How jobs changed my perspective of life?

Two jobs that I have held during high school are working at Kumon and being a rescue squad EMT. At Kumon, I’ve been able to tutor and work with kids from a variety of different age groups on topics from math to writing to reading to science and each student I worked with taught me something different. By working with students in preschool and kindergarten, I learned the importance of compassion and patience in teaching. By working with kids in elementary and middle school, I learned how to explain concepts methodically into steps that they could follow. By working with high schoolers, I learned how I could apply my own analytical thinking by integrating techniques that I had learned in school myself. Grading papers in Kumon taught me the necessity of precision and organization, while handling the front desk gave me experience in communication skills. While my job at Kumon was a true learning experience, I would say that being a rescue squad cadet offered me meaningful experiences in an entirely different way. I was no longer just reading words in a textbook in my Medical Terminology class; I was responsible for helping treat patients who actually had the conditions I had read about. One of the first things my instructors taught us in EMT class was “Treat every patient as you would your grandparent.” That stuck with me because it made me truly realize that every patient was someone’s mom, someone’s sister, maybe someone’s grandma and in that moment that someone could be going through one of the worst moments of their life. That perspective influenced every interaction I had with a patient after that, not just while riding on the ambulance, but during volunteering and shadowing as well. I remember meeting a patient while volunteering at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital last year who was in a great deal of pain and, understandably, was not in the mood to be comforted by anyone around her. At first, her tone felt jarring, but when I brought her food tray and took a moment to speak to her calmly instead of taking her frustration personally, I realized that sometimes care is not about knowing the perfect thing to say, but about giving someone patience and dignity when they may have very little control over what is happening to them. So, that same invaluable perspective I gained from EMT Class is one I don’t doubt I will need going forward, especially if I would like to become a doctor one day.