Flaming Waters

Imagine a water park way beyond anything that has ever been built. Every inch of it themed, decorated, bedazzled,  you name it. No plain brown concrete decks; let's talk about seashells in that concrete. Don't just dive, walk the plank off a pirate ship. Ever wish for a room completely dedicated to super soaker wars? This place has it, with forts, monkey bridges, and built in water cannons. How about water balloons? Don't worry, this place has a lap pool too... with a shark tank for the bottom. Walk through an obstacle course full of surprises. Water volleyball and basketball. Neon colored leisure pool with black lights. Eat lunch in a jungle. Take the little ones wading in an educational kiddie pool. Enroll your kids; a therapy pool and lap pool designed and dedicated to swim lessons. A glow in the dark spa in a dim room with calm music. Get that cardio workout in the therapy pool with personal changing rooms and separate entrance.  Ever pet a stingray? Fall out of a crashing helicopter into a shark's open jaws. Even the drinking fountains are whales blowing water. Don't pollute; throw your trash away in a futuristic themed recycler garbage. An entire room stretching along one side of the building for 10+ slides. Don't worry, a conveyer belt will bring up your tube for you. Learn lifeguard skills get hands on experience. Get around the park another way; by crawling through tubes and bridges. An entire room that's one giant aqua play. Tarzan ropes and zip lines...

Plain is not allowed in this park. Fun is a rule.

And of course, Ellis lifeguards.

These are most of my ideas so far. I will post more later.

Thank You

I'm not really leaving my job, just switching locations almost. I'm coming from the Vaughan Athletic Center with Jeff Ellis Management lifeguards in Aurora, Illinois, to Evergreen Wings and Waves Waterpark with Ellis and Associates lifeguards in McNinnville, Oregon.

It has always been my grandpa's dream for one of his grandchildren to come out and stay with him. He now has cancer and has decided to not fight it. I am the only one of his children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, great nieces, and great nephews who can possibly come. So I have decided to go.

This is not to tell in detail the life I am establishing in Oregon, this is to tell of the life I lived here in Illinois with Jeff Ellis Management and these wonderful people.

First of all, thank you so much everyone!!!!! I can't believe I have to leave you. You guys are my second family. I have been so spoiled this past week. Thank you so much for the wonderful gifts and all the sweets (first thing in Oregon is to get a gym pass lol) But all those things are worth nothing compared to how much I love you guys. I'm kind of scared to leave the people I know love me back. (Sorry if that sounded cheesy :) That card you all put work into and kept a secret the whole time is worth the world. I will keep it on a table at my new place so I can think of you all every time I see it. The people in this picture are only a small handful of all the wonderful people I worked with.

Left to right: Jimmy, Hector, Bris, me, Santana, and then there's Cesar. Chassmin is taking the picture.

Thank you to our area manager, Jerica, who is the real backbone behind everything we did. You are like a sister to me.

Thank you Cesar for teaching me how to do my job. You have a heart of gold. Stay happy! :)

A special thanks to Doug who was the most inspirational manager I ever worked with, even if I only worked with you a few times. (I hope those guards threw you a party when you left) 

I could go on thanking and telling how much I love each one of my coworkers all day and night. Even though sometimes I got ticked at some of you, in the end, I love you too.

The actual work we do is outstanding! It's amazing what a bunch of teenagers can do; we literally run pools and save lives. The experience is priceless. It's that moment when you climb out of the water after saving a drowning kid and everyone is looking at you in aw.

This job changed my life. I walk out with a final save number of ten, and a final VAT number of twenty-three. I will never forget the looks on each one of those faces.

Like I've said before and I'll say it again; if you really want to know what this job is like, try it. It might change your life and you.

Thank you everyone. Each one of you changed me in some way big or small. If you haven't, go and like my Facebook page Diary of a Lifeguard or friend me and Ill update pictures and stories. Keep me posted!

I love you.

https://m.facebook.com/DiaryOfALifeguard?__user=100000098837899

That Arm Thing

Many people at the pool always ask "What is that arm thingy you do?"

There are several different ways to answer this question, and many different reasons why we "do that arm thingy."

Every five minutes, one of the lifeguards, usually the one at stand one, will start a Five Minute Strategy. They will announce it over the radios. All the lifeguards stand up and in a certain order, they copy their stands. Looking down their arm as a guide, they scan every part of their zones. Their arms should always be straight for proper guidence. The entire zone should be scanned right around ten seconds. Once the lifeguard has assured their zone is clear of any visible hazards or people in trouble, they hold up a thumb to show their manager and supervisor that the zone is clear. The first stand then clears their zone over the radio. The next stand will do the same and the next and so on until everyone is cleared. At the end, a supervisor or manager will clear everyone and the lifeguards can then sit down.

Scanning is never ceased when a lifeguard is on stand. Five minute strategies are done to keep the lifeguards on their toes. They are done for the guests to give the most safety possible. They give the lifeguard the chance to do an even more careful and profound scan on their zone so that nothing is ever missed. They also prove to the manager that the guards' minds are focused on their water that they are seeing everything and everyone in it.

