"I work on an ambulance crew as an Advanced EMT, which means a lot of serenity and calm --- punctuated by moments of stress and terror. The oldest patient I've ever worked on was 105; the youngest was born right there on the stretcher. And of course there have been patients at all points in between. I've seen people die and I've seen them be born. Most of the time, an ambulance call is not technically an emergency, but it's an emergency to whoever needs it. Just being with a person in distress, providing care and reassuring them, helps them to calm down. Serving as an EMT, I see people every day who have it a whole lot worse than I do. It makes it hard to hear someone complain about small things when you see people who have been in a wheelchair for 25 years or who have cancer and won't see their child graduate from high school. I don't want to hear somebody blubbering because the waiter didn't give them a lemon for their tea."
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