Why I'm dating a fireman

Strength, bravery, and the uniform aspect aside, being with a fireman, or at least Ari, is about dedication.  Ari is dedicated to.......... well, just about everything.  School.  Saving lives.  Foreign affairs.  His family.  And, of course, me.

First of all, how many of you know someone who actually gets nicer to everyone when they're sick?!  That was sort of a foreign concept to me when upon realizing that he was sick Ari came up to my room, made my bed, and insisted on helping me make the chicken noodle soup we shared that I made to help him get better.  Okay, he doesn't even make his own bed and here he is making mine?!  Great stuff right there.  He is really always passionate and caring about people but when I'm sick I usually take a breather from that and focus on me.  Nope, not for Ari.  Now that the tables have turned and I'm sick, he is constantly asking me to "please get better! you need to get better!"

He's a brilliant student.  Always asking questions, reading, trying to learn more.  I can't count the number of times I've come to see him that he's been reading the news or writing a paper or emailing a professor.  He has even used my iPod to email his professor while we were making sand art on the quad (yes, that actually happened. It was glorious.) asking about making an appointment to come to his office to ask about a paper.  He even encourages me to do my work when I would rather just hang out or go to sleep.  It's nice to be able to talk to someone who, I admit, is quite a bit smarter than I am who values my opinions and thinks I'm pretty smart nonetheless.  He will talk to me about my intellectual interest, religion, and talk about how it may shape the way we think.

Religion is probably a good thing to mention.  Part of what makes our discussion, and really our relationship, interesting is our differences in religion.  He's Jewish - there aren't a lot of Jewish people in the area where I grew up but I have always wanted to learn other people's religious practices.  He takes an intellectual curiosity to my Catholic faith as well, and we discuss our similarities and differences.  

Ari's dedication to saving lives extends beyond firefighting/ EMT work, though one can tell just by talking to him that firefighting is his true passion.  He is a freelance peer counselor and has helped many people out of truly difficult situations.  One of his favorite things to do is help people.  During our first week or so here everybody on his floor discovered he had a full toolkit.  It was so fun to see him light up when someone asked to use it and he'd dash off to his room to go get it.  He can't say no when someone needs his help.  He is always putting others before himself, something that is rarely seen among humankind these days.

People are Ari's biggest priority.  He will talk to anyone and pull a story out of anyone.  By doing so, he has helped a lot of people including me.  His family is important to him as he is always trying to look out for them (like he does for everyone else, only more intensely).  You can tell he's a loving and caring person when you hear him talk to his family on the phone. He's honest and passionate towards everyone he meets.  Is that from the job?  I don't know.  But it's who he is and I'm proud of that.