My second answer...

The Lord is so perfect in His timing! The question of what I was supposed to do this summer, since working with the summer school program wasn't His plan, was answered almost immediately after that door was closed! When I reached my car after my "interview", I called the Y where I swim to follow up on a job possibility. It seemed somewhat too good to be true. I had asked the older lady at the front desk one day after lap swimming if they were going to have a need for more swim instructors for the summer (lots of good ideas come into your mind while lap swimming), then that was followed up by a few phones calls, casually stopping in at the managers office, and filling out a paper. The only thing that stood in the way was the fact that I needed to be trained as a lifeguard in order to work with the kids as an instructor. Whether I could take the course remained up in the air until the day before Details such as prerequisites and even dates and times were hard to pin down., all part of my lesson on being flexible (which I am still learning, aren't I Hannah? ;)



My instructor was very good at what she does, she taught us exactly what we would need to know to be able to help save a life in an aquatic setting, what rules were needed to prevent an accident, how to enforce rules, as well as personal safety.

I am going to miss the group that I got to learn with! We worked well as a team, enjoyed goofy moments of acting out scenarios, and worked together to learn and practice the skills that we would need. Two other students have been guards for years and were able to help the rest of us newbies. It was fun to see others encourage one another and see the improvement that happened as a result of our efforts!


My instructor being a proper guard, on sitting on the guardstand with the rescue tube ready. She walked us through the steps of rescuing a swimmer who was "distressed", the different actions that you take depending on if you are approaching from the front or from the back. Keeping the tube in between you and the victim was important, it kept us, as the guards, safe from a panicked person as well as enabling us to then tow the person to the side. We learned other things such as a front passive, rear passive, submerged, and how to work with someone with scuba gear. When we did the scuba training a team who teach diving came out and worked with us, it was such a neat experience to get to try on the gear!


Backboarding was the most difficult thing for all of us, for a suspected spinal injury we needed to know how to use one. It was work for the person posing as the lifeguard in the water with the the fiberglass board because it was hard to control. It floated well when you didn't want it to, such as when you were trying to get it under the "victim" without jostling the person. For the person on the pool deck it was difficult to keep inline stabilization and the board afloat, I think we all realized exactly how much muscle we should have.


We all suffered the pains of being a victim and drowning, pruned hands, water in our eyes and ears and mouth, squashed hands from backboarding and even a hurt neck, but we all ended it with a big smile... 'cause we all passed! Now hopefully we will never need to use the rescue techniques that we learned.