I've only ever worked in food my whole life so working a 9-5 office job was going to be very different for me. I'm 19 and I don't know anybody, the only jobs I could get were at fast food places and coffee shops. I was nervous about shifts and scheduling and the workers and everything and anything else I could worry about. Getting a job where I didn't have to wear a t-shirt uniform and I had to dress business casual just meant one thing for me: I was growing up.

I work at Tunstall Medical Alert and we are a call center that has five departments that all revolve around one department, mine, the emergency response center. I handle emergency calls as an emergency operator for equipment that is programmed into the homes of disabled or elderly individuals who may need assistance in an emergency situation.

So yes, the life alert stuff you see on TV however, being an operator for various types of equipment like that one has shown me the real work that goes on to make sure those people get the proper and appropriate care for them. We not only dispatch EMS, fire and police but we also dispatch personal responders such as a neighbor or a daughter or even a friend that can go and check on our subscribers to make sure they are okay.

We are trained so thoroughly so that the phone calls we make are properly handled and no one is left unhappy or upset in any way. I have to follow protocol to a T. I work 40 hours a week from 9-5 right now but when my training is complete, I'll be working 4pm-12am. The environment there is so cool though.

I like a lot of the people and their welcoming attitude. Starting out training there definitely made me feel that the operators weren't going to want to talk to us, but they were more than happy to have us watch them and take notes and ask them questions and listen to their advice. I really like my job!

I am so happy that I got out all the excitement I had about my new job! I just love it so much. I honestly can't even wait to go back tomorrow. This was an update from the life of Ryder. Stay tuned for another episode of Ryder's life updates.