The end of high school.

Graduation was only a few weeks away, and you still had no idea what to do with your future. Every teacher kept asking the same question: "What's your plan after high school?" Honestly, you hate hearing it. One stormy evening, you sit at your desk staring at three different options on your laptop. Rain hits your bedroom window while thunder shakes the apartment. Your parents expect you to make a smart decision, but your mind keeps changing every five minutes. Part of you wants stability. The other part wants adventure. You take a deep breath and look at the choices one last time.

Choice 1 : Saint-Laurent College.

Choice 2 : Firefighter DVS.

Choice 3 : Find a job

Saint-Laurent College.

Saint-Laurent College was both exciting and terrifying in the first weeks. The campus was a flurry of students rushing to class with books and coffee cups. You quickly found out that college demanded self-discipline. Your philosophy teacher talked faster than anyone you'd ever met, and your English teacher gave you essays every week. You went to college for architecture. It sounded like a secure future. You like to draw buildings, and people tell you that you are creative. The first semester is interesting but stressful. You spend whole nights working on models, blueprints and design projects. Coffee soon becomes part of your daily routine. You're walking home from class one night, and you see a bunch of firefighters around a restaurant that's on fire downtown. You halt and observe them working under the flashing lights.

Choice 1 : Talking to the firefighter.

Choice 2 : Focusing on school.

Firefighter DVS.

The first day of the Firefighter DVS is tough. Students haul heavy hoses across the training ground, as instructors shout without a pause. Your legs get weak already by lunch. You nearly fell down the tower during ladder practice. Your instructor catches your jacket just before you fall. "You have to be confident," he tells you. That night you wonder if you made the wrong choice.

Choice 1 : Training harder.

Choice 2 : Thinking about quitting.

Find a job.

You decide school is too expensive and get a warehouse job instead. The work is repetitive: lifting boxes, unloading trucks, standing in the cold for hours. Weeks began to blur together. One night, traffic is stopped by a big fire in an apartment building up the block. Smoke rises as firefighters' burst into the building. The people outside are afraid, but the firefighters are calm. Something about that moment stays stuck in your brain.

Choice 1 : Firefighter DVS.

Choice 2 : Staying at the warehouse.

Talking to the firefighter.

After the fire is controlled, you walk toward one of the firefighters standing beside the truck. You ask him if the job is really as dangerous as people say. He laughs. "Yeah," he answers, "but helping people makes it worth it." Before leaving, he hands you a recruitment pamphlet. You stare at it during the entire bus ride home.

Choice 1 : Firefighter DVS.

Choice 2 : Staying in architecture.

Focusing on school.

You ignore the strange feeling and concentrate on architecture. Months pass, but you slowly become exhausted from the pressure. Every project needs perfection. Some students even sleep in classrooms before deadlines. One night, after failing an important presentation, you sit alone outside the school wondering if you actually enjoy this career anymore.

Choice 1 : Staying in architecture.

Choice 2 : Firefighter DVS.

Training harder.

You decide to stay in the program and take training seriously. Every morning before class, you start running through empty streets to improve your endurance. Slowly, you become stronger. One day, your class practices search-and-rescue exercises inside a smoke-filled building. Suddenly, you hear someone yelling for help inside one of the rooms.

Choice 1 : Rushing in alone.

Choice 2 : Working as a team.

Thinking about quitting.

Training becomes harder every week. Your body constantly hurts, and you barely sleep. One evening, you call your parents and admit that you want to quit. Your father stays silent for a moment before speaking. "Hard things are supposed to feel hard," he says. You spend the rest of the night staring at the ceiling, wondering if you are really capable of becoming a firefighter.

Choice 1 : Training harder.

Choice 2 : Quitting the program.

Staying at the warehouse.

Years pass at the warehouse. Your life becomes a routine: wake up, work, eat, sleep, repeat. Sometimes, you hear sirens outside and stop working for a few seconds just to listen. One winter night, a small electrical fire breaks out in the building. Everyone panics, but firefighters quickly control the situation. Watching them work reopens old feelings inside you.

Choice 1 : Firefighter DVS.

Choice 2 : Staying at the warehouse forever.

Staying in architecture.

You remain in architecture class and eventually become good at it. Years later, you help design safer public buildings and emergency exits for hospitals and apartment towers. The work is stressful, but meaningful. Sometimes, while walking through Montreal at night, you still see firefighters responding to emergencies and wonder what your life would have looked like in that uniform. You never become a firefighter, but you still protect people in your own way.

Choice 1 : The end of high school.

Rushing in alone.

Without thinking, you rush into the room alone. The smoke is so thick that you can barely see your own hands. Suddenly, part of the ceiling collapses nearby, forcing instructors to pull you outside. "You don't work alone in this job!" one instructor yells angrily. You realize that bravery without teamwork can become dangerous.

Choice 1 : Training harder.

Choice 2 : Ignoring the criticism.

Working as a team.

You wait for your partner before entering the room. Together, both of you find the victim safely and complete the rescue exercise without injuries. For the first time, you truly understand how important teamwork is in firefighting. Months later, you officially graduate from firefighter training. Standing beside your classmates in uniform feels unreal. Flashing lights reflect off the trucks while your families applaud nearby. You remember the nights you sat alone in your bedroom unable to decide your future. Now, you finally know you chose the right path. You become a firefighter!

Choice 1 : The end of high school.

Quitting the program.

You decide to leave the firefighter program. At first, the decision feels like a relief. Your body finally gets time to rest, and the stress slowly disappears. You find another job and try moving on with your life. But every time you hear sirens in the distance, something inside you feels unfinished. Years later, you still wonder if you gave up too soon. Wrong choice!

Choice 1 : Thinking about quitting.

Staying at the warehouse forever.

You continue working at the warehouse for years. The pay is enough to survive, but every day feels exactly the same as the one before. New employees arrive while older workers leave, but nothing really changes. Sometimes during your lunch break, you catch yourself staring outside whenever you hear fire trucks passing nearby. A part of you still imagine a different life. Wrong choice!

Choice 1 : Staying at the warehouse.

Ignoring the criticism.

You refuse to admit that rushing in alone was dangerous. As training continues, your confidence slowly turns into arrogance. During another exercise, you ignore instructions again and accidentally put another student in danger. The instructors immediately remove you from the program. Walking out of the training center for the last time feels worse than failing. Wrong choice!

Choice 1 : Rushing in alone.