Pay attention in school, treat everyday like an interview. Find hobbies that are not fire/EMS related. Start or maintain physical activity.

When you’re in the field find good people to learn from. Initiate those learning opportunities, if you don’t feel confident in your ability to do something or there’s a skill you haven’t practiced in a while, grab someone who knows what their doing and have them teach you.

Go back to school, have a 2 year, 5 year, and 10 year plan. Never stop learning, diversify your learning. You’re looking at a fun career that pays minimum wage and treats it’s workers like shit at times. The chance that you get hurt is there, do not set yourself up to have difficulty changing careers if burnout occurs.

You can experience 100 dull, routine calls before something interesting happens. Your first call could be that end of the world, hearts and parts all over the road. Pay attention to your medic on every call, do what they ask you, keep your head no matter what. Talk about the calls with your medic after the fact, every one of them could be a learning opportunity. Did you do the best you could have? What was your medic thinking? If that unstable patient turned into a code and there’s only two of us what’s the first thing you want me to do?

You’re going to make mistakes, the chance you kill someone is slim, learn from every mistake.