Looking Back at 2012

As 2012 wraps up, I spent a little time looking back at my posts from this year.  It was a turbulent year for me, and although real life tore me away from the blog a bit more than I wanted it to, I still did my best to keep it active, and I think I had some great posts in there.

This was a year of change for me.  The working environment that I was in changed drastically, life changed drastically, and I decided that in order to best respond to that I needed to find a new place to call home, and a service that was a bit more in line with what I believed in as a paramedic and more importantly, as a person.  While certain aspects of my life are still working themselves out, I still feel that mission was successful.  Anyway, on to the posts.

“Bad Publicity and Saving Face” – No post that I made in 2012 stirred things up more than this one.  I saw more than 6,000 visits to my page as a result of it, and got a number of comments both on the blog and over on Facebook.  It is all about a controversial article that, of all places, was written in a college newspaper.  It is a gut check for everyone out there who has ever told someone what being an EMT is all about, and it is a reminder that our profession follows us into each and every social circle that we put ourselves in.  Check it out, and see what everyone had to say about it.  Then, read the follow up to the article here.

“What Would You Do?” – Sparked by a conversation that we had in the office at my part time job, this post was about a sticky situation involving a DNR, and a patient who did not want to be around anymore.  Legally, morally, and ethically, each opinion might differ from the one before it.  There are some great comments in this post.

“Officer Gene Cassidy” – Everyday, police officers, fire fighters and paramedics make sacrifices.  This past June, an officer in the city I used to work in made the ultimate sacrifice.  This is a post I wrote months earlier in February of this year about a Baltimore police officer that I met when I was ten years old.  It is an important reminder of how life could change without warning.

“Stress” – In September, I was at the height of one of the most stressful periods of my career.  The calls were not bad, but I was getting ready to make a major move, preparing myself to make that move possible, and getting impatient with where I was in life, and in my career.  I responded by writing a two parter about one of the most overlooked aspects of this job: Stress.  Here is the link to the second part of that post.

“Saying Goodbye” – I sat in my office at work, my finger hovering over the “send” button on my Microsoft Outlook as I prepared to send my letter of resignation giving my two weeks to my previous employer.  In the ten days that followed, I shared some great moments with a number of people who I had worked with over the past twelve years.  The crescendo of this was a get together that my field employees, no, my fellow providers, threw for me.

As 2012 comes to a close, the time of looking back at where closes along with it.  It is time to look forward and make 2013 a great year.  I intend to do that.  Thanks to everyone who continues to read this blog.  As I meet readers, and I have people comment to me on what they’ve seen, I cannot begin to tell you how humbling it is to me to know that people enjoy perusing these pages as much as I enjoy putting them out.

Stay safe, and let’s make 2013 a great year!