My Kind of People

So remember all that talk I was talking back in September about my interest in Emergency Medicine?  Well today was the day I started walking some walk, my friends, because today was the first day of my Wilderness First Responder course (aka WFR, affectionately pronounced "Woofer").

That is not my apple.  But I did eat some of it.

Said course required me to be down in Portland by 0745, which meant tackling rush hour traffic, which is always fun (she said, sarcastically).  But me being me, I left plenty early, and thus got there in plenty of time to sit in the car and freak out about various ridiculous things, including-but-not-limited-to a) being the only non-EMT in the class b) being the only one without a "greater purpose" to getting my WFR c) being the only girl (because all the other people I saw sitting in cars were dudes).

And then I drove around the block because I thought there was a parking lot I was missing, but no- I'd just driven around the block like a spaz for no reason whatsoever.  The upside to that, however, was that by the time I parked right back where I'd started from, the doors to the building were open and I could just go in.

I was not, of course, the only girl- in fact a good 40% of the class turned out to be female, which was just so incredibly heartening.  And I was not the only non-EMT: out of 30-odd participants, there were only three EMTs- although I did somehow managed to sit right in the middle of them, which was excellent because they were all really great about soothing my nervousness.  And, of course, I was not the only one there "just because".  We were a minority, but we were there!

The instructors warmed us up with one of the better "Getting to Know You" exercises I've ever participated in, the sort that leave you feeling comfortable rather than awkward, and furthermore resulted in the class compiling a list of book recommendations (and me discovering that my seat mate and I have almost identical tastes in books).  In that first hour I realized that there is a certain personality-type drawn to this sort of thing, and that it just so happens to be a personality-type that I get along exceptionally well with.  Which makes sense, I suppose, since it's my personality type.  So it was a room full of wisecracking outdoorsy people who were nevertheless quite serious about Getting Shit Done, and I was quite delighted by the experience.

All in all by the end of the day I was even more excited about being there than I had been at the beginning: I'm just so glad that I decided to take the plunge to do this, and I can't wait to go back tomorrow and learn more.

(In the meantime, my spouse, friends, friends' babies, and my dog have all been subjected to me poking and prodding them for homework.  That's true love, folks.)