Isabella

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Everyone acts like being a paramedic or an EMT is the most rewarding job. You see people in their worst times and you help them, but what about all the times when what you did doesn't feel like enough? We do our best but at the end of the day we lose patients and we only know them for thirty minutes, maybe an hour, but it hits us and it's one of the worst feelings.

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Being a medic is something I've wanted to do since I was a kid. I would always play doctor and I would act out being the medic. I was so blind to the pain that this job actually causes until I was the one feeling it. Our job isn't easy and the only reason most of us are here is the patient we manage to get a laugh from and share a smile with.

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But then we also have patients that make us feel like we can't even continue to work after. But we don't have a choice; we never stop. We eat driving to calls and we hardly ever sleep. Mental health in our work is something that is not talked about enough.

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We see things that harm us for life and the flashbacks late at night on nights you're actually allowed to go home; that flashback you have of that car accident... that flashback from that motorcycle incident. It destroys you. This job will ground you down until you don't feel anymore. Unit it becomes too much. (At least, it has for me).