I'm a Certified LifeSaver

I got a second job as a lifeguard at a waterpark that pays $22.00 per hour and always has free admission. Who can say no to that? I figure that I can pick up shifts here when I am off at the school. 

In order to qualify for the job, I had to take two lifeguarding courses that took place over two weekends. Some of the training involved timed swimming tests...let me tell you something about swimming laps when you haven’t done anything athletic in about 2 years and are not even 4 months off of knee surgery: it wears you out! My first test was freestyle, 200 meters in 6 minutes. My time? 6:00.10. Count it! No way was I doing that again over a dang millisecond. I was the last to finish, but I finished. And even though I almost wanted to, I didn’t vomit all over the grass when I was done, like some other people. 

The tests requiring you to swim out and haul people in were easy for me. I came in way under time. But the last test was survival strokes and that was the one that really got me. 400 meters in 13 minutes, broken down as follows: 100 meters freestyle, 100 meters backstroke, 100 meters sidestroke, 100 meters breaststroke. And your head cannot go beneath water on strokes. I thought 13 minutes was a long time, until I finished my first try in 14:06! It turned out that other people weren’t doing the proper strokes and they were getting better times. I didn’t want to cheat myself, so I gave it another go staying true to the strokes…13:25! Damnit! Better but not enough. I was sucking some serious wind. It was the first time that I’ve ever been in a pool and have been aware of the fact that I was sweating! My freestyle was killing me. I got a few tips from the instructor on how to get more out of my techniques and on my third try, I passed! 12:41. Huge improvement. Yay, me! Now I’m all certified and official, just like my Mommy was back in the day! I start work at the waterpark tomorrow. If I only knew then, what I know now…I might’ve been the one to save that man’s life at Litchfield!