Narrative Essay On Lifeguard

This past summer, I got a job working at a local country club as a lifeguard. I had taken the training classes needed, and was ready to have my very first job. Signing up for the course, I was aware that this was not like any other entry job. If I got distracted, someone’s life could be lost. The responsibility I had was not just to my boss, it was to the people I was watching. The whole summer went by without a hitch, until the second to last day before the pool closed for the season. That day a nine year old boy started having a seizure in the water. Lifeguards have to go through twenty-four hours of training. In my mind, i knew I was prepared for this sort of situation. I got up, and jumped into the water. He was right in the center of the pool, at the six feet mark. The boy was underwater for about twelve seconds before I got to him, so I knew he had taken in water. In my training
When this happened, I brought him to the side and let him throw up and cough up water. The boy’s mother was there at this point, and because he was conscious and breathing, she drove him to the hospital herself. She told me he had recently had a head injury and was at an increased risk of seizures. Still running on adrenaline, I realized what I had just done. I had saved the boy from drowning. Deciding on whether or not to listen to the adults’ opinions as to what I should do was difficult. I had been raised to trust the adults around me, that somehow they knew better. I see this experience as me questioning a known ideal around the world. This ideal being that adults are to be trusted no matter what, that more age equals more intelligence. This is true in many cases, but not in mine. In this situation, I am glad I challenged this idea. I would make the same choice in a heartbeat. Trusting myself, my training, and my instinct to keep the boy where he was, saved him from further