Lifeguards perform a Five Minute Strategy

Rotations may look much the same as a Five Minute Strategies. Know the difference: in a Five Minute Strategy, the water is scanned in or right around ten seconds. With a rotation, the incoming lifeguard still uses their arm or just head depending on the pool and trainer, however the scan is slower and more careful and may take around thirty seconds. The guard walks around their zone and scans the water around them checking the top, the middle, and the bottom of the water. If it is not possible to walk and scan around all sides of the zone, the guard should at least do two sides of the zone, but still scan the entire zone of water.

After this is complete, the incoming lifeguard stands next to the stand and performs a ten second scan either with their head or arm depending on the requirements at that pool. When the incoming lifeguard confirms the zone is clear "got it" the outgoing lifeguard climbs out of the stand. They then perform a ten second scan as the incoming guard did. When they confirm the zone is clear "got it" the incoming guard climbs in stand and performs another ten second scan. They confirm the zone is clear "got it" and the outgoing lifeguard then scans out. Scanning out is the same as scanning in.

Even though Five Minute Strategies and Rotations may seem long and complicated or hard to memorize when reading them, they become habit. They are actually very simple and do not take long. The trick is to build a good habit from the beginning. When a lifeguard learns how to rotate on their first day of work, they should fallow that pattern the rest of their lifeguard career. They may even go further and improve their rotations from the way they were taught. Not every lifeguard will teach scanning rotations, or Five Minute Strategy at its best.

Every lifeguard should strive to do their best. If they use self discipline, they can rotate and scan well and correctly every time, even on slow days at the pool. And if and when they become supervisors, they can teach the next guards how to scan and rotate properly.

Lifeguard Memes

Just some pictures I found on Google and Facebook

Made this one up, though I'm sure I'm not the first person to think of it.

Scanning

Scanning is one of the most important skills a lifeguard must use. A lifeguard may go through training and monthly in-service; they may be the best person with rescues, CPR, and rescue breathing, but if they do not scan their water, their skills are not going to be much use to them or a person in trouble.

Ten twenty stands for ten seconds to see a guest in distress and twenty seconds to reach them and render aid. The ten twenty scanning pattern is used by lifeguards to ensure full safety of guests at a pool. We scan our water, moving our heads in different ways to cover every part of the pool, checking the top, the middle, and the bottom of the water. The entire zone should be scanned all within the ten second time frame. A lifeguard never brakes their ten twenty as long as they are in stand.

There are five stages of drowning that can all occur within a minute with an average child. The first stage is Surprise! In this stage the person begins to struggle at the surface, bobbing up and down but still able to bring in air. With a child, this first stage lasts around thirty seconds. An adult may take longer. Our goal as lifeguards is to get to the person in distress and render aid before they pass the first stage of drowning.

Every lifeguard should provide their guests with the ten twenty. It is a lifeguad's number one priority to keep the people at the pool safe. True safety can be given if the ten twenty scanning pattern is used.

One of the most effective scanning patterns.

What is a VAT?

VAT stands for Vigilance Awareness Test. They are run to test a lifeguard's awareness level. The job of a lifeguard may include a great amount of physical work, but the physical ability will do little good if the mental part does not come first. A lifeguard may be moving their heads and eyes, scanning and looking at their zones, but are they seeing what is in their water? It is very easy to scan right over someone in trouble. VATs are run at random to strengthen lifeguards' minds; to develop their reaction to anything out of place.

Lifeguards use the ten/twenty pattern for scanning to check their zones. They look for anyone in trouble on the top, the middle, and the bottom of the water. A lifeguard has ten seconds to recognize (see) the VAT, and twenty seconds to reach it. The same pattern is used in real situations. A VAT recognized in over ten seconds but reached in under a total of thirty secods is a pass. VATs completed in these times meet the standard VAT requirements. A VAT recognized and reached in ten seconds is an exceed. A VAT recognized and reached in over thirt seconds is a fail with remediation. If a guard takes over sixty seconds to recognize a VAT and reach it, it is a fail with termination.

There are several different types of VATs. The most common is Timmy. He is a three foot manikin doll. He can be filled with water fully or partially to sink, or inflated with air to float. He is usually tossed in acting as a young non-swimmer child who jumps in over their head. Sometimes he is slipped in at the side of the pool.

VAT girl is about the size of a six year old and weighs about that much in the water. She fills up with water and sinks to the bottom. VAT girl is usually taken in the water by someone else and dropped.

A live VAT is when a person acts as if they are drowning. They can either be conscious or unconscious. In a live VAT the person can drown in difforent ways to make a lifeguard use their difforent rescue types. These VATs can be the most affective.

The last type of VATs are the silhouettes also known as The Shadow. This is the hardest one to see. It is simply a dark brown mat shaped like a person laying on their side with weights in it to sink. There is a larger one about the size of VAT girl and a smaller one about the size of Timmy. These are the sneakiest of all VATs. They are normally taken into the water by a person and quietly layed out. A shadow VAT acts as a person in trouble laying on the pool bottom. In many real situations, a person may look like only a brown blob on the bottom, especially if they are by the wall or further away from the lifeguard.

