If I Wanted Your Advice...

...I'd ask for it.

I know people are merely trying to be helpful, but I swear to the Lord up above that the next person who talks to me about how I need to spend more time working out will see me flip out like never before.

Apparently, no one gets it. Paramedic school is tough. It's time consuming. It takes an incredible amount of energy.

Here's a pretty good idea of what a day looks like:

I'm up between 5:30 and 6 am. Classes start at 8 or 8:30 depending on the day. Most of the class, myself included, meets at the school around 7 or 7:30 to study. We have at least one test every morning (usually we have 2, but we've had up to 4 in one morning). After the test(s), we either participate in a lecture or we have a skills lab, it all depends on the day. We're in class until whenever the instructors say we're done. Sometimes it's as early as 4:30 or as late as 7. We generally get out between 5 and 6. Then, we go home and study for several hours for the next days tests. I then make my lunch, then go to bed so that I can do it all over again the next day. This happens 5 days a week. Now, on top of that, we have to complete a certain number of ride a longs. So our Saturdays and/or Sundays now are filled with an 8-12 hour ride. So far, all of my rides have been down in south county (National City, Chula Vista, Imperial Beach, Spring Valley... that area). So, on Saturdays I have rides, I wake up around 5am, leave the house around 6am and start my ride a long at 7:30am. They generally end between 5:30 and 7:30, then I drive home.

I try to fit working out in when I can. Honestly, I am so tired after having been studying or learning for 15 hours, that all I want to do is prepare my crap for the next day and then go to bed. I do not want to hit the gym for a 30 minute cardio sesh or go lift for an hour. DO NOT LECTURE ME ON WORKING OUT. Spend a few weeks in my shoes and then I'll lecture you about working out and we'll see how it feels. Don't tell me you've been there before. Don't tell me I just need to "push through". Don't tell me "this too shall pass," either. I've got 7 more months of this and I am doing all I can to stay sane and it's just barely working. There is no light at the end of the tunnel yet. So let me do what I need to do to get through this.\

"Working out helps relieve stress, though."

So does drinking into oblivion, getting high, having sex and beating the crap out of people. The only way for me to constructively relieve stress is to be sure that I'm well prepared enough for the next day.

I have friends and family I don't see, I have laundry and cleaning that don't get done. My car doesn't get washed or cleaned out. I live on caffeine. Sometimes, the only way I stay awake in class is by munching on snacks (carrots, popcorn, chips, gobstoppers, tic tacs, m&ms... anything small and easy to eat).

If I wanted your advice, I'd ask for it.