With everything going on right now re: the federal government (gestures wildly) I’ve been extra, extra grateful for my day job lately.

If you’re new here, I spend my weekdays (and- nights/weekends/every second during the summer months really) working as a public affairs officer for a National Forest here in northern Arizona. I’m really lucky to have an incredibly fun, rewarding and challenging job.

My favorite part of my federal day job is working as a Public Information Officer (PIO) on wildfires. I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned it, but taking on wildfire assignments actually isn’t a required part of my job duties.

Like, sure, if a fire starts on my forest, I’m responsible for communicating that info with the public of course.

But the other stuff? Working the 16-hour days (for 14 days straight), obtaining incident qualifications, taking safety refresher classes, accepting off-unit assignments, rostering with an Incident Management Team (IMT), making myself available nationally through dispatch, etc.?

That’s all 100% by choice.

I do get paid for it hourly (of course) but it’s also really long days with often difficult work. The easier option is turning down fire assignments and sticking to my day job, but I don’t ever choose to do that.

Mostly because I really do love my job. I love serving the public, I love using my skillset to help people, I love feeling like I’m doing meaningful work when I show up to do my job every day. That’s why I chose a career in journalism before my Peace Corps service before what I’m doing now.

I’ve never really been profit-driven or corporate-minded. So public service has always been a natural fit for me.

Which means that when I was invited to teach S-203: Introduction to Incident Information at the annual Arizona Wildfire and Incident Management Academy hosted in Prescott, Ariz., it was an obvious “yes!”