Christopher Mozzillo

A Guide to Living Out Loud
Some people live life out loud. Christopher Mozzillo lived life out louder.

How to Stop Your Mom and Sister From Fighting at the Dinner Table: Take a fork, pretend to ram it in your forehead and shout, "You're driving me nuts!" Or bang your head against the wall, whimpering, "Help me, help me!"

How to Get Your Girlfriend out of the Ocean for Lunch: Roll her, soaking wet, up the sand, laughing as you yell, "Chicken cutlet here!" (Escort her to the showers, please.)

Cook only masterpieces. Ski only black diamond trails. Drink till someone else passes out first. Be president of your fraternity at St. John's, a king of the bar scene at the Jersey Shore, the best at trivia because you have a photographic memory.

Take the firefighter's exam at 18 and wait impatiently all those years, working as an environmental scientist, until you are called — finally! — at 25. Be so upbeat that, at 27, you think you know what the future holds: husband, father, upstate homeowner, lieutenant, captain, chief.

Love being in the fraternity known as Engine Company 55 in Manhattan's Little Italy so much that you come home to Staten Island boasting, "Today the captain let me hold the knob of the hose!"