My life peaked at 18-20 years old during the COVID pandemic. I became an EMT at 16, and the second I graduated HS I was thrusted into the frontlines of the pandemic. I was doing EMS calls, I was collecting COVID samples, I was working at different medical clinics, I was doing the actual testing, I was doing research, I was administering vaccines, I was leading vaccine sites, I was making a ton of money, all the old nurses and doctors loved me, it was literally the pinnacle of my existence so far. I was involved in the pandemic in almost everyway there was to be involved. I read so much literature on it and it became like my autistic special interest.
I'm so sad I can't go back. I'm now chasing my medical degree and I'm worried it won't be the same. I want to go back. I was the man, I don't know if I'll be the man like I was then again. I wish I could transcend that with my medical degree, but I don't know if I will.
Any advice?

>>33261935 (OP)
As I passed by a long shuttered COVID testing center today, I wondered what happened to all of the people and infrastructure that suddenly became all about that, and now it's something we think about as often as 9/11/01 (for those of us who were alive back then).

Well since you are pursuing a medical career anyway, you know that there are always public health emergencies. I live in California, and one of these is wildfire season, when firefighters and regular people get sick from all the smoke. And you probably know that lung cancer is more common now, even in people who never smoked and weren't exposed to asbestos, there will be plenty of work for you.

>>33261935 (OP)
I was a 911 EMT in NYC from 2015-2019 and got out just before covid started. Now I'm a lawyer. I do miss some things about being an EMT, and look back on that time fondly. But there were bad things about it too. I definitely wasn't "making a lot of money" EMTs barely get paid more than burger flippers, and my experience was that nurses and doctors (particularly those working in ERs) looked down at EMTs as know nothings, and they were always grumpy because they were overworked as is and yet we dared to bring them more work.

Yeah it won't be the same, that part of your life is passed. Just like the part of your life when you were in high school is over. But now you're moving on to bigger and better things instead of being one of those 50 year old EMTs who are without ambition. You will do great things as a medical research doctor, or an ER doctor, or even as the doctor overseeing an EMS program. You should be looking forward, not back. Onward and upward is my motto.

Oh also I could mention since you seem interested that after I left EMS I was involved in NY's covid response. Got to go down to the Javits center and help at the overflow hospital the army set up, saw the hospital ship that Trump sent, then got involved with the emergency management system for the state transportation department, doing system administration. Basically whenever people wanted to set up a testing site or something they would submit a ticket into the system then I'd have to find people somewhere in the state who had the logistics to make it happen. I remember they set up a testing site at Jones Beach at one point, and someone somewhere got the idea that to help with social distancing they should put a parking cone between each space so people don't park too close to each other. So I had to call every yard in the state and find 3,000 parking cones, and then figure out some way to get them there.

I remember in early 2021 going back to the javits center when they converted it to a vaccination site, thought it was pretty cool to see it converted again. Weird thinking about those days, they were pretty bad for me though I tried to do what I could to help. I think your feelings of thriving at that time are very unusual.

Oh and here's my favorite thing from NYC during Covid. The natural history museum has a life sized blue whale model in the hall of ocean life, and when they converted that room into a vaccination site they put a bandaid above its flipper :3

>>33261935 (OP)
The globalized economy means that there's always another outbreak lurking around the corner, before COVID there was Ebola and bird flu. I've spent years waiting for the next pandemic so I can NEET it up without guilt

>>33261935 (OP)
Stop posting this.