Rollercoaster

This last month has truly been the most stressful, emotional and most draining month of my life. I have really had to dig deep and find ways of keeping myself motivated when more and more hurdles kept popping up and the end line just seemed to never be getting closer. But I can now finally say what I have been so looking forward to and wanting to say for two very long and hard years:

 I AM A GRADUATE PARAMEDIC!

I have passed and completed my course and am no longer a student, that seems crazy. I've been looking forward to it for so long that now it's hear it almost seems unreal. 

I was absolutely devastated when I failed my final exam. I really thought I had done enough to pass. I knew I had messed up a bit of the exam but I thought the rest of my work would have boosted me up. I found out I had failed while I was out in California visiting Mike, but because I was so happy to be out there and was so busy I didn't really think about it. 

However reality quickly sunk in once I came home and I got quite upset. If I failed the resit I would have failed the whole course and not been able to graduate and be a paramedic. Having that pressure on my shoulders got to me. There was a few days where I just felt like giving up but I just pushed past it. I can honestly say I revised as much as I could. Even though the Olympics were on which proved to be a very difficult distraction to ignore. I did let myself watch bits as a treat in my revision breaks. As a result I felt much more confident going into the exam, and when I handed my paper in at the end I breathed a sigh of relief and felt confident that I had done enough to pass. I've also found a positive from having to resit and that is my anatomy and physiology knowledge has improved so much. Having to revise again reinforced my knowledge and I also learnt a lot of new things, so now looking back I am quite glad I had to resit. Hindsight is a wonderful thing!

I didn't have chance to relax much at all after my exam I had an assessment day for a paramedic job soon after. The assessment consisted of a:

test of the highway code and road signs, 

driving assessment, 

practical assessment

fitness test.

It was a super tough assessment. The highway code and traffic signs were the main things I was worried about. We had to learn them all word perfect. And the marking was very strict. If you failed any one of the parts that was your assessment day over and you were sent home. After passing the highway code and road sign test I relaxed a bit. I'm confident in my driving and practical abilities. The fitness test was the only part left that had me slightly worried about. There was 4 parts to the test. the first 3 were okay and went well. The final part of the test was doing 3 and a half minutes walking up and down 2 steps while holding 2 x 15Kg dunbells. So 30Kg all together. It hurt! I knew it would be tough so I focused on a point of the wall and told myself there is no way I am not going to miss out on the opportunity of a job because of some weights. The man who was testing me was so encouraging, he was lovely. He kept me motivated and pushed me on. As soon as the beeping we had to step to stopped and the celebratory music came on I put down the weights and did a little celebratory dance. I had done it! Another hurdle out of the way. 

I've got an interview in the next few weeks which will hopefully result in a job offer. But it will be tough they are interviewing a lot of people for only a few jobs, so I've got to make sure I'm properly prepared. But it is actually the last thing I have to do. So hopefully in less than 3 weeks I will be able to say I have a job and am officially working as a Paramedic...COME ON!!

Flossy x