This week has been quite eventful, to say the least! I'll start back on Wednesday. It was one of my friend Liz's birthday, so we went out to a middle eastern restaurant on the Loop. For those of you that don't know, the Loop is a cool college-y street with a bunch of cool shops, restaurants and such that's about a half a mile or mile from campus. The restaurant was really good and it was fun to get off campus!
We would have stayed later and enjoyed the Loop, but I had to be back at 8:30 for my final EST interview, which was a doozy. Everyone was told to meet at an auditorium near the library, then we were put into groups of 4 and marched to the bottom of Brookings Hall (which is the iconic castle looking building that WashU is famous for). Waiting for us were a four or five EST members, a stretcher and a couple of large bags. We were told that essentially we were going on a mock call, and that although no medical knowledge was required, we would make the team or be cut based on how we performed. So the first team was told to pick up their equipment and get ready. Without warning, the medics that were waiting for us yelled "GO", and started yelling at the first group to hurry up. As we watched the first group sprint up the stairs up to Brookings, we were a little worried.
When it was finally my 4 person team's turn, we all grabbed the gear quickly and started sprinting. The medics ran with us, yelling at us to go faster, and move as a team. Sufficiently intimidated, we sprinted into Brookings quad, where we saw thirty or so people in a semi-circle with six or seven people laying in the middle. We sprinted over to them, all while the people in the circle screamed at us to hurry up, that people were dying, help them, save them, etc. We ran over and tried to talk to the people in the middle, trying to help them however we could, but it was really to no avail. There was nothing we could do so I tried to just comfort them, all while thirty people were screaming at me. Suddenly, one of the senior medics screams "STOP STOP STOP! What are you people doing! This is supposed to be a medic team. You're neither acting as a team nor helping people. You, you're off the team." And just like that one of our four person team was out. And the thirty people began screaming at us again. After what seemed like hours, another medic screams "STOP! You aren't even trying to help these people! How do you expect us to save people's lives with behavior like this! Take this bag" as he threw a bag into the middle of us, "and use the tools inside it." Everyone in the semicircle then started screaming to open the bag and use our tools. Upon opening the bag we realized that inside were three EST shirts, and we had made the team. Immediately all the medics start cheering and hugging us. It was all very relieving and awesome to know I had made the team!
Apparently of 300+ applicants, I was one of 18 chosen (not to brag or anything...). The guy that was kicked off during the third "interview" was just a decoy, and an effective one at that. It was all very very exciting and fun to start meeting the people on the team. Evidently, most of them know our names already, and know literally everything we put on our application and talked about in our interviews. It was creepy at first when everybody on the team knew my name, but it was kind of endearing.
The next couple of days were fun just relaxing and hanging out with the few people that were still on the floor (literally more than half of my floor left for fall break, which only really amounted to Friday off). Saturday was great fun, because after working for a while, me, Josh (my RA) and five other kids from my floor drove to Forest Park and went paddleboating. Then afterwards Josh invited me and two other guys out to dinner with his friend, so we got a fantastic Italian dinner on the Hill for pretty cheap, and then Ted Drews for dessert!
So overall I think that this week has made up for the last couple. Especially because I'm feeling so much better!
Know I've got an essay to finish and the first EST meeting to go to tonight, so that's all for now!
Love love love!
-Brendan
YAYAYAYAYAYYAYAYAYAYAYAYA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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