chemistry in high school and college and all this other stuff. It kind of drew me and that's why 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 I just keep thinking. You said swamps, I'm I'm sure you 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 our wrangling, uh, alligator guys and snake guys. Uh, we do, we did have, or we do have a venom program as well, uh, which you know. Actually some of our captains have featured in Animal Planet, you know, and things like that, doing that, dealing with snakes and all that you find here in the 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 look good from a distance and that's why I, like I was a recreational scuba diver but I don't do it for the department, because you know to go into some of these waters and there may be alligators or water moccasins, yeah, they can have that nice, nice and and so what is the difference between volunteer firefighters and a regular firefighter?

Speaker 2: 38:59

Well, volunteer firefighters, which is most of the country fire departments, more rural areas or smaller communities that may not have the tax income to be able to pay professional firefighters the tax income to be able to pay professional firefighters so the big cities you know most. Most, if not all, of our salaries come from taxes. So if you have a good tax base you're able to afford better policing, better firefighting, better social services, things like that. So that's the main. The main different volunteers could be. You could become a volunteer firefighter in your community if your department does not have paid professionals. You go to a fire academy. They'll teach you the basics and you'll respond. You'll get a beeper car or you go to the nearest fire station to you. You'll jump in their fire truck and then go to whatever the scene is versus us. We go, we live in the firehouse 24 hours at a time, so we're taking off from the firehouse and, of course, the pay is commensurate to experience, certifications and things like that. So ranking, of course. So that's the main difference.

Speaker 1: 40:22

And retirement. What's usually the retirement age for firefighters? Is it young or is it about the same as everyone else? Because I don't know if I've seen 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 sets it different To become a firefighter. Certain departments cap it at 29. Some at 28. I know New York City has a. I may be wrong, but I know New York City. I think they cap it at 29 years old.

Speaker 2: 40:48

So if you're 35 years old, you want to pursue firefighting in New York City. So if you're 35 years old, you want to pursue firefighting in New York City, you may not be able to. My department we hire 40-year-olds, 45-year-olds, who are in great shape, who have all the certifications and they meet all the requirements and they pass. You know, oh, this is my second career, or you know, whatever case may be. So, age-wise, there is no restrictions. Well, some departments don't have restrictions. There is no restrictions. Well, some departments don't have restrictions In terms of retirement. For the most part they have either 20 years or 55 years of age, or 25 years of service or 55 years of age, depending. And then your retirement is a percentage of your highest few years, some do highest three years, highest five years. They'll give you a percentage of that in retirement. So it really depends on the city 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 do they stay?

Speaker 2: 41:49

busy. Well, most of us have second jobs because our schedule, even though we work 96 hours bi-weekly, you know we just do it 24 hour blocks at a time, so we're 48 hours every week. But you know, like I said, 24 hours on, 48 off, so during the 48 hours we have, like you know, for example, my captain, he's an ac tech and he has some family business. Another buddy of mine, one of my lieutenants, he has his own roofing company. We have guys who are physical therapists, who are attorneys, who are physician assistants, who are nurses, so instructors, which is something that I am doing now because it works with my schedule now. So we all have different jobs. So once they retire, we kind of stay tied into usually our second jobs. Yeah, nice, uh. Yeah, just to keep it interesting, I tell my wife, if I retire, uh, I already have my age, I'm retiring the age of 58, that's my goal, so I'm eight years 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 guess you know. One of the big things too is you've come a long way, you've dealt with a lot of different things. You know you've started your career as one of these soccer and do all this stuff. Obviously a lot of life lessons learned. If you could go back and back and, you know, start telling yourself some. Uh, give yourself some advice. What's something you tell yourself?

Speaker 2: 43:18

um, yeah, the best advice I can give myself is just, whatever you do 100, you know find it. You're not always not everything that you dreamt of is going to come true, and that's okay. You can't just tie your entire existence to a dream. You know a lot of people that I know have been able to pursue their dreams and they're happy. A lot of people that I've met have pursued their dreams and are miserable. So, you know, if the most important thing is find something that makes you happy and I think that is an accomplishment in itself If money, you know, being able to pay your bills all that will come in play, it will fall into place. But just finding your passion and being happy with what you do, that you know, whether you sleep an hour or two hours, you wake up ready to go to work I think that's a win. So, finding your passion, whatever it is, and don't be afraid to experiment I mean, I was forced to, uh, do career changes and some people have the luxury to take the time and change and and pursue it. Other people have no choice just, whatever you do, you know, don't do it just for the money, do it for the passion. And and that's something I still 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 you you're not going to enjoy it, you know. Oh, you know, if you can tell somebody who really wants something. By the way, they talk about what they're pursuing.

Speaker 2: 44:46

I wanted to be a doctor. I was a kid. I used to operate on my dolls and I used to cut open my sister's dolls and I used to cut. You know, you can see the passion from the kid and they pursue it. That's great. You know, I have to break my computer, you know, and then I put it back together and then you know that that's their passion, and and and, and that happens for a lot of us. You know, for me, like I said, for me, was it just happened to be that meeting the right people at the right time in my life led me to what I didn't know was going 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 you said.

