Not to brag/speculate/tempt fate with an act of overwhelmingly defiant ate, but I think I’d make a great EMT. Or any kind of crisis worker. I handle my shit pretty well in intensely stressful situations. I don’t tend to freak out – I sort of resort to a very collected and calculating side of myself, and I take charge and help where I can clearly help, delegate responsibility if needed, and just sit back and let things occur if there’s nothing that can be done. And while I don’t think any of those are unique traits – i.e. I know there are tons of people out there who fit this description – it SURE DOES help during a crisis. Have you ever been in a serious crisis situation with someone who really couldn’t hold their shit together? Who totally freaked out, and either froze and couldn’t be moved to help or even get out of the way, or worse, who got hysterical and created this epidemic of panic when calmness would have been SOOOO much more helpful? I have. It sucks. And even the most calm and collected person is going to have trouble calming a hysterical and stopping the infection from spreading, or moving a deadweight who’s paralyzed with fear or who has fainted at the mere possibility of danger or crisis. I dunno what brought on this sudden onslaught – perhaps that we just assigned a new “floor warden” for our office, or that I was reading a book about some high-stress situation recently, or that some random detail reminded me of being in college – ah, that’s what it is, the college thing. I was thinking about that recently. Lot of crazy crises, and being as how I attended an all-female university, I did see quite a bit of hysterics – but actually, I’ve known guys who did the freeze-thing AND the hysterics-thing, too, so I don’t think it’s a gendered thing. Wow, I REALLY don’t know how I ended up on this topic. There have been no attempted suicides or hostage negotiations recently – maybe I’m just having Alias withdrawals. I bet that’s it.