If Only I Had Listened To Everyone

I put the truck into park in the school parking lot. Beside my window a figure stands, I wait for him to pass, but instead to taps on my window. It's a familiar face. The face belongs to man that had been hired on the fire department with me. A classmate if you will. I dismount the vehicle, my hair's done, but otherwise I'm a mess, still tired from the late night of A&P reading. He's dressed in a uniform and looks well rested. "What in the hell are you doing here, run, run while you still can, it's not to late!" he says. He's not quite amazed to see me attending school to become a medic, he is more amazed that anyone would subject themselves to this particular level of torture. "Aw come on, it's not that bad." I fire back with, as we walk inside.

Now I've been taking fire classes for three years straight and it wasn't that long ago that I finished college. It seems like a distant memory now. I've managed to forget just how much work this is. The technical college that I attending was great. The fact that I almost already knew the material was even better. There were hard times and a couple of late nights working on projects, but I don't think I ever had to study. Sure I paged through books for random facts or interesting topics. But it was never material I didn't know something about.

You could knock my of with a feather this time around. It feels as if my head in not correctly fitted to my shoulders, it spinning around as it does. Learning all the medical terminology and anatomy and physiology and this and that and more. Read this and this and this tonight, there's a quiz on this Tuesday and a test of Friday, oh by the way have your papers done for Monday. Have a fun weekend. Christ what weekend. It's not like I get to sleep in or anything. I just don't have to drive to school. I've muttered the phrase, "If so and so can do it, I certainly can." Well I might not have much respect for the knowledge some people have now, but I certainly respect their level of commitment then.

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

God this sucks.