Cory Shields

Goshen High School

Class of 2005

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Cory Shields - Class of 2005 - Goshen High School

First Name	Cory
Last Name	Shields
Graduation Year	Class of 2005
Gender	Male
Current Location	Goshen, Indiana
Hometown	Goshen, Indiana
Relationship Status	In a Relationship
About Me	I wish you could know what it is like to search a burning bedroom for trapped children at 3 AM, flames rolling above your head, your palms and knees burning as you crawl, the floor sagging under your weight as the kitchen below you burns. I wish you could comprehend a wife’s horror at 6 in the morning as I check her husband of 40 years for a pulse and find none. I start CPR anyway, hoping to bring him back, knowing all too well that it is too late. But wanting his wife and family to know everything possible was done to try to save his life. I wish you knew the unique smell of burning insulation, the taste of soot-filled mucus, the feeling of intense heat through your turnout gear, the sound of flames crackling, the eeriness of being able to see absolutely nothing in dense smoke-sensations that I’ve become far too familiar with. I wish you could read my mind as I respond to a building fire “Is this a false alarm or a working fire? How is the building constructed? What hazards await me? Is anyone trapped?” Or to an EMS call, “What is wrong with the patient? Is it minor, is it life-threatening? Is the caller really in distress or is he waiting for us with a 2×4 or a gun?” I wish you could be in the emergency room as a doctor pronounces dead the beautiful five-year old girl that I have been trying to save during the past 25 minutes, who will never go on her first date or say the words, “I love you Mommy” again. I wish you could know the frustration I feel in the cab of the engine, the driver with his foot pressing down hard on the pedal, my arm tugging again and again at the air horn chain, as you fail to yield the right-of-way at an intersection or in traffic. When you need us however, your first comment upon our arrival will be, “It took you forever to get here!” I wish you could know my thoughts as I help extricate a girl of teenage years from the remains of her automobile. “What if this was my daughter, sister, my best friend? What are her parent’s reactions going to be when they open the door to find a police officer with hat in hand?” I wish you could know how it feels to walk in the back door and greet my parents and family, not having the heart to tell them that I nearly did not come back from the last call. I wish you could feel the hurt as people verbally, and sometimes physically, abuse us or belittle what I do, or as they express their attitudes of “It will never happen to me.” or “That is such an easy job!” I wish you could realize the physical, emotional and mental drain from the missed meals, lost sleep and forgone social activities, with all the tragedy my eyes have seen, put in its place. I wish you could know the brotherhood and self-satisfaction of helping save a life or preserving someone’s property, or being able to be there in time of crisis, or creating order from total chaos. I wish you could understand what it feels like to have a little boy tugging at your arm and asking, “Is Mommy okay?” Not even being able to look in his eyes without tears from your own and not knowing what to say or to have to hold back a long time friend who watches his buddy having CPR done on him as they take him away in the Medic Unit. It’s a sensation that I have become far too familiar with. I wish, that I could understand and know what really goes on in my wife’s mind and children’s mind when I run out the door from the dinner table in the middle of my meal to rush to someone else’s house, that is fully involved in fire. Unless you have lived with this kind of life, you will never truly understand or appreciate who I am, we are, and what our job ...(read more)