From Firefighter to Author – The Inspiring Journey of a Trailblazing Woman

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Diane Schroeder [00:00:00]:

Welcome to the Fire inside her podcast. A safe space for leadership, self care, and community. I'm your host, Diane Schroeder, and it is my privilege to be your guide on the journey to authenticity. Being the first is never easy. There's a lot that goes with being the first whether it's the firstborn trailblazer in any type of profession being the first you come up against challenges that, hopefully, the people who follow you don't have to face. I remember when I first started my fire service career, I really wanted to be the first at something, the first chief, the first whatever it was. And I was hired in such a large organization that I didn't think that was gonna be possible to be the first of anything. And I ended up being the 1st female to have a baby in our organization. We had had women in the organization for over 20 years by the time I was with child. And I ended up being the 1st. So that was a great opportunity to test a wonderful maternity policy that the organization had at the time. And really, my goal of along with having a healthy child and a safe pregnancy was to set the path so that the women who followed after were able to have a positive experience. getting pregnant and having a child. Because if you choose to be in a profession that is male dominated, it shouldn't go against you if you wanna start a family. Now, unfortunately, shortly after I left that organization, the policy changed. And to be quite honest, I'm not sure what that policy is now. And I really struggled to get a good maternity policy at the next organization I went to, and it was really frustrating for me. And I do feel like that's something that I was unable to finish. And what's even more sad is there are so many organizations that do not support maternity policies, especially in the fire service, but we will spend time on that down the road in another episode, I'm sure. Today's episode is about a different kind of first. 1976 is an amazing year and it's not just because that's the year I was born. It's also the year that my guest became one of the first women hired on a US Forest Service Fire Crew. She faced her fair share of challenges and adversity, and The beauty of looking retrospectively is during our conversation, I could easily see the thread of resiliency and perseverance. And she has been up against challenges throughout her life. She figures out a way and moves forward. Originally, from Syracuse, New York, miss Strader moved to Prescott, Arizona with her family in 1972. In 1976, she became one of the first women hired on a US Forest service, fire crew in Santa Rita Mountains of South Tucson, Arizona. Summers of fire, a memoir of adventure Love and courage was released on May 1 2018 by The dazzled Inc. Publishing. In September, she became a finalist in the New Mexico Arizona book Awards. Her second book uprooted is the prequel to summers of fire, and it was released December 1 2021.

Diane Schroeder [00:04:07]:

In addition to writing, miss Strader is a landscape architect, certified arborist, and watercolor artist. She resides in the same area where her fire service career began. This episode is a great reminder that the journey to authenticity is bumpy, and it does have potholes. However, if you stay true to yourself and stay on the journey, It will lead you to some of the most beautiful places you could ever imagine. Hi, Linda. How are you?

Linda Srader [00:04:44]:

Hi. I'm good, Diane. It's nice to meet you.

Diane Schroeder [00:04:46]:

Nice to meet you too. I am so excited that we get to chat today. You didn't know this prior to us chatting up just when we first met, but I come from the fire service as well. And when I saw that you popped into my inbox, I was really giddy because you are an OG badass wildland firefighter, and I'm so excited that we get to chat today. So thank you.

Linda Srader [00:05:10]:

Oh, well, thank you. And I think it's pretty amazing with you, Diane. That's for sure.

Diane Schroeder [00:05:15]:

I like to start with random questions. So the random question that I have for you is, do you sleep with your bedroom door open or closed?

Linda Srader [00:05:25]:

Actually, depends on the time of the year. In the winter, I don't heat the bedroom, so I leave the dark closed. And in the summer, just so the air conditioner works very I leave the door open, so it just depends on the time of year.

Diane Schroeder [00:05:38]:

That makes sense. Arizona can get really hot.

Linda Srader [00:05:42]:

Yeah. We're heading to a 111 this weekend. So, yeah, it's not here.

Diane Schroeder [00:05:46]:

Yes. But it's a dry heat.