Whether a VAT is live or a manikin, at the managers command a simple VAT may turn into a full scenario. It could be a spinal or neck injury or a full scenario with CPR and rescue breathing. These VATs are group VATs. In this case other lifeguards from the nearest stands would run to help.

A lifeguard is not targeted with a VAT, rather a stand at a specific time is planned. The guard who happens to be on stand at the time is random. For a VAT to properly run, a manager, at least two witnesses, a supervisor or manager to time the VAT with a stopwatch, a guard to go up in stand immediately after so the water is never left unguarded, and someone to place the VAT must be present. The witnesses include the manager and someone else running the VAT. Some alterations can be made depending on the amount of staff on duty.

Do not be alarmed if you are ever swimming at a pool while a VAT is run. They are normal and conducted several times a day. Remember, Vigilance Awareness Tests are not real. They are simply there to test a lifeguard's awareness.

My Cousin Martina

Once upon a time there lived a teenaged girl, who so happens to be my cousin,

and she is a lifeguard for Jeff Ellis. I didn't really care about lifeguarding before she herself became one:lifeguards were only people at pools who embarrassed me when I went running on the deck.

But now I know better- lifeguards have a purpose. Martina has a purpose now in life and in work because she is a lifeguard. She gives me tips on this or that about swimming or lifeguarding and encourages me to keep striving after my ideal self as she has done. That is why I am so happy Martina is a lifeguard. Her life is blossoming beautifully into a promising adulthood, and I am glad to have such a cousin who cares about where life takes her and still manages to keep herself busy by nurturing her soul along with myself with writing! Lifeguarding is definitely a job to keep the spirits high and that is why Martina is the best cousin ever!

By Anne

Example of Undisciplined Lifeguards

Yesterday I went swimming at Pavek Pool in Berwyn with my cousins. I knew what was coming before I went. I had heard so many bad stories about the lifeguards.

When we arrived, there was one lifeguard watching the entire pool while kids were swimming. The pool is fifty yards long with a diving board and a water slide. Finally two other guards went up.

 I enjoyed my swim, but sure enough, the lifeguards were goofing around, talking a lot on stand, turning their backs to the water, and even playing with a basketball. They were doing things that I would be fired for in my company.

I asked a lifeguard who they were trained by. Pointing a finger behind, he said by his manager. He said it like he was confused or thought I was stupid.

Later when I was going to the locker room, I passed by the guard room. There was a man inside in a yellow shirt texting with his feet up. (Manager?)

I used my underwater camera and captured a few snapshots of them.

Every time I need a motivation for work, I'll just look at those pictures.

The Problem With Lifeguards

Martina Chione

English 101

7/10/2013

            Did you know that drowning is the number one cause of death in the world? That explains all the water, and it also explains all the lifeguards who do not do their jobs right.

The world of lifeguards is an unknown topic to society. If I walked up to a random person on the street and asked them what they thought about gay marriage, they would probably have an answer. If I asked them what they thought should be done about the problem with lifeguards, they would most likely be confused. Anything about lifeguards is rarely brought up on the news, or seen in a newspaper, until someone drowns. And then when the news reporter delivers the story to the public, they make the lifeguards and the companies look like they did everything they could. A better lifeguard knows that the drowning could have been prevented. Everyone should know that.

            While doing some research for a paper I wrote a few months ago, I found many stories about drownings that were under the care of lifeguards. They made the lifeguard company look innocent. The lifeguards did exactly what they were trained to do by the company. That makes it the fault of the company, not the individual lifeguards.

Drowning can be and usually is quick and silent. It is the fifth highest cause of unintentional injury death in the United States. From 2005 to 2009, 3,533 people died from drowning in non-boat related incidents. Children from the age of 1 to 4 drowned the most. Many of these incidents happened under the care of lifeguards.

There are five stages of drowning: Surprise! In this stage, a person begins to struggle at the surface but is still able to get air in their lungs. It usually lasts for around thirty seconds. Involuntary Breath Holding: after the person has tired, they cannot get up for air, thus being forced to hold their breath. Unconsciousness: this stage is exactly what it says. The person’s lungs begin to fill with water. Hypoxic Convulsion: the person has already taken in water and is unconscious. Puss begins to ooze out of their eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. Their body becomes rigid and their may be jerking motions. Death: when they have reached this stage, the person is clinically dead which means that they can still be brought back, but from the moment their heart stops beating, their chance of survival drops by ten percent every minute. These stages of drowning can occur all within sixty seconds. The person needs aid rendered before they pass the first stage.

If death is not the result of a serious near drowning, then there are other extreme results such as physical inability or permanent brain damage. Most parents do not know how to render aid to a child after they have stopped breathing. Some parents may not be able to get their child off of the bottom of as little as four feet of water.

“If you go to any other lifeguard company and ask them for a cup of water, they will bring you exactly what you asked for. If you ask a Jeff Ellis lifeguard for a cup of water, they will bring you a cup of water with ice, a lemon slice on the side, a napkin, and a little umbrella on top. When you tell them you didn’t need all that, they will tell you its no problem, they do it every time.”

When people go to a pool for a swim, they expect the lifeguard to sit there in the chair and look at the water. What a lifeguard needs to deliver to a guest is the quote about the cup of water.

