Today, I participated in my first outdoor training day as a prospective trainee for PNWSAR - Pacific Northwest Search and Rescue. PNWSAR is the main search and rescue group (there are a few others as well) for Clackamas County, the county just to the southeast of Portland and the county that includes most of Mt. Hood. I found out about search and rescue by talking with my coworker who does SAR for Multnomah County. A while back there was a woman in her twenties who went missing at Multnomah Falls while trail running; it was a big story and she's still missing but he went looking for her. A while before that, they went looking for someone and actually found them, and he said it was one of the best feelings he's ever had.
Over the last few years, I've been looking for more meaning in life, and I was hoping that it might come in the form of a silver flash of insight about what I should be doing. I still hope for that, but in the meantime, I'm finding that building life full of things that are more rewarding that whatever I was doing before is a huge step forward - and Search and Rescue is one of those things. It was fun to use some of the Wilderness Advanced First Aid training that I got last year at COCC. They had told us before today to expect to just stand around and be bored but it was anything but; because I was actually the most trained member of medical staff on my team, I was made lead medical right away and had to take charge of a simulated rescue of someone with a broken tibia and fibula. And I did a good job, if I do say so myself; and yes, it felt good.
