In The First Call Was Mine, you share the abuse of your childhood, the hardships of your adolescence, including suicidal despair, and the long road to healing. Why was this an important book for you to write?

For a long time, my story lived quietly inside of me. I carried the memories, the fear, and the resilience without ever fully putting words to them. Writing The First Call Was Mine became a way of reclaiming that story, not just as something that happened to me, but as something that shaped who I became.

Growing up in instability and abuse can make you feel invisible, as if your experiences don’t matter or your voice isn’t worth hearing. Writing this book was my way of pushing back against that silence. It was important for me to tell the truth about what it looks like to survive a chaotic childhood and still build a life defined by purpose.

I also wrote this book for others who have lived through similar experiences. Trauma can convince people that they are alone or broken beyond repair. If someone reads my story and realizes that survival, healing, and even joy are still possible, then sharing my story was worth it.

How did you approach writing about childhood experiences that were both formative and painful?

I approached it with a balance of honesty and compassion for my younger self. When you revisit painful memories, it’s easy to relive them through the lens of pain or anger. Instead, I tried to write those moments with the understanding I have now as an adult.

That meant allowing the experiences to be truthful without letting them become the entire definition of the story. The book isn’t just about trauma; it’s about resilience, growth, and the complicated ways we survive difficult circumstances.

At times, writing those chapters was emotionally heavy, but it was also surprisingly healing. Putting the experiences into words allowed me to process them differently and see the strength that existed in moments where I once only saw survival.

You draw a powerful connection between childhood survival and your work in EMS—when did you first recognize that link?

For a long time, I didn’t consciously recognize the connection. I just knew I was drawn to emergency services, the chaos of it all, and helping people in their most vulnerable moments. It felt natural to step into chaos and try to make things better.

Over time, I began to realize that my childhood had quietly prepared me for that kind of work. Growing up in an unpredictable environment teaches you how to read situations quickly, stay calm under pressure, and protect others even when you’re still trying to protect yourself.

EMS gave me a way to transform those survival instincts into something meaningful. Instead of chaos defining me, I was able to use the skills I learned from surviving it to help people in their most critical moments. In many ways, the career that grew from that path became part of my healing.

What is one thing you hope readers take away from your experiences?

I hope readers understand that the circumstances we come from do not have to determine the limits of our lives. They don’t have to define us.

Many people grow up believing that their past defines them, that trauma, hardship, or instability will always control their future. My story is proof that those experiences can become something different. They can shape strength, compassion, and purpose.

Healing doesn’t happen overnight, and it doesn’t erase what happened. But it does allow you to build a life that isn’t ruled by those experiences. If readers walk away believing that change, growth, and healing are possible, even after the hardest beginnings, then the book has done what I hoped it would.

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