I had always wanted to be a municipal firefighter and never even knew about forest/ wildland fire until the Granite Mountain incident. I am really thankful to whatever crybaby that was that complained about "discriminatory" hiring practices at Austin City. I am so happy where I'm at. THings will ALWAYS work out if you work hard and keep a positive attitude. Getting passed over is a lemonade out of lemons type situation for me. This female that got the job needs some help, sure, but I have some skills to teach her. She's accepting of my help and wants to learn. I recognize that I can be better and I have a renewed drive to become even better.
For the OP's neighbor, what is his recognition of his situation like. If he recognizes that he put himself in a hole is it too late? Sure, too late to return to being young and healthy but it's not too late to be better.
