Lifeguard Training

I'm at camp again now, guys, and this year, I decided to try to be a lifeguard here. In order to become lifeguard certified, though, I need to pass lifeguard training. I had lifeguard training tonight and, well, let's just say it didn't go as well as I'd hoped. Actually, that's not true. It didn't go well, but I wasn't expecting it to go well at all. When people brought it up today, I would tell them that, too. Sure enough, since camp folk are genuinely nice folk, they would offer reassurance that I would certainly pass and that it's really easy, etc. I fought hard to not buy into their nonsense, but I was unsuccessful; they managed to make me believe that I could possibly pass it. Then we got to the pool.

We arrived at the pool half an hour before we were supposed to get there. We weren't aware of this, though. Well, actually, I was aware of this, but I didn't say anything because the site director here told me I needed to hurry to get there. Anyway, we all changed into our swimming attire and waited by the pool as a middle school swim team practiced. I actually have no idea if they were a middle school swim team or not, but there were some middle aged-ish girls swimming with two high school aged-ish girls "coaching." They kicked us out. The seven of us from camp sat in the hallway eating our bag lunches-that-were-actually-suppers until a high school kid came up and stood by us. Being the friendly folk that we are, we started to chat with the little youngster. We quickly learned that he was also doing lifeguard training. As soon as I heard that, I was struck by a realization: I'm gonna get shown up by this sophomore in high school. A few minutes later, our instructors arrived and the middle school team left.

After leaving the hallway and entering the pool area, I stood face-to-face with the pool. Well, I mean, not really because pools don't have faces, but you know what I mean. Anyway, what little confidence I had quickly vanished. The guy instructor (with whom my dad is good friends (I thought this could give me a leg up on the competition (there actually was no competition between potential lifeguards (there was a huge competition between all potential lifeguards and the pool, though)))) told us that before we start, we'd have to meet three prerequisites before we could continue with the class. The three prerequisites were retrieving a ten pound brick in 12 feet of water, treading water for two minutes without using your hands, and swimming 300 yards without stopping. When he said 300 yards we were all a little surprised - we were under the impression that we had to swim 550 yards. My hopes rose a little bit, but then we did the brick retrieval. The first three guys did it with no problem at all. This would raise some people's hopes, but not me. I thought, "There's no way. There's just no way. I can't do that." However, I got in the pool and watched the instructor toss the brick to the bottom of the pool. I swam over (much slower than the other guys, by the way) and began scanning the pool floor for the brick. I couldn't find it, but I was in the place where I saw it hit the water, so I decided to dive, anyway. Unfortunately, I am awful at diving. I stuck my head under water and kicked. I didn't go anywhere. I kicked again. Still didn't move. I kicked a third time and finally started to descend. I spiraled down to the bottom of the pool with my arm extended. In my head, I looked like Harry Potter reaching out for the snitch whilst on the edge of his broom. You know what I'm talking about. I grabbed the brick and looked up. I gave a powerful kick. I moved on the first kick this time, which was very reassuring for me. I kicked again and again. To my horror, I was only halfway to the surface. I began to kick frantically, releasing my inhaled breath. Gasping I reached the surface. I set the brick on my stomach and swam back to the side of the pool and got out.

Before I had time to celebrate in my head, the instructor told us to get back in the pool and tread water for two minutes without using our hands. I thought I could do this one. Nope. The four guys (including myself) jumped in and kept our hands above the water. After about thirty seconds I started to sink. I submerged my hands a few times (aka cheated) and the instructor let me get away with it. Then at the one minute mark I couldn't discreetly tread with my hands anymore (though it wasn't discreet to begin with, anyway), and I gave up.

I showered up and changed back into my clothes and expected to wait for only half an hour or so. Nope. I waited for THREE AND A HALF HOURS for the training to be over. It's really fun having three and a half hours of free time at a pool in a high school, especially when the high school is the one from which you graduated. There wasn't even anything for me to explore. And that's how I became a lifeguard.