For C. Revey Jones, it was nearly losing her mother in a car accident.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Growing up she loved movies. Family and friends referred to the Jones home as “the theatre” due to the number of movies the family had accumulated. Through her love for cinema, Jones envisioned herself in the front of the camera. However, eventually she gravitated to behind the camera after taking a screenwriting course in college.
“It was the most freedom of expression I have ever felt,” Jones said. “To tell stories is both rewarding and exposing, there is always a part of yourself you are revealing in your work. As I started to take American studies courses, I could see how media directly affects the discourse of race and gender. Black stories and voices have to involve the writer’s room.”
Jones would graduate with a degree in American studies and film. She would go on to earn a master’s degree of fine arts in communications with an emphasis in screenwriting from California State University, Fullerton. After graduating, Jones, who also holds a doctoral degree from the Sacramento Theological Seminary and Bible College, worked in the film industry, working theatre events or movie and TV productions. She has also worked the award show circuit, including the Emmys, NAACP Image and iHeartRadio Music award shows, and MTV and movie and television productions — all behind the camera.
Then came a car accident that forever altered her life’s purpose.
It was August of 2018, a few days prior to her birthday. Her mom was returning from purchasing SeaWorld tickets for Jones’ birthday gift.
“She blacked out in her car on the freeway,” Jones said. “Her car swerved off the side of the roadway and hit a tree.
“The car was so messed up that they had to cut open the roof with the jaws of life, to pull her out. I was actually in my own vehicle on the other side of the freeway and saw the accident. (However) I didn’t know at the time it was my mom … I assumed whoever was in that car was dead. She broke her neck (but suffered no permanent neurological deficits). “
Today, her mom, Angil Morris-Jones, who was 66 years of age at the time of the accident, can joke that she “got in a fight with a tree and the tree won.”
But for Jones, something was lost. Words no longer filled her. Her hands went silent. Her pages remained blank. Yet there was a desire within that she had never experienced before.
“Seeing my mom in the hospital was a miracle. It was in that moment when I realized that a thank you simply isn’t enough,” Jones said. “There were not enough words to express my gratitude for still having my mom with me.”
What she experienced through her mother’s pain and recovery, led her to want to “do that for someone else’s mom.”
So, she put down the camera. And purchased a stethoscope.
“It was definitely hard (to set aside her passion of photography and writing),” she said. “I did theatre in high school and the love of it influenced my college choices. When you build up a reputation and have all this schooling in a specific field, only to switch to something completely different… it was definitely a leap of faith. I was completely starting over.”
She enrolled at Moreno Valley College to become a paramedic. By October of 2022, just over five years after graduating with her master’s degree in fine arts, she graduated with an associate of science degree from the Paramedic Academy, becoming the first person in her family to work in the field of emergency services.
The decision was shocking to her family.
“Everyone prays a little harder now that I have changed my career path,” Jones said. “To be honest, if someone had told me about all the work that it entailed to become a paramedic, the responsibility, and the horrible things paramedics see, I probably would not have changed careers.
“But I’m glad for my original ignorance because it was all worth it. Nothing is more rewarding than knowing someone is still alive because you clocked in to work that day. And I don’t mean that, to talk myself up but to raise awareness of how important these jobs are. I am honored to be called a paramedic. And knowing how to help people is a great feeling.”
Unfortunately, not everyone in her family was able to celebrate her successful career transition. Jones lost both of her brothers while on this journey. Her oldest brother passed away the day she completed EMT school, and her other brother died right after she earned her paramedic license.
“My mom has been supportive and excited for me from the beginning; my father still hopes she’ll change my mind,” she said. “My mom was the first person in the family to become an attorney. In fact, she was the first black county counsel attorney in California. She knows about being the ‘first’ and being unconventional.”
Recently, Jones received word of her selection to join the Montclair Fire Department. She’ll become the city’s first female and first full-time female firefighter paramedic. “Your why is your own,” she said. “There are a lot of reasons people quit what they set out to do. But if your why is strong, and you hold onto it and don’t let anyone or anything take it from you, you will get where you are going. No one else’s resolve will get you there. It is your why that will get you there.”
The Black Voice News IE Black Alumni Success Series highlights news on and for Black alumni from colleges and universities in the Inland Empire. This article is supported by the Riverside Community College District.