Linda Srader [00:05:48]:

It's a dry heat. It is. And you just don't go outside when it's that hot. Just stay indoors.

Diane Schroeder [00:05:54]:

Exactly. Well, I would like to hear a little bit about your story and your journey on how you ended up becoming 1 of the first female pioneers for the US fire service in the wildland world. If you don't mind sharing a little bit about your story, I would really appreciate it.

Linda Srader [00:06:14]:

I'll go back to 72. I was living in Syracuse, New York with my family and my parents decided that they'd had enough of Syracuse weather, and they wanted us to move to Prescott, Arizona. And it was a really off time for me because I was in the middle of my senior year of high school. And I didn't wanna go, but I had no choice. They said you're going with us. were going. So they moved me to a town of about 12,000 people, very small place compared to Syracuse. Nobody was looking for making new friends. You know, everybody's been in school with their classmates probably since kindergarten. So I was very anxious to leave Prescott and go back to Syracuse, and I did sell right after graduation. And I got there and discovered that everybody was going to college, and they were leaving. And I thought, well, it's not the place that I missed. It was the people, and I just couldn't see any point in staying. So I went back to Prescott and learned to love it. I mean, Prescott, Arizona is in the middle of the Prescott National Forest. I love the outdoors. I've made friends, you know, in hiking and camping, and I really wanted to stay. And so I started looking for work, and I'm discovering that for an eighteen, nineteen year old just for the high education, there really wasn't much in the way of work for a young woman. And it was a choice of retail sales, secretary, waitress. And I tried all those things, and I absolutely hated it and thought this is not what I wanna do. But I was beginning to realize after a year and a half, it's looking for work could take it on, you know, whatever I could realizing this is not what I wanted to do with my life. So I ended up looking for work in Tucson, Arizona. And Tucson, I met somebody, a friend of the family. She introduced me to the US Forest Service, and I had no idea that this world exists did. I mean, I saw the foresters have been Prescott, but I just never dreamed it'd be something that I could apply for. So she told me that they're looking for time keepers Up on Mount Lemon. Let me get you an interview. She got rid of the interview the same day. I got the job the next day. And so now I am a timekeeper for the Catalina hot shots. And I got to live up in the mountains. I mean, there's a beautiful mountain range north of Tucson and I was living and working up there That was all great, but didn't take me long to realize how much I hated paperwork. And there was a lot of it. Time sheets were 11 by 17. Your huge document and there was 5 carbon copies, and you had to press through all 5 carbon copies. That was terrible. So I did that for summer and a half and said, no. I don't wanna do this anymore. And there were so many forced service jobs that were far more interesting than the one I had. including the firefighting aspect. And I decided I wanted to work on a fire crew, and and I applied for the job in in 1976. I was hired by the US Forest Service in Southern Arizona, not in the same place where I was a timekeeper, but close by. And I never gave it a second thought that I couldn't do the work. I figured, I was twenty. I'm gunhoe. I want this job. I finally have a real job. To me, it was like, I've got a real job now. And it didn't dawned on me that, you know, what I've got there was that there was Nothing but men on the crew, and I never really thought about that that was a problem until, of course, as the summer went on and there was a few of the guys who didn't take any time at all to let me know I wasn't welcome there. They told me that women belong to barefoot pregnant in the kitchen, One guy told me that I should quit and go home, and that they really gave me a hard time about, you know, what if I get hurt. Can you carry me out? And I'm looking at him and say -- Oh, yeah. Yeah. There's a three hundred pound overweight guy. And I was like, nobody'd carry you out, John. So I didn't okay at defending myself against my crewmates. But what I was told to my face It was a few years down the road when I was told to my face that I'm not hiring you because you're a woman that I realized This is getting a little serious. And this is the job that I want. This is the career that I want, and now I'm being told that that they won't hire me because I'm a woman. So I thought about it and decided, you know what? I'm gonna file an EEO complaint because this man discriminated against me, and it never occurred to me that that might be a problem of reporting somebody, you know, naive, twenty three year old. So I reported him, and, of course, he denied ever saying such a thing. The complaint went nowhere. It was at my word against his. And a couple years down the road, I find myself blacklisted. And I'm labeled a troublemaker because I filed that complaint. And I'm thinking, wait a minute, that was confidential so much for confidentiality. You know, it got out. And as I switched from the US Forest Service and started working for the Bureau of Land Management, and that's how I ended up in Alaska. which was quite an adventure in itself. Fantastic time in Alaska. It was a crazy, crazy place. Crazy people lot of fun memories. It was really something I and I was so glad that I got the opportunity to go up there when I did. I don't think I could handle the weather up there now.

