Real Estate in Barrington & The Northwest Suburbs: My Son The EMT - Happy Christmas Mom - The Best Gift I Could Have Asked For!

My Son The EMT - Happy Christmas Mom - The Best Gift I Could Have Asked For!

My youngest son found his final year at high school extremely boring - Grades were sliding and it was obvious he had all be switched off. In April this year he decided that he had just plain had enough and wanted out. After a small discussion I realized that even if I made him stay he was not going to graduate. So at age 17 we signed him out with the understanding he had to do his GED.

At the end of the year he took himself off to our allocated college, signed up for the 5 tests and took his GED - He passed.

He has a goal of joining the Army - not what I really want him to do - but I have to encourage him to follow his dream. Some would wonder why he did not just finish school - he would have been able to sign up straight away if he had. Maybe so but if you are forced to get up and do something you hate everyday - would you? He decided no.


Fall arrives and it is time to register for classes. With a GED he needs 15 college credits to apply to the Army. The question is what is he going to study. He had already mentioned that plan B would be to enter the police force. So he settled on Forensics, Police Law, The History of Police which would give him 9 credits. That left him another 6 to find.

Out of the blue - he decides he wants to do the EMT course at a different college. This is a tough extra because it is a 7 credit course, was always from 6 pm to 10 pm, he had to do 20 hours in an ER and 10 hours riding an ambulance. There were also full days on some Saturdays. He is the youngest member of the class.

After 2 weeks - It seems that 2 of the police credit courses are so similar that I wonder how a counselor could have directed him to them. Needless to say he dropped one of them and it is too late to start another. So come the end of his semester if he passes all his courses - he will only have 13 credits. Yet that is his decision.

Along The Way - It has become obvious that the course that he is enjoying the most is the EMT. I'll be honest - I am astounded by this. Never would I have guessed it. As the weeks go by I am learning a lot. This course has much more content than I would have thought. I am helping him by testing his knowledge for the ongoing practical tests he does.

End of Semester -  It is time for final exams. Will he pass? When will he find out? Forensics and Police Law are first. He has been sick the week before so missed final reviews. The news is in - both courses passed and 6 credits to his name. Now he has a 4 hour practical exam and a four hour written exam for his EMT. His practical is a pass or fail and he finds out on the day - he passed. We wait - the results for the written dictate what he has to do next semester to follow his dream. If he fails he needs to do 9 credits, is he passes he only needs 2. The days pass with no news. December 23rd he appears with a grin on his face - He Passed!

Congratulations! - Both Mom and Dad are thrilled. He is too - it is written all over his face!

Next Steps - To become a licensed EMT he has to go and take a state exam - something he does not need to do and yet he has signed up for that - he wants to get a job as an EMT while he does his final credit course at college. We talked about plan B. This blows me away as well - Medical School he says.

The Motto of this story - Let your children find their way. I gave my son the freedom to make his own choices - do want he wanted to do and not criticize him for decisions that I thought were wrong.