            One reason that lifeguards may be so overlooked is the fact that lifeguarding has been so abused in the past hundred or so years. Strategies were never developed to ensure that a lifeguard was able to protect people at the highest level possible.

A lifeguard’s task as a first responder is to ensure the safety of the guests at a pool or beach, but unfortunately not just any lifeguard company does that. Before I became a lifeguard myself, I used to think the same as most other people; a person with a rescue tube is sitting in a chair, I am safe. My mind never thought to strive beyond that thought. But when my friend got me involved with the company Jeff Ellis Management, I finally woke up to the problems that are always being hushed. I realized the problem with drownings around not just the US, but the entire world.

A few months ago I found many stories on the internet about drownings that were under the care of lifeguards. In the stories, the lifeguards did exactly what they were trained and taught to do. In the end, the people drowned anyway. While reading these stories, I realized that the drownings could have very well been prevented if the lifeguards had been trained better and their supervisors were stricter with them. If the lifeguard company had had good work standards that were used with every lifeguard, those people could have been saved before they even passed the first stage of drowning. I was able to see the holes and flaws in these stories because of my knowledge of lifeguards. If every person in the world saw how a lifeguard really should be, they would be able to see the problems with these situations as well.

What was really sad about the stories is that not even the parents of the dead children knew what the real issue was. They blamed themselves and did not realize that their child should have been saved even if they were not watching them. The close family and friends of drowned people in these situations can be the strongest voices in the fight for better lifeguards.

While doing some research on this paper, I Googled drowning to see what I would get. I found many websites that described drowning, its causes, and ways it can be avoided. But not in any of them did I see anything about lifeguards as a way to avoid a drowning, much less anything about lifeguards who actually do their jobs. The world of lifeguards and its problems needs to be openly public. Everyone knows about cancer. With drownings being the fifth largest cause of death in the US, the problems with lifeguards needs to be just as important.

A person can go to college to become an accountant, graduate, and get a job, and they are an accountant. Just as well, a lifeguard can take the training, get a job, and be a lifeguard. This is not true. There are many lifeguard trainings out there who call themselves professional, but when it comes down to it, they are inaccurate, sometimes behind, and are not strict enough such as passing students who still cannot get something right. A lifeguard may have papers that say they have completed training, but that does not mean they are going to do their job right.

The problem with many lifeguard companies is this; if they do not have set specific and strictly enforced rules for the guards that are used at every body of water guarded by that company then each personal lifeguard will have their own level of leeway with themselves and other guards. This attitude rubs off on new guards as they join the company, and as the current guards work longer and move up in position, they also develop in their heads what they think should be expected from the lifeguards. Unfortunately, if a lifeguard was trained and disciplined wrong from the very beginning, they will most likely do the same to the new guards who come after them, thus loosing almost all manner of professionalism, awareness, and self control. Lifeguarding is a very important job and needs to be taken seriously by every company with utmost care.

I have had several experiences with lifeguards who did not do their job correctly. One of them was when I was six years old. I remember it clearly. I was at a pool in Oregon with my family and grandparents when I decided to sneak off by myself. I was wearing a lifejacket and decided to jump in over my head. As soon as I hit the water, I began to panic. Even though I now know I was not drowning, I thought I was at the time. I flailed my way screaming back to the edge of the pool. I remember the lifeguard yelling at me to stop screaming. When I did find my way out of the water, the lifeguard made me sit on the stand until my mom came out of the locker rooms.

Ten years later when I had my first rescue as a new lifeguard, the little boy was in a lifejacket. He came out of the slide and began to panic. He got stuck in the middle of the pool. I knew that I had to get that kid out immediately. Panic can still turn to something bad.

Why did that lifeguard in my situation not get me out, but yell at me and then sit me out of the pool? Whether someone was keeping a close eye on me or not, the lifeguard still could have gotten me. I understand that lifeguards are not glorified babysitters and that parents should watch their kids, but that is no excuse for a drowning or panicking child.

Many things can be done to take care of this problem around the world with lifeguards. In fact, there are already many things going on to help improve and ensure the safety of guests at a pool or beach, but it will never be enough until every swimming place has good and well trained lifeguards.

In Jeff Ellis Management, founded 2004, passing the training is no easy task. If someone thinks they can walk in there and wing the job, they can turn around and leave. While on the job, we are randomly tested with manikins and people fake drowning. We have ten seconds to see them and twenty seconds to render aid. This is possible because of our ten second scanning patterns that we use, always moving our heads and checking, and scanning with our arms every five minutes. We practice our lifeguard skills such as rescue types, CPR, first aid, and even guest services skills for up to four hours every month. At random, we are audited while on the job.

Ellis and Associates, another company owned by the same person as Jeff Ellis Management, was founded in 1983. This company does hundreds of thousands of pools and beaches all around the world. They are ranked one of the best lifeguard companies in the world.

Lifeguard awareness is being spread throughout the globe, but it still remains an unpopular topic among society. What needs to happen is for people to be as aware of drownings as much as well trained lifeguards are. The word needs to be put out to the public to see the lifeguards when they go swimming, to be aware of what risk they may be putting themselves at by getting in the water, and most of all, be able to correctly judge the lifeguards, not only for themselves, but for their friends and loved ones.