Diane Schroeder [00:11:44]:

So you were with the forest service for how many years?

Linda Srader [00:11:48]:

Out of the 7 years that I've worked in that field, I would with them for 5, and I spent 2 summers with the Bureau of Land Management, Watson Durango, Colorado, and one's in Kenai, Alaska.

Diane Schroeder [00:12:00]:

I'm not sure about Alaska, but I know Durango is one of my favorite places in the world.

Linda Srader [00:12:04]:

It's a beautiful place. Yeah.

Diane Schroeder [00:12:06]:

It is gorgeous. So after 7 years, we're still in the eighties at this point.

Linda Srader [00:12:12]:

Yes, where it's 82 was my last summer.

Diane Schroeder [00:12:14]:

What happened next?

Linda Srader [00:12:16]:

Well so after an injury, I had to resign. And I had a lot of surgery, and I had to completely rebuild my life, which was not an easy thing to do. And so After 2 years of recovery, I finally decided, you know, right after Tony, you're never gonna be a firefighter yet. I ended up The studying landscape Architecture at the University of Arizona graduated in 1990, returned for a master's degree in land planning in 19 92, graduating in 94. So I ended up in the world of land development, which was really not what I wanted to do with my life. But it paid well. I had since married the man that I had what my first fire was. And we were married for 23 years, and it wasn't working. So I left And after I get a divorce, I buy a house. I've done a good job. I lost that job in 2008 when the economy collapsed. could not find another one. And that's when I started thinking, I had a lot of time in my head saying, I thought, Wow. You know, I was reflecting back to my fire career, and I was thinking, you know, I should probably write some of the stuff down before. I forget it. I did keep very detailed journals. I started doing that when I was a teen, but at first, I didn't refer to them. I just did it from memory. I wrote down some of my adventures and some of my experiences and came up with 90 pages. And my friends said, you know, this is pretty good. You should write some more. I mean, because, obviously, ninety pages is not a short story, and it's not a book either. And so I decided, I should add some more. So I got out my journals and started jogging my memory and The more I wrote, the more I remembered. And next thing I know I have four hundred pages, which is too long. So I had what looked like a book, and I didn't know how to write a book. So I didn't even know if it was any good. So I joined a writer's group in my community, and Next thing I know, I'm querying for a literary agent, looking for a publisher, and it took me a while. It took a long time to perfect my story. and long time to find someone to publish my book, but I did.

Diane Schroeder [00:14:37]:

Wow. I hear so many themes of your story of resiliency and determination and grit of not letting the world tell you what you can and can't do, including a bunch of men who may or may not have their own ego and their own issues. When I hear you speak of some of your experiences, I'm brought back to 2000 when I got hired in the fire service, and I had similar but different experiences. I felt like I was carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders that I was representing every woman in the fire service, and You know, I remember I was told by my first battalion chief, and he was a nice guy. He was really nice to me, but when it came to rotating probation in the structure world, you spend so many months on a ladder truck, so many months on an engine. and they move you around accordingly. And he told me, he goes, normally, I would send you to engine 1, but I've already got 2 women on that engine. and I'm not gonna stack it with a third. And I was like, I don't think that's legal, but I'm not really sure. You're the staffing guy, and I didn't know any better. And that was the first. And I had other experiences, but I was just like, oh, this is how it's gonna be. And I had no idea either because it's not something I anticipated when I entered the fire service. So what did your parents say? I'm curious to know. What did your parents think about? your adventures into wildland firefighting.

