Personal Narrative

The day was hot and sunny; I had been there for about 20 minutes, so I entered this lull of waiting for another lifeguard to come up in ten minutes. I suddenly noticed this young guy who had been struggling to move around in the shallow end start running towards the deep end. All of my attention was drawn to him. He jumped into the deep end so I quickly stood up to watch him and see if he was okay. Right when I stood up he began to struggle to stay afloat. “Are you okay? Do you need help?” is all I remembered yelling before I jumped in the water with clothes and all to save him. The distressed look on his face was terrifying to me so I can not imagine what the experience was like for him. When I had finally swam to him, he grabbed onto my rescue tube and an instant sign of relief came across his face. I swam the boy to the shallow end where he could touch the bottom. This one rescue showed me just how important my job was at that very moment. Each person that came to the pool was putting their life into the hands of each of the lifeguards that were responsible for watching over

You’re lining up now!” You turn and look at the whiteboard, and sure enough, a big 19 is spread across the top. Although it pains you to do it, you remove your heated, comfy layer of sweats, exposing your newly formed goosebumps, and head down to the pool. When you arrive at the table, a woman checks off your name and tells you to sit in the fourth chair down. It’s only been an hour, and the woman looks as though she has been working for three days straight. You don’t recognize either of the girls sitting next to you. It turns out that the girl to your right is from Watertown, and the girl to your left is from Cortland. You strike up a conversation with the girl from Watertown, and it turns out that you have a lot in common. Gradually, the line would inch forward, and you would be stuck sitting in someone else's chair, in which they had left a pool of water in, so you resort to sitting on the very edge of the chair. About two races before your own, your coach walks by, and starts talking to you, knowing that you are very nervous. “Don’t worry about it, you will do fine! Just remember, the faster you swim, the faster you’ll be able to dry off and get warm again.” You nod and laugh shyly and continue to anxiously wait for your race.

While everyone else treaded and paddled in the water, I was sent home because I was screaming uncontrollably, holding onto dear life nearly ripping the skin off my swimming instructor. I have never liked being in water. I never went near it. I was even scared of standing on the wooden planks at Pier 39. I was embarrassed when my mother signed me up for swimming lessons again when I was in 8th grade. I was the oldest and the tallest student in the entire group, but I was eager to learn. I took a deep breath and submerged myself into the chlorine-filled water. After three months, I was able to dive and swim in freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke and butterfly

They left as quickly as they had appeared. After that I was taken to the hospital. The doctors said that a part of my skull had been damaged when my head hit the bench when the wave crashed down on me and it needed to be repaired.

Immediately, I angled my position and went for a dead sprint toward the water. I jumped off the cliff. I never felt anything like it; the trajectory had me flying through the air for longer than I expected. A surge of adrenaline pulsed through my body, bringing a new sense of life to me. The scorching heat went away as gravity pulled my body toward the water, bringing me a pleasant breeze through my fall. Then, I finally hit the water. I didn’t stick a solid landing, as I went head first into the water. I panicked and opened my eyes under the murky water, only to see nothing but dirt and sediments float around me. I kept sinking and saw a monstrous fish swim right in front of my face. At that very moment, my body went into overdrive, and I managed to project myself back up to the

It was a long day at school and I couldnt wait to get to get to the public pool. I used to go to the public pools every wednesday but this day was different from the others.

It’s first grade. The teacher asks us to settle down at our desks and be quiet. She says, “When I call your name, reply here.” It appears that I was the only one who didn’t get the message. The indistinguishable conversations in the room grew silent and I was hearing my own voice. While every other student was sitting patiently for his or her name to be called on, I was the only one standing. As I glance over my peers, I get a sly hint that I should sit down quietly like the others. A few minutes later, a student taps me on the shoulder and whispers, “The teacher called your name, tell her you’re here.” With uncertainty, I squeak out the single word, “Here.”

