May Grant and Who Does She Want To Be?

On Monday's 9-1-1 episode FOMO, May Grant mentioned to her co-worker and friend Edmundo "Eddie" Diaz that before she took the job as a 9-1-1 Dispatcher, she wanted to be a very specific someone. And it had me thinking, who did she want to be? From what I've seen throughout the series, May seemed like she was headed towards being a journalist. She's smart and seems like she wants to make a difference and with the way that May always seemed to question the world around her, I could see her being a journalist or a reporter.

(Eddie Diaz and May Grant      9-1-1 season 5 episode 15: FOMO)

In the third season fifth episode Rage, May, her little brother Harry and their father Michael had a very terrible and nearly deadly experience with the police. She had very strong opinions about the incident and even had no problem questioning her mother Police Sergeant Athena's opinion, who at first seemed to have a different feeling about it that is until she saw May's video of the incident.

In another third season episode Fallout, May wrote a very enlightening college entrance essay titled "Living with the Enemy" which was about her mother Athena and her mother's job as a police officer. May wasn't intending to hurt her mother's feelings, she just wanted to write about a subject that she had strong opinions on, the broken system of the law which includes her mother's career. She loves and admires her mother and when Athena was brutally attacked in the third season 17th episode Powerless during her arrest of serial rapists Jeffrey Hudson, May put a pause on own her life. She took a gap year before attending USC (University of Southern California) and got a job as a 9-1-1 Dispatcher in the fourth season to make sure that she could help others but mainly because she wanted to be there to help incase anything happened to her mother again.

Throughout the fourth and fifth seasons, working at dispatch and becoming good at her job also seemed to have lessened the stress and fear of her mother's attack. I think this along with what she was feeling in the episode FOMO had May starting to think about her life and what she wanted out of it. For the past year (or more depending on the shows timeline), May has been living in the mode of protecting her mother but she doesn't need to do that any more. I'm happy that in FOMO, she doesn't want to let go of the idea of going to college because I think that's an experience she really wants. She even asked her mother what she should do and Athena's response was to "Be Brave. Do the thing you want to do."

(May and Athena Grant        9-1-1 season 5 episode 15: FOMO)

There's such a warmth and inspiration to this character. May Grant went from being a bullied high school student who had attempted suicide to becoming a confident and capable young woman. The synopsis for the fifth season finale Starting Over is hinting towards May making a decision about her life. And whatever she decides to do (either stay at dispatch or go to college) and whoever the person she hopes to get back to being, I look forward to seeing May's journey as the series goes on.