Learning From Experience

Saturday the 8th was the final exam for my Outdoor Emergency Care class that I've spent the last 12 weeks teaching. This is a class that I was in charge of, where I was very lucky and had a solid core of about 20 other instructors to assist me, so I did not have to actually teach every class. The support I had was amazing. We taught basic first aid for the local Ski Patrol, with class Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 6-10 PM both nights. It was a huge time commitment for the students, and I am proud of every single one who survived. Though I will admit severe frustration at times, trying to get students motivated to learn and practice, I have also personally learned a lot from this experience. I really wish I could stay on and teach it all over again, but next time do it better--I already have some ideas of things I would like to try differently. Hopefully after PC, I will have the opportunity to do so. Working with my Ski Patrol over the last year or so has been a blast, and I will really miss the organization and the people.

The experience of being an instructor and nominally in charge of everything was interesting. The teaching and facilitating skills that I have been working on have already proven useful at work, and I am sure will be great PC skills as well (plus dealing with frustration). From what I have heard, PC service is a great learning experience, maybe one of the most profound learning experiences of your life. I can't wait!

Now that my marathon of teaching is over, and my students happily graduated on to bigger and better things, I have time to focus on my move home. I have been extremely lucky in that I received my invite ~6 months before staging, as opposed to the (rumored) minimum of 6 weeks. I can't even imagine trying to sell all of my furniture, leave my job, move home, etc., in 6 weeks time; I am very impressed with the people who pull it off! But, the downside to starting early is that I am now living mostly furniture-less. I have been using Craigslist for the first time ever, and it's amazing how fast things can sell if priced right (i.e. low). Oddly enough, my bed was the first thing that sold. So, for the last couple of weeks, I have actually been sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag and using a camping Thermarest pad. I guess it will be good practice for PC!