What should be looked for in a lifeguard:

--Scanning; visibly moving their heads along every part of their zone, especially the walls and corners

--Proper rescue equipment; rescue tube with strap on and ready, hip pack, a trauma bag with major emergency equipment, and a backboard for pulling people safely out of the water. This equipment should be found somewhere near the water.

--No cell phones or other distractions near by

--No fiddling around or goofing off; feet ready to jump in at any moment

--Not talking to anyone for more than a minute

--They deliver good, solid, and unsterstandable answers to any questions

--Drinking water is at hand

If someone would like to go further, ask management any questions:

            --Do you test your lifeguards?

            --How often do your lifeguards change stands?

            --How often are the lifeguards required to renew their licenses?

            --What company are your guards trained by?

            --Are your guards audited?

            --How often do they practice their guarding skills such as rescuing methods and

CPR?

            One may say that it costs a lot of money to hire a well trained and disciplined company that is also more expensive. According to the NCI (National Cancer Institute), $5 to 6 billion is being spent on cancer research per year. I have nothing against cancer research and am in all favor of money being invested in it, but why can not money like that be raised and invested in places to hire better lifeguards, or spent on lifeguard companies to be able to charge less for contracts?

            One may argue that you get what you pay for, and this is true to take into consideration with almost anything else. But with lives at stake, there is no excuse. One company may cost more than another, but one company may keep a lot more people safe than the other.

The job also pays in many other ways. I personally make nine dollars an hour which is seventy five cents higher than the minimum wage in Illinois. The amount of work that my coworkers and I put into the job, we could be fairly paid a good fifteen dollars an hour. But the responsibility and immense amount of experience that comes with the job is worth much more.

One thing that can be stronger than money is the power in the voices of a crowd. The more people who come out and protest against poor lifeguarding, the better. Towns and pools will do everything they can to hire better lifeguards if enough voices are heard.

The reality of a lifeguard’s true duties needs to be known to everyone. If a lifeguard is on duty, there is very little excuse for a drowning. They are there to protect the lives of the people in the water. The fight for better lifeguards should never end until the yearly number of drownings is reduced greatly.

The Real Backbone

7-28-2013

            Each day we go into work, we may fail to think of a wonderful lady known as Jerica. She is the one who holds us all together. She is the backbone to everything we do. She is the reason everything runs smoothly and properly. She is the reason we get to walk into work that day. She is our area manager in Illinois and she deserves a lot of praise.

            While we sit in that stand keeping our ten twenties and sweating in the hot sunshine, she is either in her office at the Vaughan Center dealing with paperwork and phone calls, from complaints to package deliveries to paycheck issues, or she is at her third meeting of the day. Whenever I see her in her office, she is on the phone or deep into her laptop. Sometimes she will have me do things for her randomly, and I am glad to help.

            A remarkable wonder about her is how, no matter what, when I walk through that office door either to talk to her or for something else, she looks up with a smile and a hello. She always makes me feel welcome. It is easy to spark a conversation with her. She is a wonderful person to talk to, even if it is just some problems from home or with some friends.

            But sometimes I can see the stress behind her work. I can see her smile, but I catch her sighing. When I ask her how her day is going, sometimes she says light and easy, but other times she has a load of work to do. It is that smile, though, that shows how strong she is, that she can handle anything thrown in her direction.

            Jerica’s wardrobe must be any other girl’s dream. She knows how to shop. She does not only dress professionally, she dresses in the perfect clothes to make her even more beautiful. Sometimes it is long pants with a gold shirt and scarf, sometimes it is a long black dress with a cardigan and a black beaded necklace. Her long black hair goes perfect with anything she wears. Most of the time, she puts it up into a bun with it pulled around her head rather than straight back.

            She just recently got married last month. I found her Facebook and saw a picture of her in her wedding dress with her Bridesmaids. She was so stunning I almost fell out of my chair. Her husband John is the luckiest man on this planet.

            Sometimes I hear people talk about other coworkers, and it is not always good. But if someone brings up Jerica’s name, everyone smiles every time because we all know how wonderful she is. She is always fair and she never lies. She goes out of her way to do something for someone for some reason.

            I think everyone should throw her a big thank you party for all the wonderful and hard work she does for all of us.

