Well, when you turn the "magical age of 18" you're gonna start getting your butt kicked to get life started. Enjoy it while you can, really, because it'll start sucking from here on out if you're not ready. You'll have to start life: college, work, home, bills, FILING TAXES OMG, etc. You're gonna learn how to work money and learn about economics, also, so you don't get screwed in the future. Figure it out now while you have the chance so you don't leave your house wondering.. ...eh how do loans and and your 1040 work.
I do agree on the paradox you have going on though. My parents keep saying that getting a job will teach me how to like, mortgage a house, get a car loan, keep my credit score high and all this other mess... and I tell them "nah, it'll teach me how to work there, basically." Get a job now; it'll make you happy.
Oh, anyway, about the fireman thing: you've probably never heard of EXPLORERS or whatever it is where you can be a junior firefighter (volunteer, basically) and take calls just like employed firefighters. You would set up hoses and stuff and clean the shop and engines, etc.
The reason you have to be 18 to be a firefighter is the same for almost anything... insurance purposes. If you're 18, it falls on you. Say you were 17 and became a firefighter somehow. If you died or broke equipment, the issue would fall on your parents. That's why I couldn't be a porter at Garlyn-Shelton BMW (I applied when I was 17) because if I damaged one of the cars or totalled a vehicle, it'd fall on your parents, not me, etc. etc. etc. etc.
Oh btw, don't forget to go get your Selective Service forms in within 30 days of turning 18 or you'll have a warrant issued for your arrest!! Don' try and fight that; it won't work. (This has not happened to me; I'm not speaking from experience.)
