I want to become a firefighter

Today I am a volunteer firefighter, later I want to become a professional firefighter.
For that you have to pass a competition but this competition is very rare (approximately every 5 years).
At the beginning I wanted to be a military firefighter but my mother (who worries too much) forbid me.
So I said to her : Mom if I had been a boy I would be a soldier and she replied that I was not a boy.
In my family we are not firefighter (only my cousins) so they are afraid, that's normal.
As a firefighter the biggest challenge for me is mental strength.
If physically we can't do something, our teammate will help us.
But for the mind, we are practically alone.
The most important for a firefighter is to speak otherwise : either we are dead or either we are not doing well mentally.