Months ago I was off to Slave Lake in my nephews 'farm truck'. As I winded that long stretch of burnt remains of what once was a forest I literally had no idea of what was in store for me. I had gone under the assumption that I was going to be going through the remains of peoples basements, hunting for valuables. What I was thrown into was nothing of the sort.
I was tossed into the lions den as I entered the most chaotic room ever. The phones were ringing, people were shouting orders, and drawing up plans on huge sticky notes hung on the wall. I was soon put to work entering data. when my first day/night was done I had put in a 14 hours shift. I had no idea that my body was even capable of such a thing. The hardest part was knowing that I had to do it all over again the next day.
As I went to bed that first night I set my alarm for 6:40am. Ever since that morning I have never changed that alarm on my phone. Every morning when it normally goes off I am usually rushing about doing laundry, packing lunches, rushing kids. This morning however with no kids around, I heard my alarm. As I rushed over and checked why my phone was going off, a flood of anxiousness hit me.
I remembered the first feeling I got when that alarm went off. Today of all days that feeling is still there. I was hit with a rush of being used in such a unique way, a rush of fear, uncertainty, loneliness, excitement and a rush of Joy. Ironically the first time I have really clued into that alarm since Slave Lake is today, the day I receive my pager and get recognized as a volunteer firefighter.
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