April 8, 2017

My first patrol of 2017 & I really felt like I got into a groove.  I wanted to try a new route to get adjusted, since as a civilian I saw an opportunity to help a certain area.  I wanted to try to get there thru a familiar route.  I decided to "dust off the duster."  It felt good wearing the long coat again.  I feel like my rookie year all over again.  I noticed as I passed a couple off people were murmuring "super-hero," another was doing the Batman '66 theme.  I decided to go down allies, aka my rookie year.  First one, I saw an empty wheelchair.  Looked new & from a hospital.  I didn't stay since someone was coming.  I managed to guess my way thru Boston better as I was tracking well.  When I got to a certain bridge.  I knew my route was getting well.  But when I went to the end, instead of going for the certain thing & pass a CVS, I walked aside it, making me lost.  I looked at Google Maps afterwards to understand where I made the mistake.  But all wasn't lost.  I managed to help some people by giving three granola bars.  And an interesting thing, as I was walking off the path, there was a bunch of ladies waiting & spotted me.  I think they were looking at their app to see if I was suspicious.  I did the deescalation method, the one that got me hurt the last time I did that, but this worked.  Because they were known to be civilians & it helped calm their fears.  I also got a compliment & a fist bump.  The sirens were making me nervous.  Even thou I am RLSH, I don't know if it was the fashion, the disability, or who I was that made me feel nervous.  But I managed to keep my cool by letting myself do small meditations.  I never got to do that area, but I see high hopes in doing it in the future.  This was a great way for me to get my feet wet this year.  Hope the next one is better.