Summary: In This Episode A reader tells how she was inspired to change her life. And that leads to a powerful thinking tool: running scenarios can save your life. I’ll show you how, and tell the story of how they probably saved my life.<br> <br> <a class="twitter-share-button" href="https://twitter.com/share?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">Tweet</a><br> <a href="#transcript">Jump to Transcript</a><br> <a href="https://thisistrue.com/category/podcasts/">How to Subscribe and List of All Episodes</a><br> Show Notes<br> <br> * The earlier episode I mentioned: <a href="https://thisistrue.com/027-think-or-react/">027: Think… or React?</a><br> * The story of the deer that jumped in front of me on an ambulance call: <a href="https://thisistrue.com/the_risks_of_emergency_responses/">The Risks of Emergency Responses</a>.<br> * The other story I mentioned about someone <a href="https://thisistrue.com/hours_of_boredom_punctuated_by_moments_of_sheer_terror/">hitting a bear</a>.<br> * Menu of all <a href="https://thisistrue.com/category/ems-story/">EMS Stories</a> in this blog.<br> <br> <a name="transcript"></a><br> Transcript<br> Welcome to Uncommon Sense, I’m Randy Cassingham.<br> This is a requested re-issue of a first-season episode that was spurred by a letter from a reader. Kellie in Pennsylvania wrote, “I want to thank you for being such an inspiration with your stories about being a medic. Every time I read a blog post about your experiences, it stirred something inside of me. I became a certified EMT last week.”<br> She closed with a smiley face, and now I have a smiley face. But that was a pretty brief note from Kellie, and I wanted to know more. I asked her if she was volunteering on the side or what. She replied, “I’m actually hoping to make it a full-time career. The school I went to provides the program in partnership with the local EMS. After doing a few field shifts with them as a student, I realized that I really wanted to be part of their team. So I busted ass in school, graduated top of my class, and after interviewing with one of the people present when I won my award for the best grade, I have a tentative full-time offer from them.<br> “I’m just waiting on the state to put in my credentials for my certification to drive the ambulance, and they are moving at the speed of government. And then I can hopefully get an official offer. I’m being super cautious because I don’t actually have that official offer in hand yet, but I’m so excited and happy because I’ve dreamed of being in EMS for years ever since I started reading This is True and following you, and I’ve worked so hard to make this happen. I actually took a huge leap of faith and quit my full-time job so I could focus 100% on school, even though it was all night classes, and my wonderful husband has worked super hard to make that possible. I can’t wait to start.”<br> She later confirmed she got the job.<br> When my wife, Kit, and I got certified, we had to keep our full-time jobs: This is True readers needed their newsletters! And I needed to pay my mortgage. Because I had been certified as an Advanced Life Support medic before, and worked in the field full-time for about six years, it was pretty easy for me to re-certify at a lower level, even though there had been a 20-year hiatus. Still, things change in medicine in 20 years, so I did have to read the book. I had to learn what was new and what the local protocols were. Still, both of us wanted to be part of serving the community in a way that we could.<br> It isn’t something you just go to a weekend class and then get t...
