Everyone has a dream. They may not know why they have this dream or where it comes from, but everyone has a dream.

Ever since I was a little kid, my American dream was to be an emergency medical technician (EMT).

Maybe I knew I wanted to be an EMT when I would sit in church with EMT volunteers who were on my local service and would jump up and sprint for the door at the first tone of their pagers. My parents had a strict “no running in church” policy, so you could say I was especially jealous of the EMT’s special ‘privileges.’ My local ambulance service is currently run by the county hospital, but at one point in time, we had our own service. 

Maybe I knew I wanted to be an EMT when my 4-year-old brother was hurt in a farm accident. Per everyone’s common sense, we called 911 and waited until my mother decided to transport him to the hospital herself. We live at least five minutes from town, and that isn’t counting the time it takes for the members of the service to leave their day jobs or homes to head to my house. When you or someone you know is involved in a major accident, emergency services can seem to take FOREVER, even though it may only be 10 minutes. But sometimes, 10 minutes is enough to lose a life. 

Upon their arrival, we were greeted by many members of our community, all of whom we knew personally. The only information they were given was that a 4-year-old boy had been in an accident involving an auger. Upon learning he was mostly OK and already on his way to the hospital, they took some pictures of the scene and left. 

A few years later, during the fall of my senior year, I was given a chance for my American dream. I learned of an EMT class being offered by my local community college and I jumped at the chance to sign up. It was held right in the middle of basketball season, but thankfully after talking to my coach, he was OK if I had to miss a few games.

After months of work, I was finally a fully certified EMT. I could not have been more excited to finally be starting my dream job. I applied to my local service and have been responding to 911 calls with them for the past 10 months. I could not be happier!

The moral of the story is this: follow your dream, whatever that may be. Whether that dream has to do with medicine, agriculture, law or ANYTHING else, pursue your passion and make it happen. It may take months of hard work and dedication, but in the end, it will be well worth it.

After putting in the hard work, you will have your American dream too.  

Trystian Schupbach, sophomore in agricultural engineering