The question of why do this when I could be making so
much more as a lawyer in a field I already have all the
skills for, it's really a matter of what it means to
be alive. You want to have a living, you know, you
don't want to just have a career.
You want to live. And that's really important to
me.
I'm Nico. I'm 36, and I left my job as a lawyer and
became a firefighter.
When I got the chance to do firefighting, I didn't know
that it was going to be mind-altering good.
Like, it really is.
It's invigorating. There's so many new skills.
It's exciting. The people are amazing.
And you get to be outside.
Working as a lawyer, you spend a lot of time sitting
in a chair and I have bees in my knees.
I like to move around.
It was not comfortable. I was gaining a lot of weight.
I wasn't happy in my body anymore.
And it was my mental health was certainly suffering
because of it. And I needed to find something that would
allow me to have more balance in my life.
I was able to support myself after quitting my job at the
law firm through a few different means.
My folks really helped out.
They took myself and my son in.
I had some savings, around $10,000 in savings, and I
started my own law firm, just a very, very small law
firm. This is that law firm, just me.
But that allowed me to survive.
Though, honestly, we weren't spending very much
money because it was the pandemic.
The story of how I came to be a firefighter is, it's
very serendipitous. In August of 2020, we actually
had a single lightning strike and it started a
little fire right up there on our property, just
up on that hillside of the mountains, this table
mountain. And very quickly, some firefighters came in
from town and they started climbing up the hill.
And we're like, 'why, why?' There's a fire road that
goes up and around.
It goes almost straight to where the lightning strike
had happened. So my mom and I, we put on a backpack and
hiked on up after them and showed them where the fire
road was. And that's how I met Josh Jones, who is
Captain Josh Jones, who was the one who showed me how to
get involved with our local fire department.
Once I started the fire academy, it was it was like
fireworks. It's such a dynamic career.
You're constantly learning new skills.
You're working with wonderful people.
You're helping people.
You're doing all of these really incredible things and
having all of these crazy experiences.
And you get to be outside a lot, which I really like.
I can't be tied to a desk anymore.
I just can't do it.
A typical day working as a firefighter, I would call
the stations and I say, 'hey, you know, do you guys
have room for me today?' And then whoever whoever
wants to take me on will have me come to their
station. And I will usually start with some kind of
training, like ropes training or do some PT,
physical training, and then a call will come in and we
all get on our gear, hop in an engine or an ambulance
and go to the call.
And then I basically get paid for those calls.
Do the risks of firefighting scare me?
To a certain extent, yes.
I mean, it would be absolutely devastating if
anything happened to me or my son.
And that is something that that weighs on me,
certainly. But frankly, being a, I was predominantly
a family law attorney, and it's not a particularly safe
career. There's a lot of angry people in in family
law. And also mentally safe is something that I have to
consider as well. If I'm not doing well mentally,
what is my quality of life?
What kind of parent can I be?
So, I'm just calling to check in.
I know that you had court today and I wanted to see
how you're feeling and how you feel about the judge's
ruling. Currently as a firefighter, between
training and going on calls, it's probably about
10 to 15 hours a week, and then I probably do about
another 15 hours a week of lawyering.
So we kind of just mashes together to about a very
poorly-paid one full-time job.
I don't make very much money in my little very, very itty
bitty, tiny law firm.
I certainly if I did it full time, I could make a
lot more. My hourly rate as an attorney is $250 an hour.
So we're talking apples and oranges in terms of how much
money I'm making.
But I luckily have a support system.
I have a partner who works as a nurse, and that's a
very stable income.
So that has also given me a lot more flexibility in
switching careers from lawyering to firefighting.
So I'm in school right now and I'm getting my training
to be an EMT. My plan is to, after becoming an EMT,
to take the next step and become a paramedic.
And then once I have my paramedic license, I will be
in a good position to get a full-time firefighting job
in a station.
My advice for people who are considering changing
careers. I think you have to pursue your passion.
I don't think that it's healthy for humans to do
something just for money.
I think that you have to find something that makes
you feel vibrant, makes you feel excited, that is
engaging, that makes you feel like you're doing
something good. I did everything I was supposed to
do. I went to college.
I went to law school. I passed the bar first shot.
I got married. I had a kid.
I did all of those things and I still wasn't happy.
Even though I'm still baby, baby, baby, junior, junior,
junior firefighter, I want to get to that point where I
am able to take it on as a as a career, as a full-time
job, as a paramedic firefighter. I would really
like to be able to throw myself into firefighting
completely and really move away from the lawyering
overnight. But it's just not practical.
It's not feasible. I want to end my career as a lawyer
and begin my career as a firefighter in a responsible
way, a way that doesn't hurt my clients, because I
care about them very much, and also allows me to really
get the training that I need to become a really good
firefighter.