hello to all and inner struggles

Hello to anyone who happens to read this. I'll warn you right now, I'm not very interesting, as in I lead a fairly boring life. I live in rural North Dakota, not to interesting, I do my fair share of hanging with friends and riding horse and what not, but other than that I'm pretty routine. I've recently come upon some struggles with myself and the line of work I do. My whole life I've been someone who loves helping people, from putting a bandaid on a friends skinned knee to moving the elderly couple across the street. Since the third grade I became infatuated with becoming a police officer, night and day I would talk about it, I always played cops and robbers and was always a cop. I origonally took the emt-basic coarse for the police academy so I could hopefully clept the first responder part of the academy. I was the first in a class of 7 to pass the written exam, and I fell in love with the job. I started school to be a police officer a 2 year program in devils lake, during that time, I took a part time job with one of the local ambulances and began to love the job even more. I was not able to attend the academy at the time I was suppose to for personal reasons and quit school for a year. in that year I obtained a full time position with another ambulance. Here in lie's the delema. I am so in love with my job, I am actually going to be taking an intermediate class next month, and now am trying to decide if i still want to be a police officer, or make ems my life long career. If you can help me in anyway, advice suggestions, anything it would be very appreciated. Thank you.

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Comment by Joshua Joe Bierman on May 30, 2009 at 5:47am: thanks guys

Comment by Scott on May 29, 2009 at 5:44pm: Josh, depending on your age you may have time to explore both. I too had an interest in Law enforcement, Fire and EMS. After going through Basic Law Enforcement class the first time I got discouraged about the abysmal salaries that law enforcement officers were making at the time (this was about 30 years ago) so I used my EMT certification to get hired with the local EMS. After about 10 years in EMS I got interested in the Law Enforcement route again and went back through the BLE class. I initially worked part time as a sworn park ranger at a municipal park, then worked as an unpaid reserve officer with the Sheriff's office for several years while keeping my full time job as a paramedic. While I enjoyed my foray into law enforcement and it taught me a lot it also convinced me that I had made the right decision to go with EMS as a career. Several co-workers of mine in EMS that did the same thing decided that law enforcement was what they really wanted to do and switched fields. The point is, look around and explore what options are available to you. No one else can tell you what the right career is going to be for you.
Good luck
scott

Comment by GEORGE FULMER on May 17, 2009 at 8:36pm: Hi Josh; First both Law Enforcement & EMS are great professions. I have been around EMS for 20 years. I retired & went to work over seas as a Remote Medic. I'm presently in Afghanistan. As you know EMS works closely with not only Police but also Fire Dept. I don't know the population of you city or the number of Police/EMS personnel servicing that city but if it is small being a police officer & having an EMS back ground would service your community greatly. I too wanted to be a police officer but went into the service instead. I sometimes regret my decision but the military taught me much. I believe you are going to have to find that answer within yourself. Regardless which you decide you are choosing a good profession.