A few questions...

[brittonneeley]

I'm 20 years old and i live in Georgia. Something is telling me to get out of Lowe's and into firefighting. I want to help people and do something meaningful. So i guess im going to follow my gut feeling. Anyway, here are my questions.

1-Cobb county is not taking applications until about April. Would it be smart to begin an EMT certificate program at my nearby college?
2-I already have my CDL will this help?
3-I am not afraid of blood but i have never been exposed to a devastating situation, how do i know if i can handle it?

Any other advise will be helpfull.

THANKS

[Dickey]

Do what you think and feel is right, no one can tell you any different.

[jerry4184]

Can't answer the first two, as I don't know much about Georgia's requirement's, and how things are done in Cobb County.

As for three, you won't know until it happens. The best thing, is just get the training you need, and then when the situation happens, you can just go into an automatic pilot of sorts. As weird as it is, I can't stand lacerations and stuff, and I hate needles, and can not watch someone give a shot, or someone get a shot. Yet in the ambulance at work, I'm fine. No problems there, because training, and right environment take over, and I'm not thinking about that stuff anymore. Sure, some stuff might turn my stomach, but everybody sees something once in awhile that makes them cringe.

Pretty much, if you reall want this, you can work through it all, and handling a bad wreck, or a suicide, or some other gruesome, nasty scene, won't be as bad as you thought. It's professional detachment. Though just wait til you get to your first debriefing/crisis intervention/whatever they call it in Georgia.