Brent W:
CLASS OF 1996
Rochester Adams High SchoolClass of 1996
Rochester, MI
Brent's Story
Brent is from Rochester Hills, Michigan. Brent's schools include Rochester Adams High School. Brent later attended Tiffin University (Criminal Justice) .
Music Brent likes includes Rihanna, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Bob Seger. Movies Brent likes include Hot Wheels edition of the 2013 Chevy Camaro | Detroit Free Press, BURN: One Year on the Frontlines of the Battle to Save Detroit, Cinderella. TV shows Brent likes include Parenthood, Cougar Town, Chicago Fire.
One of Brent's favorite quotes is:""Work for a cause, not for applause. Live life to express, not to impress. Don't strive to make your presence noticed, just make your absence felt." - Unknown
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
-Marianne Williamson
Welcome to the profession whose entry-level practitioners â you, in a few months â rank 4th from the bottom in the Bureau of Labor Statistics salary rankings. The only people paid less than you are pre-school teachers, dishwashers and meatpackers. The guy riding on the back of the garbage truck, or holding a sign at a highway construction zone, makes more money than your EMT instructor. Likely, a lot more.
And none of those people are required to make life-or-death decisions. You will.
It is a profession where the line-of-duty death rate is comparable to firefighters and police officers. For those of you who aspire to flight paramedic status, that particular niche is by far the most dangerous profession in America â ahead of loggers, miners, and Alaska crab fisherman.
It is a profession whose divorce, suicide and substance abuse rates soar far higher than the general population. The average career expectancy of an EMT is five years.
Five years.
Some of you will go on to jobs in nursing or other healthcare fields. Those of you that donât move on to nursing or PA school will leave EMS with a career-ending back injury, or leave EMS healthy but not whole; jaded and cynical, your idealism burned away in the furnace-like reality of our profession, your faith in the innate goodness of man gone like so much ash and smoke up the chimney.
Youâll be disrespected
You will be disrespected by patients and bystanders who donât know any better, and belittled by doctors and nurses who should. And many of you will endure the abuse for free labor, donating your services as volunteers.
So why do I tell you this? Well, they call it informed consent, a concept youâll learn about in the first few chapters of that EMT textbook youâre carrying. Before you agree to the abuse youâre about to suffer, itâs only fair that you know what youâre getting into.
And itâs not what you think.
You will sift through broken glass and twisted metal, wade through urine and feces and vomit, weather heaping torrents of verbal abuse from the people youâre trying to help, all for the prospect of a few dollars on payday, and perhapsâ¦just perhapsâ¦a show of gratitude now and again.
Iâm here to tell you that what youâve been promised is a lie, if only a little white one. When youâre green and idealistic, the romance and thrill of EMS is powerful. All of us were adrenaline junkies at some point. Plus, thereâs a decent chance it might even get you laid. Whatâs not to like?
You wonât save that many lives
But you will soon discover the hidden truth, the one that drives most people out of our profession:
We donât save that many lives.
Lifes...Expand for more
aving may be what we train for, but the opportunity to actually save someone comes all too rarely, and when it does present itself, the outcome depends more upon luck and timing than our skills. In my career, Iâve had my share of code saves. Some of them even made it out of the hospital alive. Others hung on just long enough for their families to tell them goodbye. Iâve made the critical diagnosis, gotten the tough airway, turned around the crashing asthmatic, and stabilized the shocky gangbanger with multiple unnatural holes in his person. Iâve needled chests, paced, defibrillated, and cardioverted, and given countless drugs.
But, other than a handful of exceptions, I canât state with any certainty that my actions were the difference between life and death. In that handful of exceptions, all but one or two were saved simply by applying the techniques that any John Q. Citizen with a basic first aid course could have done. Ask your instructor if you donât believe itâs true. Theyâll tell you the same thing.
The reality of the profession
The reality of your profession isnât exciting rescues and cardiac arrest resuscitations twice a shift. Your reality will be dialysis transfers and people who canât poop. It will be toothaches at 3:00 am, and youâll have to maneuver your stretcher around five parked cars to get to the front door, and weave your way through five able-bodied drivers to get to the patient with a complaint so minor you canât believe they called 911 for it.
So why, if youâre not going to save all that many lives, should you even bother?
You should bother because EMS is a calling. Even when you leave EMS, it never really leaves you. Itâs what Henry David Thoreau meant when he said, âDo what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.â
You should bother because, even if weâre not saving lives, what we do matters. It matters in ways unnoticed by us, to people you may not even remember tomorrow.
You should bother, because EMTs are privileged to play in lifeâs great game. Too many unlucky people watch the action thunder by, stuck at a desk, or watching it on television at home.
You should bother, because itâs the little things that matter. Most of your patients are ignorant of your skills. Few of them understand the technology you wielded so expertly. But theyâll remember the smile you gave them, or the way you tucked the blanket in to ward away winterâs chill, or the way you stood in the rain, getting drenched as you held the umbrella over them as your partner loaded them in the bus. Theyâll remember calm competence, and gentle speech.
Theyâll remember the joke you made to lighten the tension. Theyâll remember those things and more, and theyâll remember your face long after youâve forgotten theirs.
Youâll be remembered
Theyâll remember you because, even though they were just another call to you, you were a major player in a defining event in their lives. Theyâll come up to you, years after the fact, and say, âI remember you. You take care of me when I had my heart attack.â
And likely all you did was apply oxygen and take them to the hospital. Maybe you helped them with another dose of nitro or encouraged them to take an aspirin â really nothing they couldnât have done themselves. But youâre the one they remembered, and youâre the one they thanked.
You should bother, because in the tapestry of human existence, you get to contribute your own unique stitch. You get to make your mark in ways that cannot be quantified on a spreadsheet or a profit and loss statement. Not everyone gets to touch the life of another, but EMTs do.
You should bother, because when people are at their most vulnerable, they will invite you into their homes and tell you things they wonât even tell their priest. And theyâll expect you to make it better somehow. Iâm not sure you understand now how profound an honor that is, but hopefully one day you will.
The question is, can you be worthy of that honor?
If you think so, then welcome to EMS. Do us proud.
Author-Kelly Grayson".
Register for Free to view all details!
Yearbooks
Reunions
Photos