Contest Essay Sample About Lifesavers: Water Superman

Would you rather have a varsity football player save a 300 pound man from drowning or a 90 pound 5’0 female? Well the choice is actually easy. You would want the small freshman girl. I bet your mouth is hanging open with doubtful shock right now, too. I thought the same thing until the day it happened.

I plunge into the water quickly to get myself used to the cold shock the water brings, as you burst through its seems for the first time that day. My feet barley scrape the floor of the 4 and a half feel section and I hear my coworker snickering at me from the sight. I playfully give him a splash and turn my ears towards my boss who has been explaining that I, alone, will have to retrieve a 300 pound man fully submerged in water. I reread those words in my head again, this time, my heart pounded with fear. Me? Alone? I grimace my face at the impossibility of this task

Its training day at the Chateau Elan pool for two trained lifeguards, which ironically are polar opposites. My task as a lifeguard is to make sure people don't submerge in a watery death right in front of my eyes, three times the size of me or not. Naturally, with those nearly impossible logistics, eyes are all on me.

The large man who we will be “saving” starts to fake drown. My coworker swiftly springs off the edge of the pool and makes a graceful save. Oh great, time to do it ten times less graceful! I sarcastically whine. A colossal splash sweeps out the side of the pool as he jumps in once again. I hear a struggled gasp for breath and violent splashing just above the 6 feet mark. 

“He sure is good at acting the part,” my coworker teased.

But the cry for help stopped that train of though immediately. This was real. And it is life or death.

The football player next to me froze, his hair still dripping wet from his previous mock save. I, less gracefully, dive into the deep end of the pool. What am I thinking? We all know I can’t do this. My arms shred the water, gliding 40 feet to my rescue victim. They burn with adrenaline as I lift him 6 feet up with only one arm. Panting for air, I slide my lifeguard rescue tube under the giant. His mouth sputters with swallowed water and mutters a watery thank you on my behalf. My grin grows huge and I lug him back, this time with a bold,confident fire lit in my eyes. My eyes blink the splattered water out and I look up to see my coworker’s head hung in both awe and shame.

Inside all of us there is a big, strong superhero that, without listening to the discouraging words of others, can save someone from watery death. I realized that everything, even physically demanding challenges, was just a mental game. That day was the last time I let the “devil on my shoulder” convince me I would drown in failure- like them. From that point on, everytime my coworkers mess around me about how small I was freshman year, I remind them of that story.Their snickers and teases diminish as amazement is replaced on their lips. I stopped letting negativity take over my soul, immediately turning down any difficult task because others told me it was “impossible.”  Afterall, the best part about my underdog reign coming to an end, is becoming the boss over the people who doubted me most. I was no longer “shorty,” but Water Superman.