6th Annual HHTCC - Francisco Leon

At the conference I had fun meeting new people and listening to many of the speaker’s back stories. The first speaker I listened to was Veronica Perez. She said she grew up in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, a town where there were only six Mexican families, all related. Despite coming from a small town with a small Hispanic community she really took risks for her career and education. She pursued internships in other states and moved away for college even though she was scared. She took risks because she knew she would grow from the experiences. Hearing about her journey really made me realize that taking risks is part of growing and learning.

I also went to see Donceya Bertalotto speak. She was telling us stories about what she sees whenever she gets a call and how paramedics are similar to doctors in that they save a person’s life on the way to the hospital. It’s pretty incredible to think about what they go through on a daily basis seeing people gravely injured or even losing a patient. I learned they do a lot and how many people look at paramedics without appreciating what they do. How do you handle someone dying on your watch? How do you not that that home with you? These were some of the questions I asked myself leaving her workshop. I learned a lot and it really got me thinking about becoming a paramedic because I like helping people. I’d hate to think about losing a patient but being ready and prepared for any situation sounds like something I could do.

Everyone at the conference was really nice and I had fun meeting new people and hearing every speaker’s stories. It was really inspiring. Their come up, where their families came from, and what they had to do to get to America. Every speaker opened my eyes and made me think, “wow,” these people have been through a lot and they keep pushing in school to get to better paying careers. What most of the speakers do is pretty cool like working on computers of helping doctors and it was just very inspiring. It makes me feel like I can do something just as great, or even better.