Healer Forever !

This might sound strange or geeky as hell, but it is the absolute truth : roleplaying helped me figure out my path in life. Since I've started roleplaying, most of my characters have been healers. Kate-Lynn Drake is a surgeon, Sherkalyn's first master skill in Ryzom was healing magic, my Tempest of Seth in Age of Conan had healing skills and in Dungeons and Dragons, most of my characters would be priests, druids or favoured souls. In Live Action events, if I don't have a form of healing skill, I'll feel utterly useless.

It took me a while to realize it. After obtaining my college diploma in Languages, I had been in a slump. I didn't know which university to go to and didn't want to spend thousands of dollars just to figure out that I was at the wrong place. So I took a sabbatical from school and worked my ass off to save money for my tuition until I would finally decide what to do with my life.

And then, after a summer of LARP events, I finally understood what I had been missing since I abandonned my own dream of becoming a surgeon because of "bad" school grades. The fact that almost all my fictionnal characters were healers was obviously compensating for something I couldn't do in real life: be on the "battle field" and save lives.

My healer character : Adelyne Duval

Thus I decided to go back to college and become a nurse. I was in the 40 "lucky" students out of 132 that were accepted in the Nursing program for the winter semester. Of course, it isn't as prestigious as surgery, but nurses are in very high demand where I live, I'm almost guaranteed a job as soon as I finish college. Nurses are as essential to our health system as doctors, without their presence, it would simply collapse. I wish I had understood that way before I switched to the Language program as Plan B.

It isn't the prestige or the money that attracts me in the nursing career... of course not. One wouldn't survive in that discipline without having the vocation. And to be honest, I don't see myself doing anything else. Sitting behind a desk all day translating texts isn't really what I want to be doing for the rest of my professionnal life. I can't see myself doing that withough getting bored pretty quick. Challenge is what drives me: difficulty, complexity and stress do not scare me; they keep me motivated. I don't think I'll ever get bored of helping people feel better.

Obviously, Death Penalty is way harsher in the Real World. If someone doesn't get rezzed in the time limit, they risk severe skill level losses or even Permadeath. And I'm still not sure that you can re-roll as a newbie character and start over in Real Life Offline...I have yet to meet someone who hasn't quit playing after losing their character once and for all. Then I should better stay vigilant and do my very best : keep my attention focused to my patients' stat bars (vitals) and make sure they don't drop.  I always liked the thrill of having other people's survival depending on me, the fact that people trust me enough to put their character's lives between my hands, the feeling of being useful, helpful... All those things are priceless to me.

I am a healer at heart and I'm confident that I'll be a kickass nurse. And you, what is your dream career ? Does it reflect in your play style ? Comment please !

I hope the gaming analogy didn't offend any real nurse or doctor out there. It wasn't meant to, really.