 Let's make them happy ladies and gentlemen. Big round of applause for the Victorian Recruit Firefighter Course 1, 2018. I'm Lisa Waddling, a recent recruit from the Victorian Recruit Firefighting Course 2018, Course 1. I'm Holly Scoble. I'm Simone Bate. And my name's Chris German. My name's Matt Leonard. I was at a point in my life where I was sort of thinking along future plans and where my family, myself, were heading and I decided that I needed something a little bit more stable to owning my own business. And I wanted to do something that sort of impacted on the community and made a difference. I was a carpenter for 10 years before starting the course, working, I did my apprenticeship back home in council my own with my father. I worked in the family business for about 10 years and then, yeah, went over to Western Australia and did some work over in the mines. I've got a couple of mates in the role and just listening to them talk about the role, being able to serve the community and have a positive impact on people, on people's lives. You know, it's a real privilege to be able to turn up to EMR events or, you know, any job that we go to and be able to help someone in their time of need. The course has been awesome. It's been really, really good fun. The practical stuff's been great, being able to go out into the PLE and, you know, get around in the trucks and turn up to drills and stuff like that. I felt that in my other job I had gone as far as I needed to go and, yeah, I just wanted to spend the rest of my career learning more things, new skillset. Yeah, I'm really excited to get out on station. I'm really looking forward to station life. I was just recently saying to friends that, yeah, I'm starting to pinch myself and think how grateful I am to be here where I am at the moment. I was a retail manager in a pharmacy. So I worked part-time along with looking after my kids. And I decided to have a change because I needed a new career that was going to be more physically and mentally challenging where I could still work within a team and help in the community. And I've had family in the CFA, so looking back at a couple of generations that are before me, I realised that, wow, that's something spectacular and I want to be part of that. The course has been great. I didn't really know what to expect. Living away from home, definitely a massive challenge. Having family at home and going to my head whether they were going to be OK. Then the study, challenging and bit rewarding. So what I thought coming in, I actually have learnt a lot about myself in the last 20 weeks in applying myself both mentally and physically. And I've got a lot out of it. And due to the support, the team, the camaraderie and everyone just coming together and supporting each other. The moment for me is pretty cheesy actually. So when I was 15, my dad had a heart attack and the guy that was first on to him was a commander in the MFB. So since then I've sort of had an interest in it and I knew a couple of guys in the role and thought I was pretty well suited to it and looked to them as something I could do for the rest of my life. Yeah, definitely rewarding. Met some people that'll be friends with for the rest of my life and made some really good bonds. And then even with the instructors, a lot in common with them and they've been really helpful and positive and they give you as much back as you put into work. If anyone else is out there thinking about joining, I would say do it yesterday. It's a much rewarding thing. In here five months we haven't even been out at the station yet and it's still so rewarding being able to come in, put the uniform on and get to work.