RAT IN A CAGE.

May 2, 2007

I wrote this one during a stretch where I felt like I was barely hanging on—angry, exhausted, and boxed in by the grind. Every shift felt like the same loop: pain, paperwork, pretend you're fine. I was watching myself become someone I didn’t recognize—short-tempered, numb, quick to judge. That scared me more than anything I saw on scene. I remember finishing a call, slamming the door harder than I meant to, and realizing I was starting to crack. So I wrote. Not to vent, but to hold a mirror up. This post wasn’t about a patient—it was about me, and how easy it is in this job to lose the parts of yourself you used to be proud of.