humansofnewyork:

“I grew up in a neighborhood with a lot of cops and firefighters, but I decided to be a stock broker instead. It went well at first and I began to make a lot of money. I thought I was going to be rich. But then I made some bad investment decisions and lost it all as quickly as I’d made it. Then September 11th happened. I was working on Wall Street, right near the towers, but I wasn’t the one running into the buildings. I was in an office trying to make some more money for my CEO. And it just really brought into focus that I wasn’t doing anything in my life to help people. So I decided to join the fire department.”