You never know how helpless you are until you have a near death experience. One summer, when I was young, my family and I went to a water park. I didn’t know how to swim, but thankfully the majority of the park required no swimming ability. For one of the rides, I wanted to get out of my tube and jump around, but once I climbed out, I immediately sunk to the bottom. I tried to kick back up and just as my legs gave in, a lifeguard climbed in and pulled me up. I was grateful to him, but something was bothering me. I couldn’t save myself. That was the moment I decided that I was going to become a lifeguard someday to help myself and many others. Ten years later, after tons of swim lessons and practices, I fulfilled my goal. My first job as a certified lifeguard was to monitor a …show more content…
My nerves from the first class unexpectedly came rushing back. These students grew into great swimmers, but I knew that the depth of the water could petrify them. The first few students were able to swim back up with little to no effort, but the last girl lost her footing and slipped into the pool and couldn 't resurface. I froze as I saw her struggling to swim and breathe. My mind quickly flashed back to the time I jumped out of my tube and almost drowned. Then I remembered that I was no longer that little girl who couldn 't swim. I was the adult in charge of saving people 's lives. I quickly dove down to rescue the helpless body. We resurfaced and she was coughing, but still alive and breathing. Until that moment, I never fully understood how much pressure lifeguards are under. During all those classes, I thought my nerves just disappeared, but they can never entirely go away. Anything can happen at any time and a wrong move or bad timing can be the difference between life and death. Thinking on my feet and not knowing what the future holds for me is part of the process of growing
Laurie Colwin (1944-1992) was born in Manhattan, New York. She was a prolific writer and her very first works were published in the New Yorker. Her first short story collection was published in 1974. Her stories were written about love, relationships, and being happy in general, however, this story “The Man Who Jumped into the Water” is quite a bit different from the others. Hiding behind a persona to get away from reality can lead someone to a breaking point because a person 's troubles catch up to them.
The city offers a wide variety of new people everyday; the YMCA offers the same regulars at the same time, everyday. If one prefers new faces everyday, city pools offers variety; on the other hand, if one prefers building relationships with swimmers, the YMCA offers a multitude of opportunities. There are benefits and shortcomings of both work places. It is common to dismiss this fact: lifeguarding is not a glamorous job and it requires utilizing life-saving skills every day the famous red whistle hits one’s neck. It is a highly regarded and respected job, and a lot of factors need to be taken into consideration when deciding what workplace is right for oneself.
I sat in my mud hut, pondering the decisions I have made. I think I would have done it again; for her. It 's easy to say, I haven 't yet had to deal with the full consequences of my actions yet. The man beside me, was rather languid considering the circumstances. Though I suppose he chose this too.
As water rushed into his lungs, his body became less buoyant. Because panic set in, the friends didn’t know what to do; therefore, were able to keep him afloat. All of a sudden he stops shaking, and everyone calms down. Everyone stared at each other in disbelief before reality sets in. “He’s dead”, one friend says softly while the others remain silent.
I quickly bonded with the kids in the class and enjoyed going there to talk to them and teach them how to swim; their ultimate goal being to
When I was six years old, I would not let go of my dad when we first entered the pool for the fear that I would drown. Now I am seven-teen years old and I fear not being fast enough. Swimming is my passion, and my life, but this wasn’t always the case. Since my high school doesn’t offer a swim team, I sought a team outside of my school district. After finding that Banning High school offered an after school swim team, I joined their swim team around the age of twelve.
It was a cold November morning and I was racing in the 2014 Florida Swimming State Championships preliminaries. After training hard for a year, I was confident I would achieve my goal of making US Junior Nationals in the 200 individual medley. How could I not? I gave everything in practice, every day, and I was hopeful my hard work would pay off.
It was a rainy day, for I felt gloomy, tired, drowsy, and drained. It was freshman year, and I was ready to compete in the regional championships of 1A high school swimming. I was going to swim in the 400 freestyle relay, and I was nervous, excited, ready, and energized. As I sat on the bleachers, where the CSD swim team was located. Before I knew it I was up on the starting block, just about ready to dive off after the previous swimmer made it to the wall.
With toddlers not known for their swimming abilities her father circumscribed their play time to the shallow end. Despite the extra precaution, she fell face down into the water and could not right herself. I immediately ran to help, yet before I could get there Mr. Brown noticed, lifted his daughter out of the water, and checked her for injuries. Unfortunately, there is a trend of more beach goers being drowners.
He was rounding home plate, the small crowd was going wild. The Lombardi 's Pizza little league team had just won their first game; my mother was ecstatic, my father was underwhelmed per usual. I wasn’t aware of either of those facts though, because I had been sitting behind the dugout reading to all of my friend’s little siblings “Boo to You, Winnie the Pooh”. Most 9 year old boys ignored the bored younger siblings that were forced to be present at the team’s games - but I wanted them to be happy, and in turn I knew I would be happy. I’ve always loved people, my earliest memory is from when I was 5 years old and noticed a woman with twins.
You’d think when someone says, “Oh, I had a near-death experience one time,” that people would be in their face worriedly asking them what happened. If I were to explain to people how I almost died, they would be laughing. During the summer, my family flew to Cancun, Mexico for a vacation. The hotel was quite charming, and there was a giant pool! Which was actually unfortunate because I couldn’t swim at that time.
This summer I am going to be a lifeguard at Wild Water West. I have been training for the last two weeks. I was taught how to make a rescue when there is a suspected spinal injury. The Ellis and Associates Company also trained us in how to open an airway and how to properly preform CPR on an adult, child, and an infant. In addition to CPR the class was taught how to preform artificial respiration, that is used when the you can feel a pulse but you cannot see the chest rise and fall.
I was too tired because I didn’t get enough sleep and collapsed. I felt the water rushing over me. I survived. It was Mr. Brown who grabbed me and brought me to the largest hill; he saved my life. Mr. Brown and I were the only survivors of that tragedy.
My neighbor drowned when she was five-years-old. She was swimming at a friends house. When no one was watching she jumped in the deep end. She didn’t know how to swim, so she never was able to come back up after going under. Her parents were busy with her younger siblings, so they didn’t see her jump.
There was a small shock not as near as traumatizing I as I thought it would be. I swam over to the lifeboat and got on board along with a lady and her daughter. The lady looked about 35 and the girl was about 5 and was clinging to her mother 's wet arm. They made me think about how i was clinging to my mom as she walked through the burning building with the ceiling burning and falling all over us over us.