Linda Srader [00:16:14]:

So my mom who I was very close to when she found out that I was gonna do it for the second summer, I think the first summer, she thought she'll get over this, and it'll be too hard, and she won't do it. And then when she found out that I applied for the 2nd for 1977, she says, well, you know, I'm gonna worry about you, but I want you to do, you know, makes you happy. My dad blew up at me and told me that's a man's job. And what the heck are you doing? And I still applied for and still did it anyway, but he did not approve. In fact, more of my sisters didn't approve. She didn't think it was a real job. Her whole attitude about it was, you know, it's not a real world job and you don't belong there anyway. It wasn't just the man on my career. It wasn't just the supervisors who blacklisted me. my old family, you know, and I had friends that thought I was absolutely insane. You know, why are you doing this? because I like it, you know. I absolutely loved my job. So

Diane Schroeder [00:17:09]:

Well and the other theme that I hear is your authenticity. I mean, it sounds to me that you have always remained true to who you are and have done what you wanted to do. And that seems easy to say and their words come out, but I can't imagine that it's always been an easy path to be your authentic self and stand up for yourself and advocate for yourself.

Linda Srader [00:17:35]:

You're right. And I certainly never thought I was gonna take that job and have to stand up for myself. That's just not who I am. I mean, I will do it if I'm forced to. But I was just there thinking, oh, this will be a great job. And all of a sudden, I'm fighting for it. You know? And I'm having to put my foot down. No. I will not tollry. You're talking to me like that, or I would just walk away and say, oh, you're such a jerk. You know? And my second summer there changed me a lot from my 1st summer where I was extremely naive because I didn't find out how much the men resented me until the end of the summer. when they let me have it. And I went to a federal woman's program workshop and I didn't know that women were allowed before service at that time. That women's program was to help women learn how to survive in the forest service because they were not welcome. And so what is the a assignments after the week program of assertive this training and all the heck is assertive this training. You know? So it's like they'll stop all over you. You know? We learned about the EEO rights and all that stuff. So at the end of the meeting, the woman that was running the seminar says to us, I want you to go back to your respective workplaces and talk to the men on your crew and find out from them, exactly how they feel about you being on the crew. And I'm thinking, oh, this will be easy. Everybody likes me. And know, other than the few that give me a hard time, oh, this will be a piece of cake. I'm gonna go back and everybody's gonna say, oh, yeah. We think you're doing a great job. That's not what I heard.

Diane Schroeder [00:19:17]:

Oh, man. That's a loaded question. That's like, you never ask a question you don't really wanna hear the answer to.

Linda Srader [00:19:23]:

Silly me. He's thinking, oh, I can do this. You know? And You know, there were four people, four men that my supervisor, the guy that I went to my first firearm, who I ended up marrying, and 2 others were actually on my side and thought, oh, you're doing the great job. And one of them had the most unique perspective. He said, I don't understand what the big deal is. I love having women on my crew because they're always working twice as hard to prove that they could do the job at all And men are working twice as hard because they are trying to impress her, so more work gets done. So what's the problem? And I thought that was great. The ones that I thought had accepted me, just let me have it and said, you don't belong here. You should go home.

Diane Schroeder [00:20:11]:

Wow. That's really hard. I know it fueled you to come back to say, like, can't take me down.

Linda Srader [00:20:17]:

Yeah. I want this job. So --

Diane Schroeder [00:20:19]:

And I love that. How did it shape you? Did it inspire you to try to get more women to come into the fire service?

