NEUSTAETER: Well, I finally used the Heimlich maneuver
THE FIRST TIME I TOOK A first aid class I was 12 years old.
After reading every book in the Babysitter’s Club cover to cover twice I had an adequately romanticized picture in my mind of the glories, perils and adventures of child care to decide that it was the perfect first career path for me. (Also, I needed the cash to keep me in candy)
When you are a preteen, the St. John’s Ambulance Babysitting course feels like it is 30,000 hours and you will be old and decrepit long before you ever see the light of day again. In reality, it’s a two-day course that is, to this day, some of the best practical preparation I have ever had for life.
It taught me things that I may or may not have picked up somewhere else during my lifetime, like asking for the wage I expected and deserved, using common sense, treating a job as the responsibility it is, going over and above in my work and not stealing stuff because more people have nanny cams than you might expect. But it also taught me critical skills that I would not have learned anywhere else, like how to save a life.