So today was the first day of our probationary testing. Obviously, it's been several months since recruit school ended, and we've all been out in the field, working at our various stations since. I've been at station 11 (Glen Echo), which is in a part of Bethesda. It's a fairly suburban area, with lots of rich people with HUGE houses. There are also lots of old people; we have one nursing home in our first due and several apartments that are in our ambulance first due, but not our engine first due (TRANSLATION: If a fire breaks out in those apartments, my station is not the first engine that's supposed to get there. However, if someone is sick in those apartments and needs an ambulance, we're the ones that show up first). All in all, it's a very nice neighborhood to live in; no trouble makers, no drunks and definitely no arsonists. All that translates into not a lot of calls for us. So for these past several months, I've been going to work and...sitting around. Well, not entirely. I have a probationary packet to work on, and most shifts I bring my computer and just work on the packet assignments. Needless to say, I don't get interrupted much in doing my work. My station averages about 3 ambulance calls and one engine call per day. Most days, it seems like a lot less than that. So the work days definitely are not filled with any "Ladder 49" or "Backdraft"-type exploits; I haven't even been to one fire the whole time I've been there. But it's still a great job and I wouldn't trade it for anything.
ANYWAY...back to probationary testing. So my whole class (minus a couple people who were no-shows for various reasons) met up at the academy today to do the PT and written portions of our testing. If you followed my recruit school entries at all, you may remember the 4 PT tests we had during the whole of recruit school. Today involved doing those exact events again (1.5 mile run, push-ups, curl-ups, pull-ups, etc.). The written portion was a 100-question exam: 50 fire questions and 50 EMS questions. When we all met up, everyone seemed happy to see each other again, for the most part. Spirits seemed high and everyone probably felt a little nostalgic (I did). People shared stories of life at their stations, how the people on their shifts were, and calls they had run. I was happy to see a lot of the people there; a lot of them I hadn't seen since we graduated. So it was cool.
We started off the day with our 1.5 mile run. We all piled into the training academy bus and headed over to Quince Orchard High School, were we would run six laps around the track. People joked how they weren't looking to break any records...they just wanted to finish in under 12 minutes (the cut-off time). I felt the same way; I wasn't looking to get any personal bests today. I have been running...mostly training for the marathon coming up, but not doing any speed work, so I was a bit nervous as to how I'd do. At the start of the race, everyone joked for the first 200 meters or so. Then all joking stopped and everyone just concentrated on finishing. That first lap was rough for me; my stomach felt a bit upset and I didn't know if I'd make it without having some sort of "accident." But fortunately, after one good cough, I felt a lot better. I finished the run in 10:47. I was definitely happy with that time. A few people, unfortunately, didn't pass. One of them was one of the ladies of our class. She was pretty upset, and as she walked around the track, she was obviously really upset. I said a little bit, but then just walked around the track with her, both of us not saying a word. Sometimes it's better just to shut your mouth. As we approached the rest of our classmates, she told me something that I won't repeat here, but let's just say I was shocked to hear it; she hadn't even told her fiance what she told me.
After the run, we headed back to the acadmey for the written test. It was a bit challenging...partly because we never got any direction as to what we should study to prepare for it, and partly because even if we had studied, some of the questions on there none of us had seen before. I feel confident that I passed though.
Finally, we all went to the gym to do the final portion of our PT test. This included the tests for flexibility, grip strength, vertical jump, pull-ups, push-ups and curl-ups. Some of my classmates only did the minimum for most of the events. I didn't try to max out on everything, but I had to do more than the minimum. I'd feel like I was cheating myself if I didn't do my best. Fortunately, I passed everything.
After we were all done, I had some brunch at Panera Bread with Price, Keen and Martin. It was good to catch up with Price and Martin (I see Keen every day at work; he works at my station on the shift after mine). Camposano came after Martin left, and we chatted some too. All in all, it was a good day. All week groups of us will be going back up to the academy to do the fire and EMS practical portions of our tests. The fire I'm not too concerned about, but some of the EMS stuff...we'll see.
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