Mid-Life Crisis Narrowly Averted...Again.

I should start with explaining "again". a few months ago I was trying to decide which direction to go with school. What would be the best choice for future careers and such. I sent my parents a video of me performing a song translated to ASL (this was a school assignment) My mother replied to the video with much more expression than she usually shows (I'm a VERY expressive person) She said that she now knew that I was born to be an ASL interpreter and that I should look into how to get certified. I like signing. I like working with people, I love teaching and explaining things, so it wasn't a bad idea. It wasn't necessarily a NEW idea to me either, I had considered (briefly) becoming an interpreter, and I knew I would enjoy it. however, that would be a totally different path (school and life-wise) than the one I am currently on. TOTALLY different. For those of you who don't know, I am studying Emergency Management. I was at a fork in the road and was having a really hard time deciding which path to take. My parents came to visit and we talked a lot (well, I talked a lot) and they helped me figure it out.

Soooooo.......I stayed on the path of Emergency Management.

I needed another quarter of ASL for pre-reqs to be a transfer student at a university, so I am currently taking ASL 4 at Seattle Central Community College. (AWESOME SCHOOL! My other classes are through Pierce) My teacher is really charismatic (and hilarious) and his teaching style works really well for me. I've only been in class for two weeks and I've learned so much. I have been really enjoying class and even enjoying the studying. (I'm even going to an ALL SILENT ASL weekend over my birthday weekend!) All this fun and learning made me think "why did I not want to become an interpreter?". I started kind of freaking out again, worried I was making the wrong decision...and then I watched TV. bear with me, there is a good explanation.

Kadin and I were watching a new show called "Stan Lee's Superhumans". A comic book legend now looking for people in the world that have the REAL characteristics of the characters he created. It's a neat show profiling people who can do incredible things. One of the segments was on a man named Patrick Musimu. He holds the world record for breath-hold deep sea diving. It was really amazing! without O2, he went down to a depth of like 685 feet. He actually fills his sinus cavities with water to equalize the pressure so his body can handle the depth. He held his breath during the dive for about 8 and 1/2 minutes. Talk about anaerobic. I turned to Kadin and of course blurted the first thing that came to mind, it was something like "Honey! That's almost awful! The standard that we think of for being without O2 is only 5 minutes! after 5 minutes, you are thinking about a serious chance of brain damage from lack of Oxygen. If you were responding to him in an emergency, he would set a different standard. I know 'they aren't dead until they are warm and dead' and hypothermic patients have gone longer without Oxygen and not had brain damage, but he's warm, and what I noticed most is that his body didn't even seem stressed when he came up. There was no big breath, no gasping, no shaking, nothing. He spoke in complete sentences and even seemed relaxed. how many patients do you think have been given up on based on standards, that could have been like him? If there are more people who's bodies can do crazy stuff like that it really could change medical standards. Think of coming on scene to a near-drowning. someone asks 'how long has he been under' the response is '8 minutes' a part of you thinks 'damn, he might be kinda screwed' but in his case it is more like 'eh, we wont start to worry about his anaerobic state for another few minutes, this isn't long for him.'

okay, so it looks a lot longer when I type it.

Kadin (who is very patient with me and used to my extremely random thought process) just listened and said, "yeah". when I realized he was not thinking the same thing, I remembered why I'm studying Emergency Management.

When I went to the fair, I got some cotton candy. While I was eating it, I wasn't thinking about childhood fun, or how it tasted. I thought "hmmm....this dissolves really quickly, it is really light weight, and you can pack it down to  nothing. I wonder if it would be good in a backpacking first aid kit." Ya know, diabetic emergency, quick dissolving sugar. I ended up deciding that the cake frosting tube I have in my first aid kit was better, but that is what I was thinking while eating cotton candy.

The other night I was up late (2am or so). I was flipping through channels on TV. We have cable and netflix on the XBOX so I am never lacking for something interesting to watch. During the commercial the TV got EXTRA loud and Kadin woke up. I turned the TV down and he asked me what I was watching.....

I was watching the pre-recorded Pierce County Committee on Emergency Management committee meeting. That's right....someone standing at a podium in a public building reading off reports and statistics. "I motion...I second....yea, nay"...budget appropriations....y.e.a.h. The kinda sad part is that I was actually really interested (they were discussing a new curriculum and plan to teach kids preparedness.) Right, in my free time, that is what I chose to watch.

A job as an interpreter is a smart decision, a safe decision. Great pay, flexible hours, interactive, stable, fun.

A job in emergency management...a little risky. CRAZY long hours (especially during emergencies) sometimes a lot of travel (not the vacation kind), a job not always in demand. Also, I don't know what I will be able to do physically or mentally in the future with my disability. I may not even be able to work full-time, soooo not the smartest or safest career decision of the two.

But, I'm reminded again, by the random way I think, why I study Emergency Management. When I walk into a classroom crowded with desks and chairs I look around at everyone and take notes on injuries, size, etc. (hazards and resources) and I try to figure out what the best way to evac. everyone will be since the desks are all in the way. WHO ELSE THINKS LIKE THAT?! SERIOUSLY!

so as I look for a good book to reread on my bookshelf and all of my choices have to do with Emergency Management, Search and Rescue, First Aid, Preparedness Education, Survival, and FEMA's National Response Plan, my anxiety slips away, I take a deep breath, and avert the mid-life crisis once again.

I'm on this path because I love it, I'm good at it, I'm passionate about it, and DAMN it is interesting!