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The first one was Health and Safety in the Workplace which was very easy. As long as you attended you passed, basically. One small questionnaire at the end on the information you covered over 6 hours (9 - 5 full days kill me) and that was it.
There was only three other people in the class, one older gentleman, a slightly younger older gentleman and some old fat lady hehe. None of them tried to talk to me which was a HUGE relief, because of social anxiety etc, and the teacher was friendly, mild-mannered and non-threatening despite being a bulking giant beardy man.
But today's First Aid course was a little more stressful. There was 15 people.
I was very nervous and at the start of the class you had to introduce yourself in front of everyone which I was worried about. I kept my eyes closed when I did this and was probably talking into my book, but whatever. Then we had to partner up (I hate that!) but luckily the girl I was sitting beside who was probably about 25 chose me so I didn't have to think. We had to look at our partner's faces for long periods of time, making eye-contact, all this stuff and it was mandatory because you had to be able to tell signs of illness. Needless to say I found this the hardest part of the course, and I felt very self-conscious when she was looking at me. I got the feeling she felt the same way too somehow which relaxed me and she had a very pretty face anyway.We then had to practice moving them on the ground into the recovery position and all this other stuff. She was very easy to move as we were roughly the same height (she was tall for a woman, about 6ft) and was very slender, so it was easy to move her legs and touch her stomach and such.
Then just as I was getting used to and comfortable with my new partner we have to switch! I swear it's like the do it just to piss me off!
hehe anyway I get paired up with a HUGE BEARDY MAN of course! He's even taller than I am and is built like a house, compared to my skeletal frame. I found it VERY difficult to move him around but I got used to it eventually and he wasn't a bad dude, he seemed pretty coolI was very nervous and felt put on the spot at first doing these moving positions and things when I'm not used to human contact. I was so scared I almost left and ran home at one point but I knew if I did this I'd just have to do ANOTHER First Aid course and I'd be disappointed in myself for being weak and so would my family so I stayed. I'm glad I did.
As time passed I grew familiar enough to remember how to do everything and relax a bit, let my guard down. I had to take off my jacket and hat as this was a practical thing so I was feeling very body-conscious especially since I had a bunch of people touching me but I got over it as much as I could, and my hair behaved itself I think.
Before I realize it the course is over and I felt proud of myself for going out of my comfort zone and learning a new skill that could be so useful that it could be a matter of a life or death situation.
Have any of you guys ever gone on First Aid courses? How did you find them? Have a similar experience to me? Or even just Health and Safety which isn't that exciting, tell me about that. Or Food Hygiene or whatever other short-courses you have been on in the past.
*(as an IT Tech/Admin Support for a small company, temp placement but it's pretty cool)
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