Linda Srader [00:20:30]:

No. It didn't. It just taught me. Don't let your guard down. It's actually what it taught me. because I spent that whole summer thinking everything was okay with the exception of a couple men who were really vocal And and I just laughed them off. I mean, they were such jerks. See, I tell them that. Oh, you're such a jerk. So I expected it from them but it was the ones who didn't say anything to Mitch at the very end that blew me away, and I thought, how did I not see this coming? So the second summer, I was really changed. Now I'm like, you know so you say that you like to work with me. Do you really mean that? Or you gotta come back later and dabbed me in the back, and it did change me. It changed me forever. But then eventually, I relaxed into and realized, you can do this. You've been doing it. But it it was hard to hear, and I lost my night activity. And I've had a few of the guys I worked with the summer before telling me, you've changed. I said, well, yeah. You know, that was pretty painful to have someone say that you're patient. You don't belong there.

Diane Schroeder [00:21:31]:

I mean, you're still young. Like, I think of back to twenty, twenty one year old me and even twenty three, like, there's a lot of feedback that I got back then that I really, like, hard to hear because I didn't understand myself enough to realize that that issue was a them issue, not a me issue. How long did it take you to figure that out? But all that hate and negativity was their problem and not yours.

Linda Srader [00:21:58]:

It took me a couple summers, and and then I thought, like, I had it under control, but it was 78 when I was told by a supervisor that he wouldn't hire me. So that changed everything. because before, I was just dealing with the guys at my group. And like I said, after a while, I just told him to go away. It can just leave you alone. and I'm doing my job, and you've never carried the load for me. I've always carried my own load, and I've always done my own job. I don't need you. So That also changed my perspective. And when I was blacklisted, that's what I thought the hell with the forest service. It's time to change. You know? BLM was not perfect. It wasn't the solution. To be honest, the Viewer of land management doesn't have a whole heck of a lot of forest other than in Alaska. When I worked in Durango, I actually ended up on a timber crew. And I did go to a couple fires, but they have this hunt forwards. Most of the forest they manage are very small, and they're mostly surrounded by private lands. So I liked working in the forest, and that's what I wanted. So I ended up back with the forest service in 82. And by then, There was one other woman. That was my first hotshot crew with 72 because the other crews I was on they were just considered fire suppression crews. There's no difference between the two. a hotshot cruise. There's 20 of them, and they travel to wherever fires are all over the country. A fire suppression crew is typically working at a particular district. And we did still travel. We still did go to fires if we were needed, but we weren't considered the go to if a big fire breaks out hot track, trees from all over the country, get on a plane and go to it. So that's the only difference between the same work. But to lose by job because of an injury, I mean, that damage myself astain seriously for a quite a while. That was a hard one.

Diane Schroeder [00:23:48]:

I'm sure. How did you learn because you're still young at this point. How did you learn to take care of yourself and kind of recover from that experience of having to leave a career that you fought really hard for to stay in through all the adversity, and now you're injured and you can't go back. So how did you take care of yourself to stay true to who you are so that you could continue on?

Linda Srader [00:24:13]:

Well, and I went through a real rough path. and I spent a lot of time in therapy because I just didn't know what I was gonna do. What I wanted to do was taken away, My husband still worked for the forest service, so I watched him go to fires and I couldn't go. And I'll never forget the counselor who said to me, Well, you know, you could go to college and get a new career. And I said, yeah. But I'll be 34 by the time I graduate. And he says, well, you're gonna be 34 in 4 years whether you go to school or not. Oh, okay. He's right. And once I started college, I dove into that. It was my life. College was my life straight a student. I really put 100% into it, and I and I to my new career. It was always, for years, very hard to see fires and I can't go. And my husband was going off to fires, and I couldn't go. But My new career is not the same thing, but, of course, I'm proud of my new career. And I teach classes in my community. Now I have my own business. And the book never would have been written. Had not all those bad things happened. I hadn't gotten laid off. And all of those things, my book never would have been written.

