Since 2009, I have shared news, stories, history, and thoughts via several web sites. The first was a blog regional to where I live, then came a state news/info web site, and finally I ended up creating this blog. All of which have focused on firefighting. All of which also have focused on sharing much of what everyone else is doing within the fire service.
Over the years, I have created great friendships with other bloggers, companies, representatives of organizations, and most importantly firefighters from across the World. It was fun. In the beginning, there weren’t many doing what I was doing and I had to learn from others outside the fire service of what to do and how to do it. Even then, the EMS side of things took off much quicker showcasing many bloggers, podcasters, and web sites outside of the main stream fire/EMS service media.
In the end, I would spend much of my free time outside of my job(s) working on creating what FireCritic.com is today. This also meant that each year there would be more and more travel. I have to admit that I enjoyed it. At the same time, it got very hectic juggling responsibilities.
Then about a year ago I decided to walk away so to speak. In short, I reflected on what I was doing, why I was doing it, and how much of my time it took. I weighed the pros and cons of continuing at the pace I was going and leveraged them with many more important things in my life. I realized very quickly that I wanted to re-prioritize my time. In the end, this meant spending very little time on the site and much more time with my family, focusing on my job, and just simply taking it easy.
Don’t get me wrong, nothing was wrong in my life. My family life has always been a priority…however, much of my free time this past year has been driving my children to and from school, sports, and other events. Even work has been extremely rewarding the past year. I have probably been more of a homebody and cab for my kids than anything. Additionally, I set up my son with a hobby he asked about and has been enjoying very much. My wife, having seen all the fun I have had with a side-hobby, decided to purchase the cheerleading gym where my daughter goes. I have been spending time there as the handy-man and working on projects for her too.
I have now gotten to a point that I am ready to re-invest some of my time back into this site and all it has to offer. Why though? Well simply because of the investment and I have made in the past and the enjoyment I get out of it.
Does this mean I will be posting everyday? I doubt it…but I will be trying to go back to what this site was built on…which is showcasing much of the good the fire service has to offer.
Thank you to all the phone calls, comments, and messages asking how everything is going. I admit I didn’t get back to everyone…but I appreciate it none the less.
Cheers to all of my friends across the U.S. and beyond. I look forward to what’s in store for the future.
On that note…Willie, Andrew, and I have decided to bring back the “INDY on Fire” party during FDIC 2018 after an unfortunate year hiatus. We hope to make it bigger and better than 2016. If you know of companies looking to get their name out there, we are looking for sponsors. They can email me at firecritic@firecritic.com.