Bake the Cake

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If you are reading this the Sunday morning it came out, then yesterday I took the EMT National Registry exam. It was a two hour adaptive test which means the more questions you get right, the harder it gets. Once you reach the threshold of either passing or failing, the test just shuts off. On top of that, less than 24 hours before taking the test I found out that they changed the structure of the questions. No longer was it multiple choice like all the hundreds of test prep questions I had taken, but now it would be multi select, drag and drop, and all sorts of interactive questions. When I found this out at about noon on Friday, it did not do much to ease my test anxiety. It was that moment when I decided to go get my nails done and bake myself a cake.  

Before I knew if I’d fail or succeed I wanted to take a moment and celebrate just getting to test day. After 1.5 years of volunteering as a probationary first responder, 6 months of classes, 8 cognitive exams, 20+ practical skills assessments, and 300+ national exam practice questions I didn’t want my final score to make or break me.

If I fail, then I’ll try again. If I pass, it’ll be another thing to celebrate. But no matter what happens, just putting myself out there and giving it a shot is something worth acknowledging.

Whatever you have going on in life right now, don’t let the end result overshadow the effort of getting there. Whether it’s applying for that job, reaching out to mend that relationship, or signing up for that thing you’ve been wanting to do… I hope you’ll take a minute and celebrate the act of courage it takes to just play the game at all.

And if you’re reading this and something comes to mind that you haven’t started yet, maybe today is the day. It’ll take courage but remember that if you try and fail, well at least you had some cake.