Perspective

A few weeks ago, Max pointed out to me that one of my paintings didn't have a "vanishing horizon line" and that's why it didn't work. He was right. He understood the perspective in a way that I didn't. The minute he said it, I understood how to fix it. I just needed someone to say it out loud to me. I just needed a little objective perspective. Kind of like this...

Yesterday, I found out that the Lieutenant's test is most likely going to be in a limited format. This means that instead of being able to write as much as I want, I will have to limit my writing for each scenario into a little predetermined box. I hate predetermined little boxes. This new information made me very frustrated.

I was frustrated because this wasn't according to my plan. It wasn't consistent with how I have been practicing. I have been writing out 3-4 page scenarios for all kind of scenarios - high rise and residential fires, hazardous materials, civilian injuries and BART. I wanted the opportunity to give everything I had to this test. Now I felt cheated of that opportunity.

But today, like an angel of perspective, my good friend Dave pointed out that this will just give me an opportunity to distill the information down to the most essential. "Get to the heart of what you mean.", he said. What is actually important in an emergency to convey to my crew? vs. What is just chatter that they should already know?

So today my perspective is turning. My horizon is coming into focus and I can envision how to make this new format work for myself.