Let's not lie and say this career choice of mine is an easy one, because it really isn't. I am constantly stressed. Sometimes I wonder how I could have ever thought being a Paramedic was for me, my dream, the job I wanted to work until the end of time.
Why would I choose to do shift work? It's unhealthy (google circadian rhythm) and can affect not only your sleep and eating patterns, but hormone levels (including impacting your fertility) and increase your risk of heart disease, amongst most other nasty things. Being a Paramedic means you need incredible manual handling skills and awareness because you will be squatting, bending, pushing, lifting heavy patients and bags, twisting into tight-ass corners, wriggling into impossible angles to shift some heavy bugger who decided to collapse at the bottom of the stairs in a corner of a busy club. This job means you don't have 'weekends', you get 'days-off' that no one else has off, because it's Tuesday-Thursday and not even your work mates have those days off, so eating on your own, going to the movies on your own and day trips are on your own. Being a Paramedic is depressing. You only see people who are sick or hurt. People are normally upset, despite being glad to see you walk through their door. We bring bad news as often as good.
However!
I could not possibly imagine doing anything else other than being a Paramedic.
I get to see the city (at the moment, it's London) at all times of the day. I see the striking colours of the sun setting over the horizon nearly every day and I can watch the smooth, gentle pinks lighting up the dark sky in the mornings at the end of my shifts. Humans decided to live while the sun is up, but I think there's something calming, gentle and friendly about the dark. I can have steak for breakfast, I have an excuse to eat cereal for dinner and when you're tired, you sleep, while the sun shines you rest and recharge for your next big adventure: tonight's shift.
I am unconsciously using so many muscles that I'm getting stronger. You carry two to three heavy bags at a time, up and down stairs at patients' houses, in and out of the truck, around branch, to and from work. You squat all the time, with a straight back, and picture yourself at the gym. And no need for a stair master, all the houses here are built upwards, and they always get sick on the topmost floor. And there's never an elevator in apartment blocks.
It takes a certain person to be a Paramedic, and because I am one, I know that the friends that I am making now at work, these colleagues of mine, are more than just colleagues. I have been able to trust them, confide in them and connect with them as they are so similar to me. I may be stressed and doubt myself and my abilities, but they are going through the same things and feel the exact same way. I am not alone in thinking that 300 hours of training is not enough to become a competent Paramedic. I am not alone in missing home, or the sun or the Aussie accent.
And as a Paramedic I am welcomed whole-heartedly into strangers' homes. The look of relief as I come in with my bags and open mind and ready skills will never get old. I like being liked, I guess I'm a glutton in that way, I want more of it. I will never get tired of hearing 'thank you'.
I am almost fully qualified and will soon be out on my own, and to that I say BRING IT ON!
I am so proud of you.
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