In may of 2008, I joined with a volunteer fire department along the outskirts of a large city. We averaged approximately 500 fires a year, not including mutual aid calls to other counties, and occasionally the city itself. Immediately, I was immersed in a fast paced, physically demanding world, and I knew I had to be at the top of my game. I started working out casually in July of 2008, but was never truly serious about it until 2011. I would work out only as much as necessary to maintain a physique that could handle the stress, but in all honesty could never give much more. In 2011, that all changed when I became a first responder in the big city. As a paramedic, I worked both with a partner, and at times I worked as a sole responder. There were times when my physical abilities were all that stood between a pt's life and an early death. I decided it was time to get serious. Throughout 2011, I trained hard. In 2012, I kept going until I got an offer as an assistant supervisor in a small town. For a few months, I fell out of the gym as I moved. But now, it's time to get serious again. Death won't wait on me to stand in his way.

There's a since of fulfillment I get from pushing my body beyond its limitations. There's more to it than the looks or the physical growth; it's a mental growth as well. It's cleansing for the mind, body, and spirit, a constructive way to take all the things that weigh upon me and use them to build me up instead of tear me down. There's no doubt that I see a lot of troubling things; I've picked up limbs from the road, I've resuscitated people from cardiac arrest, and I've failed people and told their loved ones that I couldn't make a difference. I love bodybuilding because it's the one place where I can just be alone with me: all of me. The good, the bad, and the ugly. It's where I sort through the hardest things that I've had to deal with, and it's where I find the strength to continue. I throw all of the negativity into that last, burning rep, the one that you just don't know if it's going to happen, and I force it all away, just like the weight I'm holding. It's become a big part of my life, right up there with my job. I take both very seriously, and will continue to better myself!