Ambulance Driver

Ambulance Driver posts some entertaining stories on his blog, so when I found he had published a book I bought a copy. It contains a number of short stories about his experiences as an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) in Louisiana. Some are tragic, some are humorous, some are a little of both. Turns out he has another book out now.

Ambulance Driver is a pretty smart guy, and it seems that more than once someone has asked him why he didn't go to medical school and become a doctor. It seems that life got in the way. It kind of reminds me of my situation. I am usually the smartest guy in the room, which enables me to do most any kind of work, but after a few months at any job I am usually frustrated by the incompetence of the organization I am working for. I probably should have gone on and gotten a higher degree. Then I would be officially smart, and I might have found some more challenging work or a more productive career. Coulda, shoulda, woulda.

Well no, not woulda. By the time I got through with high school I was thoroughly sick of school. I listened to the blather about how these guys with 8th grade educations had made fortunes and I figured I could do it to. That's what I wanted at the time: money. Eventually I did go back to school and got a Bachelor's degree and got a job making decent money. But I never found the massive financial success that some people in hi-tech did. The work was interesting and there was plenty of it, and that was what drove me: solving problems. I never connected the dots between office politics and financial rewards so I was pretty much out of the loop when the big bucks were passed out.

So now, here I am at an age when most people are thinking about retiring and I am thinking about going back to school.

Update March 2016 replaced missing picture.