Remember when I used to write a blog? Remember when I said I was going to make a habit of writing more regularly? Yeah, me either… apparently.
I spent the last 17 weeks in a strange, other-worldly, vortex in the space-time continuum, in which time flew by while seeming to drag on FOR. EVER.
Gracious! When you say it like that, 17 weeks, it hardly seems like any time at all, and yet, it feels like a lifetime ago that I started my EMT Class. Maybe it’s just by comparison to the roughly equivalent time I spent anticipating the class, never really fully grasping the magnitude of what I was about to subject myself to. I knew it was going to require a lot of work. I knew it was a significant commitment on my part; returning to school at all, let alone for such a significant undertaking, after so many years.
I enrolled in this class in May, but then there was nothing to do until class started. I sat around thinking about the class and wondering what I was getting myself into. When my textbook came and it was more than two inches thick, with over 1500 pages, I thought surely it must be more than one class worth of material.
I knew I was going to have to work hard, but I never imagined how hard. I had no idea how all-consuming this class would turn out to be. The first half of the semester was, admittedly, more work than the second half. Most of the reading, introduction of new information, intensive testing and general trials and tribulations took place before the mid-term with the second half focusing more on learning the skills and learning to put the information into practice.
But the second half of the class also, included the more anxiety inducing tasks of spending 10 hours on a ride-along with the Oakland Fire Department and an additional 12 hours in the County Trauma Center.
Amid all that work and stress, I also had a real, paying job to do and I found myself unable to live up to my usual level of slacking off and screwing around on the computer on company time. (I won’t lie. I found that part disappointing.) As a result, my time to read and write blog posts was significantly diminished and as a result, I have published only 20 blog posts in the last seventeen weeks, which frankly, is more than I thought I had.
The class is over, it ended last Wednesday, and now, finally, I have a minute to breath and tell a little more about it.
~~~~~
Well, anyway, I thought I could. I wrote several more paragraphs after this but wasn’t able to finish the story in the time I had available to me so I’ve copied them into a draft and I’ll attempt to finish the story tomorrow. I’ve got a lot more to say.
Read part two here.
Riggledo 
I like what u have to.say
*waits!!!!!
From what you were able to write during the past 17 weeks, it was clear that the class, combined with all you do in the course of a normal day, was exhausting. Glad you made it through!
Hi Reggledo, I really enjoyed reading your posts. I too am preparing for a career in the fire service and I am planning on taking the emt b course at merritt college. I notice that your program included time at an ER and with the FD and that sounds like a good deal to me, the class I’m taking only offers time on an ambulance but no ER time and no FD time. I realize these posts were made years ago and you probably don’t read this anymore but just incase you do, where did you take your emt class?