I am currently facing an interesting dilemma...opinions received open heartedly! I have recently made a big transition in my life. Well, several..LOL I will give you a basic guideline so you can understand my situation. About 4 years ago my husband passed away. There was a lot of issues surrounding all of this obviously, but one of them was that his family came after all of his belongings and threatened me with numerous things. I eventually couldn't stand living in fear for my life anymore and walked away from my house to find a better environment for my son and myself. I went back to my old fire department where I had friends, support, and safety. As I got my feet back under me I ended up in a new relationship and had taken the position as training officer on the department. I got my FF1 and various other wildland certs. I was also running on the ambulance and on search and rescue. It was my perfect world almost. My whole life I have been fascinated and passionate about emergency services. I find myself totally content when working in this field. I was fortunate in that I had some really great friends that helped me with my son. They would run to the scene and pick him up or I could drop him off in route. Then things went sour with my boyfriend. He started being very harsh with my son, and we needed to end it. My son took this all very hard. Even though he was getting hurt by my ex he still wanted him in his life. The loss of 2 father figures in his life was very difficult. Around the same time my support system fell apart as my friends moved out of town. It became increasingly difficult to respond to calls, I was running out of paying work as well. I could see that dropping my son off with different people each time I had a call was getting hard on him and I needed to make a change very soon. I started looking at the possibility of joining a paid Fire department. The more I looked into it it didnt seem feasible in my situation. I would have to move to a city where I had no support and the places I was looking also required paramedic licensing(I was a basic) Plus they were all running 24 or 48 hour shifts and I knew I couldnt throw Devon into this new situation in such an unstable state. So, I started looking into getting my paramedic and getting on an ambulance crew. I spoke to all of my wiser paramedic friends and seemed to get the same advice over and over. They were getting older and had no way of retiring and the pay for paramedics was bad. I was advised to look into nursing. So, I did. It didnt seem like a good fit for me, I liked what I was doing, but the more i saw the struggle in my son the more I considered it. Finally I decided to go for it and find a good place for us to go in order for me to accomplish this. I convinced myself that I could still be involved with volunteer departments and that I might be able to get on a flight crew or work in the Emergency Department and that would suit me better. So, here I am on the entire other side of the country. I am near one of my friends that was part of the support group of friends that had moved from my previous location(she found the school for me-near her of course ;) I am going to school, and my son is settling in nicely. But, there is this naggin concern inside that I am making a mistake going into nursing. I'm afraid I wont be as passionate about it, and I really dont want to give up Fire, ambulance and search and rescue. I have recently applied at the local volunteer department, and am awaiting a background check. I know that education wont hurt me, and nursing is a good paying career that has a more condusive schedule for single parenting. I like helping people. I dont like the hospital environment in general, but think i could handle the ER, or a flight crew. I know that no one can tell me if I am doing the right thing, but I would like some opinions on the situation. What are you doing? and how does it work out? How are your kids dealing with it? etc.? To me taking a job in nursing is the sacrifice I am making for my child. If I were on my own, money wouldnt matter to me, I would just do what I loved doing, but now I have to look out for what makes both of us happy. Thanks for reading my rant.. :)