Yesterday, I performed a little social experiment and was pleased to find it worked. I’ve got to say, sometimes it’s the small things that make me happy.

Despite the below zero (Fahrenheit, so really cold, not that warm-cold of 0°C) temperatures, my son and I decided to head up to a local state park and do a hike.  Surprisingly, OK, maybe not, when we arrived, the parking lot was completely empty.  It had been plowed, but there was still a layer of snow over the entire thing, so it was impossible to see where the parking lines were. Now in the summer, this parking lot can be completely full, but I wasn’t too worried about that occurring when the temp was about -4°F.

So, which way to park? Well, there was some sun, so I figured I’d park so that the windshield would get the most sun and hopefully warm up the car just a bit while we hiked. I was sure at the time and later confirmed, this was at a 90° angle to the way the parking lines run. Ironically it was also about 90° colder than the summer temps!

Even when we started hiking, no one else had shown up. But, I have to admit, in the back of my mind I had to wonder if I would start a trend.

Sure enough, 1.5 hours later, when we arrived back at the car there were 3 other cars.  Not only were they parked in the same orientation, they were all parked right next to my car.  This parking lot probably covers 3 acres. They could have parked pretty much any place they wanted in any direction they wanted. But, because I had randomly picked a spot (and not so randomly a direction) 1 car was parked next to me in the same orientation and the other 2 parked facing us.

So what does this little experiment have to do with First Aid or CPR? Have you ever been at an event when someone has a medical event and at first no one reacts? It’s actually fairly common.  Everyone is standing around waiting for someone else to react. But once someone reacts, others tend to follow.  Be that person that others follow.  Learn CPR and learn First Aid so that when something happens, you can be the first to react. Sometimes people just need a leader to follow; and often they don’t necessarily realize it.

There’s no good reason anyone else parked just like I did, and yet they did. But there is a good reason for people to follow you if you can be the first to react in an emergency.  And you don’t have to be an expert. Obviously it didn’t take “expertise” to park yesterday, but people followed anyway. You don’t have to be an EMT or paramedic to react at a medical emergency. You can be the person that simply shouts, “Call 911” and gets people reacting.

That said, I still highly recommend taking a CPR and First Aid course. Not only do you learn very useful medical response skills, it will help you be that person that reacts first.

And stay warm!