I don’t panic, Doc. I’ve been to war.

It started with a text message.

“What are you doing to earn your commission today?”

I am not a pilot. I did get to ride in an F-16 twice, though.

Any ‘normal’ day, this message would have rolled off my shoulders. I would have answered with characteristic confidence, given an answer that assured my client I had everything under control.

Today would be much different.

As soon as I read the words, my hands started shaking. My mind starting bouncing, for lack of a better term. I couldn’t focus on what was happening around me. I remember looking at my shaking hands and thinking, “Well, that is peculiar.”

I tried to calm myself down. I tried to type a response.

I was doing my job and doing it well. We had more activity on this home than almost any home I’d recently listed. We would end up going under contract almost a month faster than the comparable homes.

But in this moment, it was all I could do to remain upright in my chair.

I held it together as long as I could, until I was feeling shooting chest pains. At that point, I knew I needed to get to a doctor. I told the instructor in the class I was in I needed to go to the urgent care, that I was having chest pains.