The time has come to announce that I'm withdrawing from Boss of Bosses. Ever since I started my journey in powerlifting, all I've wanted to do is compete with the best lifters in the world, and lifting at BOB3 was the perfect opportunity to achieve that dream again. So while it's a huge bummer that I won't be able to share the platform with the giants that will be there, I could not be more excited about the reason I am withdrawing.

I have been pursuing my childhood dream of becoming a career firefighter ever since I turned 18. I've heard a lot of misconceptions out there about what it takes to become a firefighter, so I'll fill you guys in. It doesn't help if you know someone, and you can't just hand in an application any time like a lot of people think. To become a paid firefighter in my home state of Connecticut, individual departments hold civil service examinations when there are vacancies open. These examinations only take place every 3-5 years, sometimes longer than that, for individual municipalities. Entry level firefighter examinations are essentially a general aptitude test that you take against hundreds or thousands of candidates for a proportionately small number of positions. Most departments just require a high school diploma to be able to test. Some smaller departments require EMT/paramedic certifications or college credits to be able to test. Either way, when these tests are offered, an extremely high number of applicants come out to test for a comparitively small number of positions. For example, I recently tested for a department with over 3,000 candidates competing for 8 or less positions. I received a 99.5% as a final score, and that was not high enough to move into the hiring process. Also consider this - even the smallest towns have paid police departments. But how many towns have paid fire departments? A majority of the fire service nationwide is on a volunteer basis, so when paid positions become open, everyone that's ever thought about becoming a firefighter comes out to test. The process becomes very competitive.

Once you take the written and oral portions of the test and get your score back, you often have to wait 2-3 years to hear if you scored high enough to move into the hiring process. That hiring process can take 6 months to a year to complete a background check, drug test, intensive psychological examinations, and pre-hire medical screenings. So as you can see, the process to get the job is very long and can be discouraging. In the past 5 years of testing, I've come within 3/1000ths of a point of getting hired by my dream department. And for another municipality, I completed the secondary hiring process successfully, only to be told one week before we were to start the fire academy that the funding was pulled for our class and we would no longer be getting hired.

After every close call and long waiting period, I've debated going back to school for ANY job where I could hand a resume to someone and be told "yes" or "no" within a few weeks instead of a few years. But after thinking about it, I knew that this job was my calling, and I'd always have something missing if I decided to go another route in life. My persistence has finally paid off, and on my most recent exam, I got the 2nd highest score and have moved into the hiring process. What makes it even sweeter is that it is for my dream department that my father has worked for the past 22 years. It would really be awesome to catch a fire with my old man before he retires. He's had a really exciting career and is the epitome of what a good city fire officer should be. I am really looking forward to carrying on the family tradition trying to live up to his legacy.

I have to withdraw from BOB because the the Connecticut Fire Academy starts the day of the meet. However...I am feeling way too healthy and strong to forego the idea of getting one more total in before I begin my career. Before the XPC Finals at the Arnold, I was a mess physically. I was pulling or straining something every week, and basically needed 2-3 PT sessions and 2-3 Graston's sessions per week to be able to train without pain. This prep has been 100% different. I have yet to have even a minor strain (knock on wood), and my joints and tendons are feeling super healthy. I feel like it would be a waste to not compete. Therefore, I am tentatively committing to the RPS Raw Nationals meet on August 13th in Lancaster, PA - one week before BOB. It's close enough that my peak won't be affected at all. Remaining injury free is the number one priority, rather than going for a humongous PR total, so I am going to be playing it safe and taking conservative 3rd attempts. The new goal is just to go 9/9 and chip PR's if they're there. If they're not, I'll be smart and keep my eyes on the fire academy instead. This meet will be a great learning experience in self control and smart attempt selection, and I look forward to competing.