Personal Narrative Essay : Lifeguards : The Unsung Heroes

In today’s speech, I’d like to illustrate that the process of becoming a lifeguard is a serious undertaking that requires significant training from which you will learn many lessons.

Our “man in the water”, put his life at stake. Every time the rescue team lowered a lifeline and floatation ring to the man, he gave it to the other strangers. “ For at some moment in the water he must have realized that he would not live if he continued to hand over the rope and the ring to others.” When our “man in the water” realized that he had to choose between life and helping the strangers, he picked the more honorable decision, thus responsible for helping save four lives for the price of his own.

There is a quote by Henry Ford, “Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is a process, working together is a success”. As a newcomer athlete on the Aquahawgs Swim Club, I was very cautious and weary of my behavior on the first day. Show up, do the practice, keep quiet, and go home. This mindset got me through the first 3 months and were by far the worst months of my entire athletic career. I was isolated, forced to create my own motivation and be my own critic. I hated the sport. For some reason that I still wonder about, I stayed, but enthusiasm was not present. I truly believed that I was a liability to the team because of my lack of performance in meets. That was truly my dark time. My saving light came in the form of 4, awkward,

A major accomplishment in my life was when I became a certified lifeguard. As a child I had always looked up to lifeguards as role models and heroes. I would envision myself as a lifeguard saving people from drowning and from the occasional shark attack, even though that is very uncommon. I knew then that when I was older I would try to become a lifeguard. I did my research and found that I had to be fifteen to become a lifeguard.I took a CPR class that my high school offered because it would prepare me for the CPR test when I take the lifeguard class. The year I turned fifteen I was not the typical kind of person that became a lifeguard, I was a thin and not very strong teenager that was not on the swim team. This presented a problem because

“Listen, Mikey, they’re putting in a whirlpool for sports injury therapy. Looks pretty neat. Why don’t you come to the pool sometime? Would you like that?”

Let me back up for a second. I always had a passion for the water. Whether it was swimming competitively, recreationally, listening to the waves crash against the shore, or even skipping rocks across it. I have always had a passion for the water, so naturally I became certified as a lifeguard and started working at the high school pool.

I am a senior/potential first year grad student. I spend a lot of time lifeguarding at the Campus Recreation Center and the YMCA. My hometown is in Sterling, Illinois, where there is a lot of banks, bars, churches and parking lots. Growing up, I lived with my mother, father and older brother that graduated from Western Illinois University. I currently attend The Crossing church in Macomb, Illinois, where I was a village leader for our college ministry. Early mornings are the worst thing in the world in my mind, but I want to change that by starting to exercise before my classes. An interesting fact about me is that I can't run straight on a treadmill. I am unaware of the reason why I can’t do it I just blame the accident I had as young child

“One one thousand, two one thousand, breathe,” echoed the voices of fifty teenagers across Interstate 5. Each held a rescue mask sealed tight to another teen’s face, the other teen lying on the ground acting as an unconscious guest in distress. That day marked the first day of a weekend-long lifeguarding class. The following day, I was tested out to have the necessary skills to complete the class to become a deep lifeguard at Wild Waves Theme and Water Park.

You never really know what it feels like to be up on a ledge two hundred something feet up, contemplating your life, until you actually are.

My head raced as adrenaline rushed through my veins, I could feel fear. As I forced myself to jump, my feet lifted off the ground and the rocks from under me disappeared from under my feet and it seemed as if splash… My frail kind of chubby body hit the water and sent ripples through the water, as my head was swallowed whole by the water. My feet hit the slimy ground as it seemed to wrap around my feet attempting to trap me underwater . Franticly I kicked until I could breath again. I surfaced as my brother floated on the water “you're still a pussy”, he said in the bickering way brothers

It was a cold October day. The closer I came to the fogged up windows, the faster my heart would beat making my breath quicken. I step into the locker room to prepare for the pool. As soon as I step out the humidity hit me. I’ve been scoping out the competition for a few hours now and they are good. I say to my friend” I sure hope that I don’t have to race against them” . Then my name gets called and what do you know I have to go against a state winner and 6 more excellent swimmers. Suddenly my number gets called.”Swimmer's step up!”.My heart racing. Adrenalin pumping. Me trying to calm down so I can actually go. “ Swimmers ready?”...The whistle blows.

Life is wholly bountiful with dilemmas we must quell. Yet, our dilemmas are present to strengthen our utter morality. A defining obstacle stems from the prevalence of race. A radical woman had disturbing qualms about my reasoning for becoming a lifeguard. She thought that African-Americans were ultimately unsuitable in the safeguarding of someone's life. She loathed the sight of a minority having to watch her children. Her enmity of minorities was monumental as she began to noisily harass me. I had to mollify the fury within myself as I began to pacify the women. I yearned to show her that I did not seek the harm of her children. Yet, she spat upon the ground and swore not to return until all of the colored lifeguards were dismissed. I used

During the summers my mother insisted on swimming lessons. I reluctantly went in the beginning but eventually excelled trough the program. When I completed all of the levels, I enrolled into the lifesavings program, which is aimed at developing lifeguard recruits. I was excited to become a lifeguard, but subsequently learned that I needed to be 16 years old for insurance reasons. I went through the program and was disappointed I could not utilize my skills. Little did I know, this was about to change.

• Technology/Computer- Excel, Word, Sabre etc. • Teamwork- I worked in a team environment as a Lifeguard and Waitress • Problem solving- I’ve solved problems when working as a waitress • Organization-

In late October of 2016 I was contacted by the Aquatics Director about upcoming lifeguard classes. I was very nervous and excited at the same time. Nervous because being a lifeguard meant that I had a huge responsibility and I couldn’t take the job lightly. I was also excited because I’d have a job and I could be making money. After some speculation with my parents, we decided that getting a job would be a great way of gaining responsibility.