Something Remarkable

Something Remarkable

10—11—12

Something remarkable happened last night at the Vaughn Center, the big athletic center in Aurora. I went swimming with my Mom as we like to do. I thought it would just be a regular normal swimming session, but an event completely took me off guard.
If you have read all the daily logs and articles about my job as a lifeguard from this past summer I wrote, you will know that me and another lifeguard named Britney, have always butted heads. We worked at Phillips Park water park together and we hardly ever got along. We got mad at each other for the littlest things and were rude. We couldn't accept each other's differences, and therefore we were all-out mean to each other. I don't know about her, but I tried really hard to be nice to her, but when she tried to push me around and bully me, I didn't let her, so I was mean back. We clashed. Everyone, all the other lifeguards and even the maintenance, knew we didn't get along very well. They all saw it.
There is a supervisor named Cesar, and he is the nicest guy anyone could ever meet. I have never seen him mad at all. He is friends with everyone and can't stand it when people are mad at each other. As I said, last night, I was swimming at the indoor pool where the guards work during the school year. Britney was working that night. I walked into the therapy pool for a nice long tread.
I sat on the edge of the pool, putting on my swim cap. I saw Britney walking towards me. She smiled and said hi and I said hi back. To my surprise, she came and sat down next to me and started to talk.
“Hey, Martina,” She said, “I want to apologize for this past summer. I'm sorry for being so mean to you. Sometimes I have bad days and I'm a total bitch to you. I am to everyone, and I don't realize it. I just have a lot of bad days. I really didn't mean to be that way. I know I was bad. It was all my fault.”
I just sat there, speechless. I couldn't believe this was happening. There was no lye in Britney's voice. And then I knew it was my turn. I knew suddenly that I had been being the same way to her all along.
“Thanks,” I said, “It was my fault. I know I was really mean to you back. I shouldn't have done that, always pushing your buttons. I didn't even realize when I was being like that.”
Britney smiled and thanked me. She wished me good swimming, got up, and went off to do some pool deck mopping. I am truly sorry for the way I treated Britney. I know I was a total idiot to her, and I wish I could have realized all along how mean I was and apologized myself.
Britney made my day. Now, I can finally have a clear conscience. I always thought she was a total idiot, but I knew deep down all along there was something more, that she could be really nice and really fun. And I know that she has her problems too from home, just like me and everyone else does. Maybe one of her ways of dealing with stress was to get mad at everyone, and she didn't even know, that's just how things happened.
What I honestly think happened the other night was that Cesar talked to Britney about me. Cesar knows my good side and he knows Britney's good side also. He also knows, because he saw it, that her and I never got along. I think Cesar said something to Britney about how I thought she was a really mean person. And of course, Britney really isn't.
I just want you to know how much that means to me, Britney, what you did last night. It means a whole lot more than anyone realizes. And Cesar, if that was you who said something to Britney about me, thank you. But especially thank you to Britney because I know it took a lot to do that.
Forgive and forget; it's magic! I forgive you, Britney and I'm sorry for the way I treated you.
--Martina

The strength in an apology and forgiveness is measureless, and so is the strength in thankfulness. After what happened last week between me and Britney, how things were finally mended and her and I can finally drop all of our grudges and anger between each other, I knew I had someone else to thank as well as Britney.
So today I was sitting up at the front desk in the aquatics area, acting as cashier since there wasn't one there at the moment. I was signing kids in for swim lessons and unlocking the locker rooms for people. Then, after I had signed everyone in for swim lessons and all the kids and parents had gone into the pool, I sat there alone, coloring a new picture with some Sharpie markers.
I had thought about doing it on Twitter or something, but I knew I had to do it in person. I knew the perfect moment would come.
Then Cesar came out the pool deck door. He wore his supervisor uniform, ready for his shift to start. He went into the locker room, and when he came back out, I stopped him.
“Hey, Cesar,” I said, “I have a question for you.”
“Okay, Martina,” Cesar said, crossing his arms and leaning on the high desk in front of me.
I didn't hesitate, “Are you the one who told Britney how I thought she was really mean over the summer?”
“Britney, who?”
“Britney, who worked at Phillips Park in the summer.”
“No.” That was the biggest lye I had ever heard out of someone. Cesar's eyes were lying, and it was in his voice.
He tried to walk away, but I wasn't going to let Cesar off the hook that easy. “You know, what happened the other night. Britney came to me and apologized for everything. Did you tell her how she made me feel really bad and I thought she was a total idiot? I honestly want to know, Cesar.”
He just looked at me and smiled a little. He took his arms off the counter and admitted it, “Yes.” I couldn't tell if he was embarrassed or if he was just being really shy or he just thought I was ridiculous.
I smiled, “Thank you, Cesar. That really means a lot to me.” I meant it.
Cesar just smiled and nodded at me, “You're welcome.” Some kids started to come through the door, and he really needed to get back to work. He held the door open for the kids and then went through it himself, going back to supervise.
I smiled to myself. Every part of what I had said was true and sincere. It was short and simple, but all I wanted to do was thank Cesar. Because he really did mend a lot of anger. He is a really good guy.
I don't know if Cesar or Britney will ever understand how much that meant, what they did.

Cards like a Boss

7-26-2013

            You have not seen someone play cards if you have not seen Bucky and Dylan play cards. You have not played cards if you have not played cards like Bucky and Dylan. If you have seen them play cards, you will understand what I experienced today, and if you have not, you should.

            It was a rainy day and no one came to swim at that small neighborhood pool, so Bucky and I, the two lifeguards, sat inside the club house and chilled for the day. When Bucky’s older brother, a lifeguard manager, was done at the water park he was working at, Phillip’s Park, he came over with Bucky’s girlfriend Haley. They brought Taco Bell…. and a deck of cards.

            After Haley left, I participated in one game of Egyptian Rat Screw with Bucky and Dylan, but little did I know of their skill. I went through my cards, but ended up being lucky because I had all the Jacks. I did eventually loose my cards in the end.

