Controlled Burn

Despite my career choice to the contrary, I was never much of a planner. When I graduated from undergrad, Chemistry degree in hand, the only thing I knew was I wanted to do anything but work in chemistry. I had know it since I first joined a research lab and realized - none of this interests me at all.

So not knowing what to do, I figured I would follow in my brother's footsteps and spend a year serving in an AmeriCorps program. And since I had already copied his college major I, naturally, decided to serve in the same program he did on Cape Cod, Massachusetts (emphasis to appease the locals). Little did I know this would be the spark of a fire that consumed everything that I thought I was, and that left a charred field in its wake. But as I saw many times in that first year in AmeriCorps through the countless prescribed fires I worked in the forests of the National Seashore (yes, the Seashore has trees too), fire is a regenerative energy. The field always grows back greener, healthier, and stronger after it burns.

I could write numerous blogs about my experience in AmeriCorps, and believe me I will (it's good for the algorithm afterall). But in many ways I view that decision as a start to the journey that led me to EM. The people I served in AmeriCorps with and for shaped who I am today. What I had planned for wasn't the important part.

It all came down to a series of choices I made, opportunities seized or avoided, that 21 year old me would never have exected as he travelled home following graduation. So for anyone just stating their EM journey, get ready. You never know where you might end up.

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Andy Platt is Founder/COO of Blue Sky Planning Partners, a consulting firm that supports emergency preparedness and continuity planning for organizations and municipalities. If you’d like to reach out to Andy to discuss how Blue Sky Planning Partners can support your business/organization/municipality, you can reach him at aplatt@blueskyplanningpartners.com.