Michelle Williams is studying to be an EMT, working for the Red Cross, serving at Union Square Cafe, and forging her career as an actor.

Tonight during the practicals, one of our instructors insisted on persistently disturbing the peace. We were continuing the assessment process of trauma patients, this time from arrival on the scene to "ongoing assessment," which is what the EMT does in the ambulance until care of the patient is handed over to ALS or the hospital. It is a challenging process, with many steps, all to be completed within 10 minutes. In that acutely limited amount of time, the EMT will have evaluated the scene, assessed the patient's orientation, airway, breathing, and circulation, made a transport decision, immobilized the patient, treated for shock, assessed every last inch of the body not once but twice, taken a set of vital signs, and if possible, obtained a brief medical history. In 10 minutes.

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We were divided into small groups, alternating as patients and EMTs. My instructor was tough. We entered the "scene" one at a time and started the assessment but if we made one mistake—if we forgot to give oxygen at the proper time or if we incorrectly assessed the orientation, we had to sit down, and the next person would take our place and get a whole new scenario. It's good, though. As I said yesterday, these practicals are going to weed out those who cannot work under duress. This practical in particular is telling because there is a great deal of pressure not to make a single mistake. And tonight's head instructor, who is the coordinator of the practicals, was diving into each group, jumping down to play with the patients and generally creating a distraction. But he was asking great questions, making us think, throwing us a curve ball or two. He was also accomplishing two other things: making us laugh so we wouldn't be so nervous and generating a scene full of confusion, exactly as it will be in the field.

I've read that firefighters shift into a kind of tunnel vision once they enter the scene of a fire. I imagine that a good EMT has to have the same sort of focus. There are students who are totally thrown by the group working next to them, by the girl (or guy) across from them, or by the total information overload. Or by the instructor belly surfing on the desk behind them. It's fascinating to watch how differently my classmates respond. There are people in this class so right on the money that it's a rush to see them work. Then there are those who leave you wondering why they are giving up hours of their life for something they probably haven't even thought about since last class.

There is a saying among artists that if you can do anything other than art, do it. Only work toward a career as an artist if you cannot possibly do anything else. There is no job security, the minutest possibility of money, and far more legwork than creation. I won't say that this idea applies completely for EMS, but it certainly comes close. Most people will never experience what EMS workers deal with every day of their lives. I look around at my class, especially on Friday nights, and think to myself, "We live in New York. We could be out on dates. We could be whooping it up in the East Village. We could be at a play. We could ... well, I could be getting some precious sleep." Instead, here we are, class after class, forsaking the martinis, movies, and Thai food with friends to assess the radial pulse on some guy pretending to have a stab wound in his right upper quadrant. Well. I like the company I keep.

They've told us how different it will be the first time we have to do CPR on a real person, the first time we have to immobilize a knife in someone's chest, the first baby we have to deliver. My friends get squeamish just looking at the pictures in my textbook. They also ask me if I am scared, if they think I will be able to handle the things I will see on a daily basis. Honestly, I don't know. But I ask my friends—and my instructors—not to second guess me just because I laugh a lot and blush easily and hate violence. My way of dealing with strife is action, which is exactly why I think I will be a great EMT. Will I see worse things in the field than I did during my weeks at Ground Zero? Maybe. But hopefully I won't feel quite as helpless as I did then.

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