When Dylan left to use the bathroom, he gave me his stack of cards, thinking I would run out and loose against Bucky. Little did I know that I was again lucky because I had some strong cards in there. I held out until Dylan got back, but I had by then shrunk his stack to a small size. He was surprised that I had held out, but not too happy that I had shrunk his stack. He wanted me to just loose so he could start a new game.

He took his cards back from me and continued the game as I watched. It was hard and mind boggling to watch Bucky and Dylan slam their hands on that table, every few cards as it seemed. Dylan came around and started to gain his cards back from Bucky that I had lost. It was obvious that Dylan was a better player than Bucky, but not by much. They were both a pretty fare match.

Together, they bent over that table with me watching intently from the side, the card stack in the middle, all their minds and will focused on what was rapidly laying itself out before them. Their reflexes were lightning speed. Cards went down, and suddenly hands shot out from nowhere with a bang on the table. Whoever lost the slap would sometimes let out a curse under their breath. They played cards like their life depended upon it.

I was surprised how entertaining it was. I watched closely because I wanted to get good at seeing those doubles and sandwiches instantly. These guys made me suddenly interested in card playing. They made me want to get good at it. I wondered if I would ever get to watch them play cards again.

And then Dylan would goof up and blame it on me for loosing all his cards. Ah! Well he DID entrust me with his stack of cards. His excuse was he thought I’d loose them all, but I was too clever and lucky for that. I mean, I did win two slaps against Bucky which Dylan congratulated me for with a huge “TWO WHOLE SLAPS?!” sarcastically.

Don’t get me wrong, I knew they did not intend anything mean, and I took nothing personally. I just thought they were both pretty funny guys and I was seeing a side to them I had never seen before.

I watched them play game after game, and then they played Speed, which they called Spit because they played it at about five times its normal pace. This one involved them flipping lots of cards in rows and throwing them into two different piles faster than I could blink. When they were finally done, we went to clean up the pool and put away the equipment to end our day.

Sometimes brothers act differently or share interests outside of public. This is obviously Dylan and Bucky’s brother side. To those two guys, cards is not an old lady game, it is competition and pure joy.

Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato day 3

Day 3

Written: 5-2013

            On day three, we didn’t go in the water at all. We began by finishing up the last few teach backs. They all went really well, especially because now everyone was refreshed from the day before.

            Except right in the middle of one of the teach backs, Chad started making funny noises and then passed out and fell on the floor. That was our call for an emergency, though we were obviously being tested by Jerica and Mike. Someone grabbed the crash bag that was already near by and Doug, who was right next to him, shouted at Mike to call 911, then immediately gloved up and began to check for a pulse. There was a pulse so we began rescue breathing. Meanwhile, everyone else in the room jumped up out of their seats and got in close to watch. The people who were near by jumped right in to help.

            “Okay, that’s it,” Mike announced, “Everyone go back to your seats.”

            “Don’t say a word,” Jerica said. She and Mike passed out papers. They were random either incident/accident reports or rescue reports. “Fill these out to your best knowledge.”

            When we were all done, we passed back in the forms. Jerica and Mike took them and looked them over, then set them aside. We did even more skit scenarios after that. They went pretty much the same as the day before, but I’d like to touch on one that was especially good and a bit funny.

The best situation had to be when Doug complained to Cesar and Emma that a lifeguard kicked his kids out of the pool for not wearing real swim suits. And if you haven’t seen Doug really go at it then you have no idea. I will try my best to describe what happened.

Cesar came in and asked Doug if he could help him. Doug started out by stating his complaint. Then he started to build up. “My kids have been swimming hear the whole summer and not once has a lifeguard said anything. Lifeguards passed by them all day and then suddenly one came along and said my kids can’t be in the water because they aren’t wearing real swim suits. Why can’t my kids wear basketball shorts?”

Cesar started to say something, and then Doug would just cut him off with an even angrier remark. All this time, Doug began to step closer and closer to Cesar until Cesar had to start backing up.

“I understand, sir, but…”

“But you DON’T understand!” Doug cut him off. He was literally flipping out by this point and dramatically waiving his arms and cutting down and saying how horrible the lifeguards were.

It went on much this way for a few more minutes. Meanwhile, everyone else in the room who was watching the scenario play out, or should I say Cesar getting brutally mutilated to pieces by Doug, was laughing, yet we could see how a guest could act in this way. It had happened before.

“I don’t get it,” Doug said, “It’s not in the health code from the state.” Doug turned and grabbed a piece of paper off the counter, “Look, see,” He said, showing it to Cesar, “I even have the health code right here. It says clean clothes. You don’t have to be wearing swim suits!”

Cesar looked at it and said “Yes, I see, but we require that everyone wear a commercially sold swim suit because we can’t tell if the clothes are clean and washed or not.”

“Clean? These clothes are clean! How do you know that the swim suits people wear are clean!?” Now Cesar was almost backed up against the wall with Doug right in his face, shaking the paper at him. Finally Cesar had Emma, the manager for the scenario, come in and help out. Emma introduced herself and it calmed Doug down a bit. Doug restated his complaint to Emma. But then he started to build up again. Finally in the end, Mike ended the scenario. Cesar, Emma, and Doug all went back to their seats.

