Personal Narrative: A Career As A Teenage Driver

The alarm goes off at 8:15 AM like every morning. I roll out of bed, shower, slap on some sunscreen, put on my uniform, and head to work. Getting there, of course, is simple. I hop in the car, punch the button to start the engine, put the windows down to feel the summer breeze, plug in my phone to blast my go-to driving playlist, and I’m ready. Before I set off to lifeguard, a voice reminds me of what my grandma said when I first began driving, “I’m not afraid of you driving, I’m afraid of other drivers.” The validity of her fear is shocking; a car is so much deadlier than a pool, yet it is so much easier to become a driver than a lifeguard.
I pull away, ready for the task ahead. I must be focused, vigilant of everyone and everything around me, ready to react to any scenario. I trained for this, and spend every day putting what I learned into use, or at least being ready to. I have a license for this. I think to myself, “driving is a lot like li-.” My train of thought is cut off by a blue Mercedes speeding down my street, the teenage driver with phone in hand, …show more content…
I walk up, punch in to start my shift, take my shirt off to catch some sun and stay cool, put on my whistle, and I’m ready. Today isn’t a normal day at the pool, however. Today is an “in-service” training day, one of the mandatory skill review sessions for certified lifeguards. In the “in-service,” we go over the skills that we need to know. We review on land for the first half, practicing essential observation and emergency procedure skills. We spend the second half in the water, practicing saves and extractions. The in-service is extremely helpful, reminding myself and the other lifeguards of some of the basic information that we all learned in our original lifeguarding course. We all were paying attention because we know that we will either need to use the information or we will be spontaneously tested on it by our boss, the head