My Lifeguard: A Short Story

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. Despite working hard at practice every day, I was not able to get faster. I was determined to get better so I would go home, watch videos, and learn the techniques. All of my friends and family motivated me to not give up. I started to attend every competition and even though I was not coming out in the first place, I kept trying.

I worked as a lifeguard at my local pool. It was an overall positive experience, and taught me skills I needed for future occupations,

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.

Beaching myself, I crawl about three feet before throwing up the water in my lungs. After my lungs were purged of any unnecessary liquids I stood, leaning on my good foot, then looking at my damaged arm. The pain hits me and I collapse and throw up again. Feeling faint I do my best to pull myself together before I pass out. Standing once again and trying to look at the positives, I realize I am not dead, and the pain in my arm may give

I have held the hands of a geriatric patient suffering an acute myocardial infarction, knowing that I would be the last thing she would be able to feel. I’ve calmed down teenagers, blood still oozing from their wrists. I’ve woken up from crying in my sleep because of the motor vehicle rollover patient who we weren’t able to save. And the next day, I’m in school and nobody knows anything - and that’s how I like

There was a female pastor by the name of Pastor Boyd, who predicted back in 2003 at the beginning of the summer that there will be seven deaths. She predicted that all the deaths would be teenagers. Were these deaths prophesied or was it coincidence? There were a lot of questions in the air about her prophecy. Everyone wanted to know who it would be. The predictions or prophecies were all black teenage males. These horrific events took place in a small town in Clewiston, FL. Clewiston is a small agricultural town in South Florida. There is a small sub-division called Harlem, FL which is made up of 99 percent African-Americans. The sun has risen and school is out. A young 13-year-old African American male by the name of Travon wanted to go out with his friends from school;

There is much more to lifeguarding than Wendy Peffercorn leads on (Sandlot). Between the bloody noses, well developed ten year old girls, and fifty year old men who fancy the young lifeguards, a lot goes into consideration when trying to decide what pool is right for one to lifeguard at. Although all lifeguard jobs may look the same from the outside, the differences are apparent to the employees. In the Joplin, Missouri area the two main lifeguard employers are Joplin Parks and Recreation and the YMCA. Both of these organizations are respected by the community, but they each have their shortcomings regarding pay, schedules, and the environment. In the evaluation and recollection of personal experience, retired lifeguards from both facilities

I knew we were all worried, but I knew it was time to put all that practice into work. I actually felt determine and was ready to start the race. Of course, when I saw the ocean of runners at the starting line, the same feeling of that day of our first practice begin to build up inside me all over again. My heart was pounding and legs felt shaky as I saw that man raised the gun into the air. I felt like it was the longest start of a race. As soon as he pulled the trigger, I kicked my legs from the ground and knew this was it. I had never felt so excited and nervous at the same time. For the longest, I had to control my breathing and keep my legs pumping strong. Next thing I knew, I was leading our girls cross country team. Who would have known I had the skills and potential to become a runner. Even though I came in 13th place, I was proud of myself for being the first girl done in our

Over my two years of lifeguarding, I noticed the majority of beach goers fit into three categories. These include the drowners, beach bodies, and protective parents.

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. As I was swimming I was flying, soaring, racing and gliding. When I got out of the water after swimming 100 meters I felt gassed, juiced, exhausted, and spent. The raced turned out very well, for we beat Pine Lake Prep, as well as Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy. However, we did not

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.

My favorite season by far would be autumn, winter as a close second. Autumn has always been a season of peaceful business, beautiful colors, and the best flavor ever: pumpkin. With its dying plants that equal gorgeous drives and Halloween where we get free candy and can run around dressed as crazy people without anyone batting an eye. Lots of things happen in autumn, it’s a season of change. I have had a lot of changes throughout the years, one was quite recent actually, I passed my senior moves in the field with a bit of drama.

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. After all of the physical training when had to take a fifty question test to see if we had an understanding of what the rules and responsibility of being a lifeguard.

“The willow tree,” they told me as I walked out of the store. I never really listened to the townspeople as they were practically insane, so when Mr. Brown told me about the tree, I didn’t think much about it. I had never even seen a willow tree in Oasis Springs before that walk home.

I wasn 't sure if he was trying to keep me calm or himself. I figured right now wasn 't the best time to ask. The rocking of the floor was giving me a stomach ache.