"Station 1, Motor Vehicle Collision on Main and 1st, two patients."

The tones drop and I'm grabbing my coat as I'm tripping out the door. I've never been to a motor vehicle collision, and I'm giddy with excitement. I start up the truck and beg my partners to hurry. I want to be first on scene.

We arrive and I see that we are nowhere near the first on scene. Blue lights from the police mingle with the red from the fire engines, and I feel a migraine fast approaching. I grab the giant… Continue

After my EVOC certificate arrived in the mail (and was promptly framed and put on the wall), I began precepting as a driver. Precepting, I learned, is just a fancy word for 'training'. I make my way over to the station one Wednesday night, and meet the crew I will be running with. I meet Steve, John, Hank, Drew, Ed and Liz, all of whom I am sure I'll come to know and love.

John, a professor at my university, gives me the orientation. He tells me about procedures, courtesies, ettiquite and… Continue

One particularly cold and cloudy Friday evening in October, I find myself sitting in the training room of Clearview Volunteer Rescue Squad with my best friend Olivia. We grab a seat near the front, being the eager students we are, and carefully lay out our pens and paper. One light flickers incessantly in the corner, giving the already dim room lighting worthy of a B-list horror flick. I look around the room, and I am surprised to find that other than one instructor, Liv and I are the only… Continue

When I walk into the bland beige building of the Clearview Rescue Squad for the first time, I calmly hold out my hand and say "My name is Samantha Montgomery, and I'm here to interview for a position on the squad." The man to whom I am speaking peers down at me over his huge, square glasses and says, "so it's Sam, then?" I must look confused, because he straightens up and repeats, "It's Sam. You can't possibly think that you'll get any respect with a name like Samantha," he trails off and then… Continue