Not every shift gives you a good partner. But when you get one, you just know.
It isn’t about being perfect. It’s about working with someone who moves like they already know where you’re going. The kind of partner who hands you the BVM before you even have to ask for it. The one who tosses you a glove mid-call because they saw yours rip before you did. They don’t feel the need to fill the silence, but they always know exactly when to break it.
They are the people who somehow carry more than half the call without making it obvious. They just get it, even if nothing is ever said out loud.
I’ve had partners who kept me laughing at 2am when I didn’t think I had another laugh left in me. Partners who let me rant, or cry, or just stay quiet, without trying to “fix” it for me. They knew when to let me sit in the truck alone and they knew when to just open the door and sit there beside me.
Sometimes a good partner is someone you’ve known for years. Other times it’s someone you just met who somehow feels like they’ve always had your back. Some of my best friends started out as total strangers, just two unknown people heading into unknown situations together.
The job would be a lot harder without those people.
That carries over into the classroom too. I’m talking about the instructors who stay late to run a scenario one more time. The ones who text you after a rough day or believe in a student long before that student believes in themselves. I’ve taught beside people who made me better just by how they showed up. They reminded me that education isn’t about being the smartest person in the room, it’s about being “with” the people you’re teaching.
When I think back on this career, I honestly don’t think I’ll remember most of the calls. I’m going to remember the people I was standing beside while they were happening. The long nights. The quiet drives. The stupid jokes. The heavy calls. It’s that feeling that even when things were going sideways, at least you weren’t there alone.
If we’ve ever worked together, or taught together, or just sat in a truck at 3am talking about nothing, just know that I probably remember that more than any call we ran.
You made the job easier. You made the long nights shorter. You made it all better.
Ghosts of the Navigator 