Lifeguarding

For the past few summers I have worked as a lifeguard at Kennedy Park in North Syracuse. This job has come with a set of challenges that forced me to use a lot of problem solving. Most of the time my job as a lifeguard is to prevent an emergency from taking place, however on the off chance that one does occur I need to be ready to act. Thankfully no one has ever been in a drowning situation on my watch, but I am always ready to jump in and provide assistance. Last year I was promoted to manager, this title came with another set of duties. Mainly they included taking care of the pool and deck surrounding the pool.

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I will never forget one of my first days as a manager we had a disgruntled patron at the pool who was confronting one of my guards after being yelled at. My guard being a 5'6 18 year old girl and this man being in his 30's, I knew i had to diffuse the situation before it got heated. I am a 5'9 skinny 17 year old boy, there is not much I could have done if he had gotten physical. However one of my other guards was a 6'4 muscular 16 year old. I took him over with me and we politely asked the guy to leave. He obliged after saying a few choice words, but the experience will always stay with me. It is situations like those that this job has helped me be prepared to handle, without the supervision of an adult.

During my time working for the park I also taught swimming lessons. On the off season I had been teaching lessons with my club team and was fairly prepared for the situation. I love teaching swim lessons and being able to interact with the kids to teach them a life saving skill. However the kids aren't the only ones who learn things during the lessons. Much like at the pool I had to learn how to solve problems that arose during lessons. If the kids didn't want to get into the pool or were getting easily distracted I had to figure out how to make learning fun and the motivation would come. This not only taught me how to be a better teacher but also how to motivate myself and those around me. Even the most mundane of tasks can be fun if you make it a game. Every time I have a big test or a long essay to write, I listen to music and try to make it as fun as I can.

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