I have many different interests that I regularly read upon during my two hour wake up calls nursing my infant son. I often find myself reading up on the real lives of actors who play characters in my favourite shows (thanks IMDB), peruse buzzfeed for their random stories and quizzes and more often than not, I end up finding myself on the dark side of the internet reading or watching documentaries about serial killers, true crime or other horrifying topics. They’re morbid, terrifying and gruesome but I just can’t curb the curiosity. It’s not all bad though. I follow a few police officers on twitter including Overheard on Duty, and he is downright hilarious. Reading his daily antics make me laugh the majority of the time.

This weeks question asks:

“What is a career that you could never do?”

As much as I like reading about all these things, I don’t think I could directly involve myself within them. Therefore my response would be a first responder. I have nothing but admiration for people who work round the clock at all hours of the evening to help people. The people who run into burning buildings to rescue children and pets, police officers who put their lives on the line to serve and protect, paramedics who use every measure in their power to save someone grasping onto their last shred of hope… it would be so overwhelming.

There must be some kind of adrenaline rush or high that these people experience in addition to a moral obligation. There must be a victory fist pump when they carry that child out of the burning building or restart someone’s heart on the way to the hospital. I can only imagine the joy they must experience knowing they saved a life that day.

But then there are the not so good parts. The people who pass and they’re left to see the scene. There are so many horrible things that first responders see everyday that would certainly leave me with PTSD. I guess the trick is debriefing, which I’m sure they do regularly especially after traumatic events. Even then I don’t think I would be able to sleep at night seeing what they see.

First responders are amazing. They’re such a vital and important contributing factor to our daily lives and we wouldn’t be able to do nearly half as much as we do without their help. As much respect as I have for them, I wouldn’t be able to be one. This is a job I could never do.