Former Career Fire and EMS Lieutenant-Specialist, Writer, and Master Photographer.
Tag: Diary
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This past weekend, I drove back to the place where my story began. The road to my mother’s house is the same as it’s always been. That drive always stirs something in me. A reminder of who I was before the world turned hard and unforgiving. I didn’t just go to see my mom. I…
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There comes a moment in every life—every soul forged in fire, tested by wind, worn down by time and lifted by impossible grace—when you look at the sky and realize the storm isn’t passing over. It’s waiting. Waiting for you to stop standing there like a goddamn monument and move. That’s where I am today.…
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Out of nowhere, my former niece—who, for all intents and purposes, has become my unofficially adopted daughter—reached out and asked if I could pick her up. The timing was uncanny. She called while I was out with Amelia, and the moment I learned she needed a ride as soon as possible, I wasted no time.…
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I was twenty-three when they sent me home. Three summers of devotion, three years of sunburns and scraped knees, of singing around the fire and waking up before dawn to make sure my campers were safe, fed, and cared for. I had built my world around the summer camp where I spent every summer since…
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There are ghosts among us—not the ghosts often rooted in folklore, nor the ones one would expect to haunt and linger in old house, but the ones we often create through our own existence. We carry them only in quiet moments, such as the way a song that we haven’t heard in awhile gives us…
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I’m not built for mediocrity; anything less than my personal best is unacceptable. If something is worth doing, then it deserves my full force, my entire intellect, and my unwavering focus. I don’t fear obsession; I embrace it. I understand that greatness often requires extremes, and that mastery often demands an almost unreasonable level of…
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Dreams are like distant stars, shimmering in a vast expanse of possibility. For me, achieving my dreams was a journey of relentless pursuit, guided by an unyielding belief in myself and the life I envisioned. Yet, I never anticipated the cost of this pursuit—my family, my friends, my work connections, and the sense of belonging…
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As I stand on the cusp of selling my childhood home in New York City, I find myself thinking a lot about growing up in Greenwich Village in the 1980s. The sights, sounds, and even the smells of the neighborhood are etched into my memory. Those cobblestone streets, the street performers in Washington Square Park,…
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New Year’s Day 2025 came and went, much like the turning of any other calendar page. For most, it was a time of reflection and anticipation—a chance to dream up resolutions, set lofty goals, and marvel at the blank slate of possibility that a new year promises. Friends and strangers alike often speak of fitness…
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There’s an unshakable nostalgia in chasing after a feeling you can never quite reclaim—a bittersweet longing for a moment, a sensation, or a state of mind that’s slipped through your fingers, leaving behind only the faintest traces of its existence. It is both a blessing and a curse of human nature to yearn for what…
