I'm 35 years old, have a girlfriend and a black lab. I've been a firefighter/paramedic with SDFD for 11 years. I'm currently going through the promotional process to become an engineer. When I'm not at work, I enjoy traveling, hiking, camping, snowboarding, photography, concerts, working on my house and finding good places to eat and drink.

A few years ago, I ran a call on a child that had just been born and was not breathing due to meconium aspiration. Pediatric calls are hard enough as it is, but this call was even harder for me because the father was a friend of mine from high school. We did everything we could, but unfortunately, our efforts only bought the parents a few more days in the NICU where they eventually lost their daughter. We all see a lot of loss and pain and suffering in our line of work, but this call has by far been the hardest one for me. I found that reaching out to friends and co-workers and talking about the experience was extremely helpful in processing the whole thing. Having those people there for me was important. Now I'd like to be there for someone else.