Speaker 2: 45:21

You tell your son too because you know it's funny, my son, uh, you know he's when he was a little he used to be all like, oh my god, dad, so what happened today? Did you see blood? You see any bones? Did he see you know guts coming out? You know, like you know, whatever little kid would ask you, and you know, of course, I never told them all the blood and guts stories that, unfortunately, I was. I was, uh, you know, encountering that, but you know, I flowered and making some pg for him. He was always like, wow, you know. And so when he was, uh, four years old, I took him to that bodies exhibition.

Speaker 2: 45:52

I don't know if you remember yeah you know, like, let me see how squeamish she is. You know, it's one day I was off of work and, like you know, uh, they get with firefighter like 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. I'm like let me see how squeamish she is. And I thought he was gonna be like what is that man? My son was like a mechanic under hood. Wow, bobby, is that where that poopy comes out? Oh, and you know, he was just so curious and I'm like you know what? This kid's going to be? Something in the healthcare.

Speaker 2: 46:20

And you know he used to come to the firehouse and get on the, you know, put the helmet and put the gear and get in the truck, climb up, and so, as he got older, like yeah, so you're going to be a firefighter, he's like, nah, as he was applying for college, what do you want to do? And you know asking him questions over the years until he finally found, you know what he pursued nursing. You know he got his BSN and he's been working as a nurse for a year now. So he found his passion and he likes it and to this day, you know we can talk the lingo, oh, not today. I was doing this procedure and that procedure, this, that, this and that, and you know he's passionate about it, he talks about it and you know that to me is fulfillment, because he found what he likes and he found it young. You know he was 21 when he graduated from college, so you know he's a puppy.

Speaker 2: 47:08

And he found his passion, which is 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 you probably already kind of answered. But you know how do you say success 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 know you're able to kind of one up your parents. You know your parents came to this country generation latinos here, or whatever case may be, and they may. They worked odd jobs thing that they probably did not educate themselves on, but they made it happen. Waiting tables, busing, you know, doing this, mopping, sweeping, cleaning, uh, which I used to do with my parents at night I used to go clean banks in new york city.

Speaker 2: 47:51

I remember that 12 midnight I'm on, you know, I'm sitting on the little shiny machine whatever you call those to polish floors and my sister and I had to hold down for dear life, and that was fun, and my dad used to, that was one of his many jobs. But, um, you know, and they struggled, they made it happen, they put four kids through college, and you know. So now it's like now, what can we do to see how successful they are and can we play one up on them, you know? So that to me is being able to be successful and and, and you know, playing, improving from where your parents left off, which is the same thing I tell my son.

Speaker 2: 48:28

Okay, you know I went to college, I got my bachelor's and then I was able to get extra certification in this. So now you have to go for at least your master's and then start earlier, start younger. And luckily he was able to start his life debt-free from college loans, because we made sure that that was something that we don't want him to struggle with, my wife and I. So it worked out. We've been blessed in that sense. So, like I said, just pursue your passion, something that's gonna, you know, wake up and you know you can tell your passion by the way you talk about it yeah, kind of like bro.

Speaker 1: 49:02

It's funny because it's a very immigrant response with uh, you know, you know, do you do better than what your parents did and hope that your kids do better than you? Because you know, exactly, you know that's exactly all the sacrifice they did motivates me to keep going harder and motivates me to make my life easier for my daughters that she could hopefully make it easier for 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 learn to struggle a little bit. That struggle will help you develop into the person that you are meant to be. Will help you develop into the person that you are meant to be, Because if you have everything so good you know, especially at an early age, and then you know, like, like I see myself, when I when I because of my back injury, my back surgery which surprisingly never really affected me in fire Academy, and all this other stuff in my career. But you know, when I came to the realization that I had to give up my lifelong dream, I'm glad it happened to me when I was young, Because imagine finding out that the dream you've wanted to pursue your whole life and you're in your 20s and your 30s and then you come to the realization that you're not gonna be able to accomplish it. That I would consider scary.

Speaker 2: 50:13

Getting close to your middle age and realizing that's not going to happen for you, at that point I think it's scarier. So you want to see your kids struggle as much as you want to be there to catch them, pick them up. You know it's good for them to have their little struggles. I mean, obviously we don't want anything tragic or anything but struggle is good, it builds resilience and it builds character and it also gives you that introspection to see how tough we really are and how we handle stress and stressful situations. And I think that also helps me in my career. You know all the stuff I've seen. I sleep good at night. I don't have nightmares, I don't have ghosts, I don't see faces, you know, even though I've had some pretty tragic events in firefighting because the career that you know. But so I've been pretty, pretty lucky 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 your story. You know, you know, I'm so glad to 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's slowing down. I'll be turning 50. That's why I enjoy driving. Now I'm able to drive the fire truck full time. It's not as physically demanding 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 being here, 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 the episodes and I'm glad to hear that it's doing well for you as well. 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 everyone else, you know thank you so much for joining, and I hope you'll join me again next time as we continue to learn how to say success in Spanish. Thanks for watching.