For the past two summers I have been a lifeguard. I will never forget my first day on the job. I sat on the edge of my chair that whole day, and jumped at every little thing. Some may think, “Oh it is so easy being a lifeguard. You just sit there all day and get tan.” Well, you are very wrong. My first summer was very interesting. At the pool I worked at, we would have two to three daycares come at one time. Talk about a lot of little children, who, by the way, cannot swim. Then you would have the occasional lady that would come and stake out all the chairs with her towels. The best was when parents would come and drop off their teenagers and leave them there all day long up until close, and, at that, their parents still would not be there so we would have to wait over time for their parents to come. Talk about a long day.
In the mornings we would have swim lessons. The funny part was that I was an instructor, and I have never swam competitively in my life. My boss thought that I had good form so I would be qualified enough to teach, and no, I did not get paid extra for coming in at 7 a.m. in the morning every day of the week. I dealt with crying, screaming, snotty, farting kids every morning. So once the trauma of teaching kids how to swim was over, my lifeguard buddies and I got some down time before the daycare crew came rolling in. Front flips and can openers were our specialties on the diving board. Some of the guys tried all summer to get the hang of doing a gainer, but every attempt was full of pure laughter of failure.
I had a few lifesaving rescues in my days of being a lifeguard. My first save will be forever in my memory. This little boy who had a big snorkel mask on had been jumping off of the diving board. He was having problems keeping it on. At that moment I knew I need to keep an eye on him, and sure enough he took a big bounce and jumped in and his cute little dinosaur snorkel mask floated to the top on the water and he started to panic. I jumped right off the top of the stand and swam over to him. He was fine just very scared. The worst part of all was that his parents were not even watching him. Just because there is a lifeguard on duty does not mean as a parent you do not need to watch your child. My second save was not as serious. I was walking the deck of the pool where all the day care kids like to hang on the side because they do not think that their water wings can hold them up. I noticed that there was this cute little girl playing with her Barbie in the pool. She was playing mermaids with her friends. I am sure every little girl at some point in their life played with their Barbies in the pool. That was the most popular game, and the second favorite was playing house. As I was pacing back and forth I start to hear someone crying, and I looked over at the stairs (which is another popular area for little kids to cling to) to the little girl who was playing with Barbies. She waved at me to come over and I did. She pointed towards the bottom of the pool and she was said, “Help my Barbie is drowning.” I jumped in and saved another life, although it was not a human one.
One thing is for sure: although the tan lines fade, the memories stay forever. Yes I know that is a cheesy saying, but I can honestly say that is true. The friends I worked with day in and day out were the ones that got me through the long, hot summer. Through blazing heat and summer thunderstorms, I have many memories that will stay with me forever. My love for kids grew. Little kids can either brighten your day or make you want to pull your hair out, but at the end of the day that is the next generation you are looking at.
