Thanks to my friend Dan for helping me cross the first item off my 40×40 list: Number Six — Learn CPR.
Today I ventured into an exciting world of learning about the latest CPR advancements as well as how to use an AED (Automated External Defibrillator) machine. The instructor made learning about cardiac arrest fun and entertaining, even getting the class to laugh about the seriousness of death. Given his dry sense of humor, his field experience, and the fact that he occasionally reminded me of Ricky Gervais, I couldn’t help but have a great time.
We were given two options for songs to sing while performing compressions: Staying Alive by The Bee Gees and Another One Bites The Dust by Queen. For obvious reasons, we chose Staying Alive.
All in all, learning about CPR was exactly what I hoped it would be and more. Learning about the differences between clinical and biological death, the two different types of strokes, choking, compression, ventilation, and how amazing the heart is, was intellectually stimulating and informative for helping others when the time comes.
In Other 40×40 News
I am officially working on my first homework assignments for the Masters program I am enrolled in (#18). While it is a challenge to gather my thoughts and compose them in coherent sentences, I’m excited to do the work in confronting the benefits and challenges that I face in this program.
It has been almost ten years since I’ve been in school. I have spent almost six years working by myself, and it is going to be difficult to shift into a group-centric frame of mind. It is also going to be a challenge to ask for help, damn self-reliance, but thankfully I realize that if I wish to grow, I need to embrace a group mentality.
Stay tuned over the next 18-months as I share the schooling process, the leadership insights, the successes and failures, as well as the utter insanity of humbling and opening up myself to the critique and assessment of others (including my dad in a couple courses along the way).