Introduction

         Basically, I'm a guy who is sick of the extremes of preparedness. It seems like it's either gotta be some cataclysmic event or nothing at all. I've realized that there is a normal, healthy middle ground. That is why I say that preparedness is the adult response to the knowledge that sometimes, at some level, things go haywire. I heard that said on the radio or something once, maybe not word for word, but this is how it stuck in my mind. We know things aren't always hunky-dory, so we prepare for it.

     My name is Nathaniel. As interesting to me as the doomsday/post-apocalyptic scenarios are, it is obvious to me that they are just that, an interest. Even if some event like that happened, what are the chances we'd be around to try to survive?  However, if you've seen an area after a disaster, such as a hurricane, earthquake, or even pictures of the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, you can easily see that those are post-apocalyptic worlds on a very small scale. The rest of us in the world would keep going on our merry way, maybe doing a little volunteer work or making a donation, but basically we would watch on the news and hope nothing like that ever happens to us.

    Preparedness is a part of who I am. Of course, I watched the old Red Dawn growing up...a lot, so the fringe ideas intrigue me. I've had a little more real-life teaching, too. Growing up, I remember snow storms and snow days. I remember power outages. I remember getting in the way as a kid when we were sandbagging for floods.
     As I grew older, I participated in the Boy Scouts and had the greatest leaders anyone could hope for. I eventually became an Eagle Scout. I took the Wilderness Survival merit badge about four times, just because it was the most fun and we built shelters and started fires. What more could a kid want?
   After high school, I volunteered at the local fire department, and while I wasn't a full-fledged volunteer, I was able to go on several ambulance calls to help out, and one haystack fire. They had weekly training for us and I went in most evenings to ride along on the ambulance. I ended up leaving after a while to start doing a different job, and a few months after that, I joined the National Guard as a medic.
     It seems I keep taking little steps toward this sort of thing. I was deployed to Iraq for a year with the National Guard, which was an exceptionally dull year, thank goodness. While I was there, I thought a lot about "what-if's" I would be responsible for the "what-if's" each time we went on a mission just in case someone was hurt. I thought about what could happen on base with our severely limited supplies and leadership problems. I thought, "Who is responsible if there's a real emergency?" That was one of the moments I realized that we all were. I learned a lot about what other soldiers were capable of, what they did in the real world, and what their interests were. I learned that in just about every situation anyone is in, there are people who know more about something than me(and more often a lot of things).
    So, now I'm studying a bit of health science. I'm working on an application to an Emergency Management and Disaster Response graduate program. People are ultimately responsible for themselves. You cannot depend on the government or anyone else. The government needs to be as dependable as possible because as clear as we make it or as serious as it is that people to take care of themselves, many still won't listen. So, I want to do my best to be ready and help others to be ready, too. I figure I've got a long way to go until I'm really qualified, so I thought I'd get started learning everything I can now. Thanks for joining me.