How Disaster Drills Soothe My Soul

Helping Others Makes Me Happy, Even If It Means Lying on the Floor Covered in Fake Blood

I am an insurance broker, a wife, a mother of three kids, and the guardian for my two elderly parents. In my free time, I relax and escape from my regular responsibilities by volunteering to role-play victims for disaster drills.

Last night, for example, I went to a mall in the town of Pleasanton, a suburb about 25 miles from where I live in Oakland, to role-play a victim in a six-hour active shooter drill. The scenario was that the guy robbed a bank, came into the mall, and opened …