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Ara Matevosian

Professor Erickson

APPR UNIV WRITING

Sep 4, 2023

Where Will I Go

As I rushed outside, a blanket of nervousness draped over me. As I am stepping onto the

sidewalk, I can hear the fire engines in the distance. I look to my next door neighbors house and

see people leaving, neighbors exiting their houses to see what's going on, and a stream of smoke

begins to flow out of the house's windows. Although the smoke burned my eyes, I was more

intrigued than anything. The people around me were not though, most with dreadfulness behind

their eyes. Then the engines arrived.

Up until this moment, I did not know what direction I wanted to go in my life. I grew up

in a musical household. My dad, being a touring musician, always encouraged me to play music.

It was clear I had a gift with it when I began writing my first song on piano at the age of 5. As far

back as I can remember, I loved to perform. I would learn songs on piano and play them for my

classmates in art class when I was in elementary school. I did recitals every year, then eventually

joined the school jazz band in middle school, continuing to play drums for jazz until the end of

high school. Even during and after highschool, starting a band with a couple of my friends, I was

the lead singer and guitarist. The heavy adrenaline, like a rock in your chest, before playing.

Stepping onto a stage and feeling an energy and presence from a crowd, touching lips with the

mic and feeling the guitar strings cold against my fingers; I was addicted to it all.

As much as music serves as a hobby, it is a major part of my life. Unfortunately, my dad

has direct experience in the music industry, and it is extremely difficult to make a living off of.
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Growing up I knew this, so I always did it out of pure enjoyment, never planning on making a

career out of it. Music was and always will be my outlet, but what will I actually do when I am

older?

For the longest time, I would tell people “I am going to be an aeronautical engineer when

I’m older” when asked. Hardly knowing what it meant, I was fascinated with space and planets

so I assumed it had something to do with it. Being decently academic, mostly A’s and B’s in all

my classes, I always noticed I had a strong motivation and extremely obsessive personality when

I found something I liked, but was I going to apply that to aeronautics?

The older I got, the more stressed and confused I became. What am I going to be after

highschool? Then one day in my junior year of highschool, I stepped onto the sidewalk, fire

engine sirens blaring in the distance, a harsh smoke in my eyes. As the engines arrive, I see the

once worrisome crowd of people washed over with a wave of relief. The firefighters were here

and everything would be ok. Engines from numerous stations, lining up, pulling hose, making

connection to the hydrant, throwing ladders and ventilating the roof so calmly and without a

sense of fear; their calmness was contagious and all the local neighbors were relieved and now

just interested on how they were going to put out the fire. In that exact moment, I knew I wanted

to provide that feeling of safety to my community, the way that they did that day.

Up until that moment, I had never put any thought about a career in firefighting.

Curiosity took hold and I began to research. It felt so clear to me that this was what I would do

after college, but I had to be sure. The more I researched, the more perfect it seemed for me. It

was incredible I had never thought about it before. While music was still my passion, this would

be a way for me to have a career to make a living off of, and have enough money and time on the

side to play and write music.

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Meeting and speaking with local police officers and retired firefighters at my gym, they

brought to my attention that there was an explorer program that would allow me to see first hand

what the fire service was like, and what station life had in store for me. The program was very

competitive and around 150 other kids signed up for the interview process for this year. I went in

to interview for the position of a Ventura County Explorer underprepared and with no

expectations. I spoke from the heart and told them why I was there, they asked questions about

their organization that I did not know. Feeling underprepared, I assumed I had messed up the

interview and lost hope for being accepted. Out of the 150 kids, 22 were accepted, and to my

surprise I was one. I could not believe it, receiving the email many months later.

After being in the program for the past couple months, I have fallen in love with the job.

The people, lifestyle, environment, physical demand, and mental demand has become an outlet

for a lot of my passions. The feeling of being in the engine on the way to an emergency, hearing

dispatch in my ears, arriving and helping people, I start to notice the same thrills I enjoyed from

playing music.

As of currently, I am a business major at Cal State Northridge. Pursuing an education has

always been important to me, and I feel that business is a way of learning a lot about the world

and how it works. It can be applicable to almost anything. Firefighting is an extremely

competitive field, so I aim to do as much as I can before I am out of college to be prepared for

the day I walk in and interview to be a Ventura County Firefighter. If it was not for my neighbors

house catching fire, I do not know where I would be now. That moment was pivotal for me, and I

find comfort in feeling like I have a purpose that I will fulfill.