PULSE Magazine | November/December 2018 Issue

Cadet Class 1018 Graduation

Congratulations to Cadet Class 1018 who graduated from the Academy on Friday, December 7, 2018. Cadet Christopher Waters , who is a returning ATCEMS medic, gave an inspi- rational speech that we share here with you. “Ladies and gentlemen, Friends, family, and distinguished members of the department. On behalf of the cadets of the Austin-Travis County EMS Department Academy Class 10/18, I would like to welcome you, and to offer our sincere and heartfelt thanks for your presence on this very special day, which is a culmination of many long weeks of hard work and perseverance. My name is Cadet Christopher Waters, and before I begin, I would like to thank my fellow cadets for selecting me to deliver this speech today. It is an honor to do so, and I was immensely moved to have been chosen by my peers to stand before you today. I have served in the public safety profession for 17 years, as a paramedic, a law enforcement officer, and a firefighter, and, most significantly, I am a former member of this department with 10

years of service. I say this not to focus the attention of the day onto myself, or my profes- sional accomplishments, but to reveal to you my unique perspective on the experiences I have shared with these amazing professionals who stand before you. I am no stranger to training academies, having been through several over my career, and indeed each academy I have attended has been unique both in structure and in substance. That being said, public safety training academies share one universal quality, that they take groups of individuals, and though weeks and months of intense and unrelenting effort, turn those individuals into a cohesive group of professional public servants. To quote Theodore Roosevelt “ Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty. I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives, and led them well”.

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