Thankful

Over the past month and a half I've been able to volunteer at a local fire station through my Fire Explorer program. I was nervous at first, but these firefighters have impacted my life in such a big way I never thought was possible.
You know the part in the Grinch Stole Christmas where the Grinch's heart grew 3 sizes? That's how my heart feels right now, I feel like I cannot contain all these emotions and these feelings I have for these boys and all they have done for me. I am to the point of tears writing this because of how blessed I really am.

These guys are so compassionate. Once they find out that I'm joining the Army to become a doctor, they have so much respect for me. Many of them give me advice. One said to me, "Never stop until you can't go any higher. And if you don't make it the first time, try again." I will never forget those words as long as I live.
They treat me like one other their own. I was actually surprised at how much they try and take care of me. Because I'm an Explorer, I'm there to run calls with them as well as clean up and generally help out around the station in whatever needs to be done. But countless times, while I've helped clean up after dinner or unload the dishwasher, I've heard things like - "Oh Macy, do sit down and finish your homework, we got it." "Oh you don't need to do that, make one of the other boys do it."
It's gotten to the point where I've had arguments with some of them to let me help out around the station.
They also give me nicknames like the "Grim Reaper" and "Dr. Death" because apparently I bring all the bad calls with me. They like to joke around with me a lot and sometimes it seems they treat me better than the new recruits. Because I've been on bad calls with them (And I'm talking about pretty morbid stuff) They ALWAYS ask how I'm doing after seeing some of the things I've seen. One Lieutenant from another station called one day to specifically ask if I was okay after one of the calls I ran.
They always make sure I'm never hungry. The Captain on one of the shifts told me that if I didn't have any lunch with me, he'd "gladly go and get me something." Another time we went to Subway and I had forgotten my wallet, and one of the lieutenants bought my food. Back at the station, at basically had to force him to take my money to pay for my food.

These firefighters and paramedics may see these as just small, miniscule things in life, but they have left such an imprint on me. I am just so phenomenally grateful for every encouraging word, nickname, or anything else they have done for me.
There are no words to describe how thankful I am for these people.

Grinch Heart