Diane Schroeder [00:25:30]:

I love that. And it's a great segue because I believe that sometimes the universe gives us a width spur. Sometimes, you know, it taps us on the shoulders. And sometimes it just knocks us upside the head to lead us to a different path that we may not have seen had we done different things. And I think sometimes it's the adversity that pushes us into uncomfortable places. I went back to school in my thirties and finished my degree as well, and then just got my master's degree a couple of years ago.

Linda Srader [00:26:04]:

You know, it's awesome. You know? And it's so hard. I I don't know about you, but I was walking around with all these teens and everything, and All they're talking about is, you know, boyfriends and and we're thinking, I'm just focused on school, and they hated me because I ruined the curve because I got straight days.

Diane Schroeder [00:26:19]:

That's awesome. I did all mine in online, so I didn't have to interact with people, which was great.

Linda Srader [00:26:23]:

Yeah. I didn't have that choice.

Diane Schroeder [00:26:25]:

What I loved about going back to school as an adult was how much I enjoyed it and absorbed it and was like, I really felt like I was learning. I would not have done that well right out of high school in college. I went and got my associate's degree, but I think that, you know, even though everyone's path is a little bit and it wasn't how you expected it, look where you are now. And how has your community played into that? Like, community in the fire service is a very unique community, and I'm sure that you had great times and experiences because you kept going back for a while. There was a draw there that had to be stronger than proving everyone wrong, I would assume, that you loved it. So there's that community. And then finding a different community as you transitioned out of Wildland into a different career. And then now as an author, how has community played a role in your life?

Linda Srader [00:27:22]:

Yeah. I mean, everything has changed, and, you know, I'm the only landscape architect in my community. I also teach classes. And I run into people at the grocery store, and they say, oh, I took your class 5 years ago. It was great. You know? people look up to me, and I appreciate that. But sometimes it's like, I feel like Donald was making too big of a deal out of it because I have just me. You know? And I'm doing the best can. And I have a passion for desert plants. I have a passion for teaching people in my community how to take care of those plants. And So I found a new way to apply the passion that I have to things, and I certainly feel very strongly about what I teach. And people tell me, you know, it shows in your classes. For the longest time, it took me a while to not miss going to the office and having connections with your coworkers and because they don't have that anymore. And, you know, if you've got a pain in the neck claim, you got people you could share it with. You know what? And so I don't have that. So it it's been hard to get used to that. I mean, I've been doing it for 12 years now, so obvious to it now. But at first, I really missed my coworkers even though I didn't like them all. You know, I still missed having, you know, go to to work on Monday and they say, what would you do this Daniel, and you and that was all gone. So you just have to learn how to adapt and change, and it's been okay. Yeah. What's the challenge?

Diane Schroeder [00:28:47]:

I'm sure. So what advice would you give to, I guess, the transitions in life, the challenges, the being flexible and adaptable to whatever life may throw you. Some people, it's easier to adapt than others. So what would you tell people about the journey? Like, what advice would you give?

Linda Srader [00:29:11]:

So I have to go through these stages of No. I'm not gonna change. No. No. No. No. No. No. And then I realized, okay. You know? So you're gonna have to and then I start to realize, once I've accepted the change. I mean, not, like, okay, darn it. I'm gonna have to do it this way. It's like, okay, it's not this is what's gonna happen. And then I look far away to make that change that works the best for me. In other words, I make the changes with my best interests in mind. I couldn't find work. I could've sold the home I just bought, move to Tucson, worked in a factory. I don't know. I could have. I decided, no. I don't want to do that. So how can I stay in my home still make a living, and I didn't share that with anybody. It was an internal conversation. How can I do that? And then I thought, well, you know, they say if you can't practice what you know, maybe you can teach what you know. So I reached out to an organization here that holds classes for the seniors in my community. Pitched a class to them. They said yes. I started teaching, learned that I love to teach. And then from that class, People started asking me, will you do with landscape design? I said, of course, I do. And next thing I know I have a business. I survived because I decided, if I'm gonna do this, it's gonna be my way. And so if I'm not gonna sell my home and move to Tucson and do something I don't wanna do that I'm gonna have to figure out a way to get it by, and I paid off my house. I survived it. It was tough, and it took me a while to get used to it, but I did it on my terms. It had to be on my terms because otherwise it felt like I was giving up if I didn't do it.

