First day of summer

Happy first day of summer! This is my favorite season by far: Birthday, baseball, warm weather, no school. It just doesn't get better than that. Except for this year, when "no school" is replaced by "wedding." Quite an upgrade, if you ask me. Plus, with longer daylight hours than autumn or winter, there's even more time to enjoy the summery goodness.

Time has flown by in a whirlwind of field internship ride time, clinicals and paid ambulance work. I often feel like this is the case ... probably because it is. The end is in sight, though. If all goes well, I will finish my field internship next week and wrap up my hospital clinicals shortly thereafter. The two-day college final exam, the state skills exam and the state written exam will then unfold over the following month, and that will conclude the program. How far we've come in what, looking back, seems like such a brief time.

I've been picking up shifts here and there with the ambulance company for which I work, but my clinical schedule has limited my flexibility in that regard. With the end of clinicals approaching, however, I'll soon be able to get more aggressive in my bidding (shift bidding is the somewhat convoluted process by which employees vie to arrange their schedules). I will have plenty of studying to do between the end of Clinicals IV and V and the end of the program, but the ambulance is actually an ideal place to study. There are far fewer distractions than at home and my paramedic partner is right there if I have any questions.

To end with a pleasant anecdote, my preceptor, his partner and I were eating breakfast this morning when a complete stranger walked up to our table. He said, "This is for the bill," placed a twenty-dollar note on the table and exited the restaurant. I've noted before that this can be a thankless job, but one person like that makes up for a dozen tough calls.