you're what?

It's starting to get a bit old watching and listening to people's reaction when they find out what I do for a living. The 'but you're so tiny' and 'how could you possibly carry me out?' comments are becoming a bit boring. A cop at a call said to me 'they let you drive that truck?' to which I responded 'they let you carry a gun?'. My favourite one this week was from a guy. He told me that the reason I was hired was that I am Chinese and female and he would get discriminated against because he is a white male. Uh... 98% of the firefighters out there are male Caucasians the other 1% are visible minorities and the last 1% are females. And when you write your initial entrance exam you are assigned an ID number. They won't even look at your resume and application unless you score in the top percentile of the exam. The cutoff mark is usually 85 but you need to score in the 90's these days. As far as my size, I am smaller than the average male but I still weigh in at 140 lbs and stand at 5"7. I can dead lift much more than my body weight and drag out a person weighing 250 lbs. My size has its advantages in that I can squeeze into attic openings or breech into confined spaces where others can't get into. I have been able to administer help to trapped persons by fitting through a small window. We all work as a team anyway. And it's amazing what you can do when there is a burning fire licking at your butt and the adrenaline kicks in. I don't normally defend myself when people act all stunned but like I said it's starting to get old so maybe next time when someone asks what I do for a living I will tell them I am Little Miss Susie Homemaker and my job is to serve and worship my husband. I might find people's reaction a bit funnier then.