Diane Schroeder [00:31:00]:

Wow. That gives me goosebumps. So thank you for sharing that. And correct me if I'm wrong, but what I'm hearing and I've heard this a friend of mine said this before, if you bet on yourself, you can't go wrong. And you believed in yourself and you put in yourself. And I think You took care of yourself. You put yourself first, and that's really hard for most people to do. I think it's even really more challenging for women to do because of all our conditioning and baggage that we bring along. but through your experiences and, you know, your grit and you've done the work on yourself to figure out that you can figure it out, you bet on yourself. And now look at you how happy you are.

Linda Srader [00:31:41]:

And then I think a lot of people focus too much on, well, I can't do that anymore. But what can you do that's on your terms? When I started feeling like I'm being forced, if Saba told me You have to sell your home and you have to go work in Tucson. I would have put the brakes on, and and it would have been terrible if I had said, yeah. You're right. I'm gonna just tear up my life and give up my house, and and I would have regretted it forever, you know, because It had to be on light terms. I had to figure out what am I gonna do on the terms that I can live with. And who knew? I didn't know I like to teach. and the people love my classes. So I have nineteen people in my June class, which is very big for summer. It's pretty quiet here in the summer because most people leave for the summer. So and it's all word of metals. You know? So I say, oh, my friend took your class. Right? They even took your class. I was hiking one day and someone looked at me and said, I took your class. Out of context too, you know, because you think about it. You see people that you know you know them, but you don't know from where, you know, because If you're used to seeing them in fire clothes and then you're seen with the grocery store. Yeah. Yeah. How are you? Oh, I know you. Well, that's right. You know? So so, yeah, the fact that these people wreck hidden basically, just floors me. That's why.

Diane Schroeder [00:32:58]:

Awesome. Well, Linda, thank you so much for sharing your story. It's been a wonderful conversation. I have so much respect for, again, you being a trailblazer and just continuing to be a trailblazer and doing life on your terms and remaining authentic to who you are. That's not easy to do. And so thank you, and thank you for being role model for the rest of us trying to figure it out. I will ask you one final question. If you could go back to 1972 before you had to be uprooted and leave in the middle of your senior year, is there any advice that you would give yourself your nineteen seventy two year old self?

Linda Srader [00:33:46]:

You know, I've been asked that question before, and I always thought it was really interesting because, actually, it's reversed for me. When I was having a really tough time, I looked back at the me back then and realized I'm still her. Because I was struggling with who am I at can't be a firefighter anymore. I can't do this work anymore. And so who am I without all those things? I needed to be from 1972 to remind me You wouldn't take just any job back then. And that's how you ended up working for the forest service to begin with because you refused to be a secretary. You refused to work in retail sales. You refused to be a waitress. That's the 1. She tells me.

Diane Schroeder [00:34:30]:

That might be the best answer I've ever heard from that. So Thank you. Thank you so very much, and I will link your links to your book and how people can find you. If they have any questions and I might look you up. If I have any questions, we don't have desert planning up here, but I'm sure you understand houseplant, so I might ask you a couple. Yeah.

Linda Srader [00:34:48]:

Okay. Yeah. Nice to meet you, Diane.

Diane Schroeder [00:34:52]:

Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to listen to this episode. curious on what to do next? Go ahead and follow wherever you're listening to this podcast so you can get updates each week when new episodes are released. and head on over to the fire insider.com/audio for a free audio to help you get started on yourself care journey. Until next time, remember, you are a badass, and you are not alone.