Thik hai, challo: quandary quelled.

A few weeks ago during tea break i accidentally found myself in a conversation about a recent email sent out from the hanifl outdoor center about the "wilderness first aid course" which would be available the first weekend of September. Living in Mussoorie, I often find myself faced with various opportunities for weekends and from time to time it becomes instinctual to pass them by. I am a bit ashamed to admit that I was peer pressured into this occasion, figuring that well, I had nothing better to do with my weekend.
Come last Friday, i was geared up and ready to go...sort of. I had a few doubts about spending 20 hours of my weekend in class, it is highly probable that I could have compiled a list of at least 36 things I could have found to do with my time one of which involves a rigorous training schedule with my wrist rocket and monkey targets. Regardless, I sucked up my apprehension and went to the first night, figuring I always could not show up the next morning if it was that horrible of a time.

I had never paid attention to the fact that when it comes to first aid, my extent of knowledge (not including babysitter's first aid when I was 12) is limited to lifeguarding, dealing with drunks who have injured themselves or passed out, and putting bandaids over wounds. In fact, when I really start to think about it, I only become utterly confused as to why anyone ever lets me do dangerous things with students...especially treks in the himalaya...
Up until now, if I ever was to find myself in a life threatening situation, be it me or a stranger, I would have absolutely NO idea what to do. It is likely that my first instinct would be to either a. cry in the corner or b. run in circles breathing hard. Or maybe I would drop into savasana (corpse) pose as shown below:

Needless to say, the education provided was one that I was more than grateful to gather. I now feel quite confident; well at least competent, in my outdoor survival skills and it is invigorating to realize that I will be able to aid in times of probable chaos. The course was taught through the Wilderness Medical Institute of the National Outdoor Leadership School and our teachers definitely knew what they were talking about. The curriculum seemed to span all over the board, everything from what to do in a lightening storm to properly popping back in dislocations, what to do in case you are camping with idiots who hit you in the head with rocks, how to splint a broken bone with just a few bandannas and sticks, methods for overcoming hypothermia and I could go on for days. It was one of the most informative, jam packed and entertaining weekends I have had in quite a while.