Every morning
at the Academy, a handful of recruits gather together in a circle for morning
prayer. Some are half-asleep, dreaming of coffee through half-closed eyes;
others are bouncing off the wall so violently that they can barely keep
themselves in one place long enough to conclude the activity.
Today, there
was a lot to come together for; one of the recruits is having some problems at
home, and we’re all empathizing with his troubles. Suffice it to say, it’s
something that nobody should ever have to go through—he and his son will surely
be in our hearts.
It’s comforting
to know that for as much joking around as we do and as much shit as we might
dish out in a given day, if any of us were to really need help, we’d be there
for each other. Like someone said today: “We’re a pretty tight-knit family. I
mean, not all the brothers and sisters get along all the time, but we’re a
family nonetheless.”
———
The bookwork
has been coming steadily; quizzes are guaranteed every day, along with a full
test every Friday. It doesn’t yet seem like anybody is struggling to keep up
with the first five chapters, but we’ll see if that changes as time goes on.
One can barely walk down the hallway without being bombarded by a recruit with
flashcards asking questions, or hearing an argument between two members of 994
over the technicalities on how to define any one of the dozens of terms already
learned.
We’re beginning
to see more and more of Sergeant Woodward; technically the “Lead Instructor”
for 994, he had functioned mostly in the background until this past Monday—he
promptly assumed his role as our primary educator and launched right into
Chapter 1 of our textbook. He’s very animated as a lecturer; based on our quiz
scores, the class seems to be responding well to his teaching style.
———
We have two new
recruits, also paramedics, who are from the same state down south. We thought
us four new guys had it bad back in December? These brave souls are being
launched right into the thick of it, even having to play catchup on the first few chapters. One nice facet of their introduction is that items that took us weeks to receive
(bunker gear, nametags, PAT tags, etc.) have come rather quickly to both of
them.
Just as I’m
sure it was interesting to see where the four of us fit in when we arrived
eight-plus weeks ago, it’ll probably be a pretty entertaining ride to see how
these two new guys pan out. Nothing to do but hope for the best, I suppose.