As I walked into the natatorium, the strong smell of chlorine hit me in the face and the loud sound of a roaring crowd burst my eardrums. My friend, her mom, my mom, and I walked to the deck where about 20 other anxious kids stood waiting to swim. This event takes a while so I was pacing back and forth for around

As I plummeted into the water I thought for a split second that I was safe, until a second much larger splash landed directly on top of me. Before I could even get up for air the unstoppable 100 pound beast began attacking. His long, sharp claws and pointy yellow teeth sank into my skin and life jacket. Unable to swim, the only thing keeping me afloat and alive was my little blue life jacket. The pressure of the relentless dog held me underwater as I nearly drowned.My whole world seemed to come to a halt as I simultaneously struggled to catch my breath while screaming for help. I was quickly inhaling water into my lungs, which culminated into putting me in a traumatized state. In the midst of the struggle, another splash landed directly to my left, my cousin Paul. He ripped the dog off by his metal choker collar and grabbed me by the inflated blue rim of my life jacket. Swimming in the opposite direction of the panting pitbull, Paul dragged me back to the sand where my family sat anxiously in shock. Soon all the attention was directed my way as they watched the tears pour from my

*I'm up to my chest now. My hair starts to dampen, and the water turns red around me. Life was short. Might as well make it even shorter. It's not like anybody cares anyways. So I walk into the lake even further. So that it's up to my neck. I plunge the knife into my arm, and it gushes blood. I dive into the water. Holding my breath, and losing blood, I start to drift. Into nothingness. Into death. I see the blurry image of someone diving in the water, bit then everything goes black.*

My heart was racing. I thought it was going to jump out of my chest. But through all of the excitement I paddled to the other side of the water. The only reason I went to the other side is because my brother told me that’s where the fish are. After about five minutes of paddling I made it to the other side of the water.

“44 get ready.” I was attached to various wires and quickly dunked into the water. I dreaded this part the most. The salt water burnt the small cuts in my naked skin. The pressure of the plastic tubes against my raw nose faded slowly as the minutes ticked by. As a kid I was terrified of the dark but this is the least amount of torture I’ve been through in the last few weeks. I calm myself down with the happy thoughts of my past life.

We had already sent a few lifeguards home and were even planning to close early. I will admit that I often slacked off on slow days, especially this particular day. I could not think of anything more boring than watching empty water all day. I was extremely lucky to notice a young woman floating along the lazy river, a small child in her arms. I decided that I would ignore the “one person to a tube” rule since the lazy river was empty. As soon as I turned my gaze away, I heard a splash. The child had been dropped into the water and was sinking to the bottom. The woman remained on the tube, violently seizing and shrieking. In an instant, I was in the water and had already pulled the child onto the deck. Luckily, he was conscious and fully responsive. I blew my whistle to signal that I needed assistance and the lifeguards on break immediately sprinted toward me. Within seconds, we lifted the woman out of the water and stabilized her head in the recovery position. It was scary knowing that there was not much we could do. All we could do was sit around and wait for the ambulance to arrive. It did not take long, but the minutes seemed to drag on. Eventually, the paramedics arrived and took the woman and her child into

The next part of the training turned out to be the toughest. We were required to dive ten feet to the bottom of the pool and retrieve a ten pound weight. Once the weight was brought to the surface we were supposed to tread water for two minutes while keeping the weight above the water line. This appeared to be simple so I dived in, expecting an easy time. I had no trouble getting the weight to the surface and proceeded to tread water with a feeling of undoubtable success. But once again my anti-floating physical quality began to take effect. At one minute and thirty seconds I began to sink and within the next fifteen seconds my head was submerged and I was fighting for air. The water from the pool began flowing into my mouth with each desperate grasp for air; it felt as if an ocean were draining into my body. I remember hearing from under the water the instructor's muffled voice counting down the last ten seconds of the exercise. When it was all over I slowly made my way back to the pool's edge where I was informed by the two young girls that they had no difficulty

Finally, she couldn’t hold her breath any longer, and her lungs sucked in the seawater. But she didn’t choke. She didn’t feel faint. Her head cleared, and she opened her eyes. She saw the sand beneath her, and the legs of other swimmers kicking below the surface. She exhaled the water from her lungs, and automatically sucked in another breath. It didn’t hurt. In fact, she felt fine, perfectly fine. I’m breathing underwater! This is so weird! She swam a little farther out, past the waves that were breaking above her, to where the water was calm and the sea floor dropped away. Cameryn could see schools of fish, rock formations, even what looked like a long buried object sticking out of the sand. I could stay down here for hours, she thought, as she spotted something huge in the distance.