We gave our comments. Doug reached over the table and shook Cesar and Emma’s hands and apologized for tearing them up. It was still pretty good, though.

All I could think was, “I am so glad that Doug is not a guest with a complaint at MY pool.”

            Mike passed out the iPads again, and again we went over all the paperwork, or should I say iPad work, and we reviewed everything from the day before. Only this time, Mike had a big TV screen set up with his laptop hooked up to it so we could all clearly see what he was doing instead of crowing around small iPad screens.

            This time everything made a lot more sense. I started to see how simple it all really was. It was very plainly laid out. The software was designed by someone who worked for Ellis, and so they obviously knew exactly how it needed to be laid out and what things were normally called. For example, all the Jeff Ellis Management pools in Illinois are in the Chicago area. But the ones in Florida, Hawaii, and Texas are all over the state, and so when supervisors sign into their facilities and select their location, it says the Illinois pools are in Chicago, but down in Florida, it says the specific state and then the town.

            Jerica stood up with three stacks of papers in her hand, one was, well, most of the reports we had done. The other two stacks were hardly stacks at all, but had only a few papers. “This,” Jerica said, holding up the thick stack, “Is all the reports that were filled out wrong. This,” She said holding up the smaller two stacks, “Is the reports that were filled out correctly.” Everyone in the room started to murmur, wondering what they did wrong.

            We figured out what was wrong. We were not supposed to put our own information on the paper; we were supposed to put the information of the guest. It was different from being a lifeguard. As a guard, while filling out one of those reports, we put our own information as witnesses. But as supervisors and managers, it was our dity to get the information of the guest.

            Jerica had some nice comments to say about some of the handwriting, “Gees, Giehm,” She said to Eric Giehm, a roving manager, “Beautiful handwriting. Please take this out into your job and use it. Some of those VAT forms… I mean.”

            “What?” Giehm said. Everyone in the room laughed.

            Finally it was time for Jerica and Mike to give out the certificates. One by one as they called our names, we went up to the front of the room and got our certificate. We shook Mike’s hand, and then Jerica’s hand. But when Giehm went up, he shook mike’s hand, didn’t thin twice, and went to sit down, then remembered Jerica and went and shook her hand. “Giehm!” Jerica said, “You better watch it. I know where you live.”

            When my name was called, everyone clapped, as they did for everyone else, but a bunch of my awesome coworkers shouted, “Martita! Go Martita,” as if I just won a gold medal. Martita was my nickname at work that they gave to me. It was a long story.

            As we did the two days before, we went around the room and everyone stood up and said one good thing and one thing we needed to work on still. Hardly anyone had any constructive criticism. Instead we saw the improvements that everyone made. I think the biggest thing, one that a lot of people pointed out, was how everyone in the room really bonded together. We all forgot our differences and the drama in our lives and worked together to improve each other’s leadership skills.

            Everyone in the room had pretty much taken everything for good points when it came to be my turn. But I decided I was going to speak the truth of what I thought. I stood up, “I think the skits were really good. I think the best way to learn something is, not only to teach it, but to be in it, whether it is fake or real. This reminded me of my first guard class last year. In those three days no one ever taught me that much all at once. And I feel like that happened again in these past three days.” Everyone looked at me and I looked around the room. Doug smiled and nodded at me. Didn’t mean for the little speech right there, but I wanted to be honest.

            Later that night at home, I thought of something. I liked to call the Basic Leadership Training (BLT) the Bacon Lettuce and Tomato. I was telling the truth actually. I thought of it like this. The bacon is the lifeguards, the lettuce is the supervisors, the tomato is the managers and roving managers, and the toast on the outside is Jerica and Mike, our area managers. To have a true BLT, the one of the ingredients can be missing. Without all the lifeguard, supervisors, managers, and area managers, we were not a true BLT. Without each other, the entire Ellis company would not exist. And Jerica and Mike held us together, because if it weren’t for them, we would be nothing.

Basic Leadership Training was over, but now to come was our real challenges as leaders.

-Martina, Summer, 2013 (Martita)

Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato day 2

Day 2

Written: 5-27-2013

            It was day two. This time, I wore nicer white shorts and a pink polo. I was ready for my teach back for child CPR with a poster with a very plain layout and a handout. I took the handout down to the copier machine at the front of the building to make enough copies for everyone.

            The first thing we did that day was meet in the room, and then jump into the pool. Everyone who had teach backs that involved the pool went first. We did the different rescues, and the guards teaching it did demonstrations on land and in the water. Then we all got to try it. We took turns going on stand so that every one of us had a chance to go. But it seemed like every time it was time to give good comments and constructive criticism, Doug always had something to say for both, sometimes several things. That guy knew his stuff. When the guards teaching asked if anyone had any questions, he asked something challenging to see if they would answer correctly, only he asked them as if he knew nothing.

            There was one teach back in the pool that was especially good, and that was Anissa teaching about Vigilance Awareness Tests. She was very specific and convincing I her words. She was clear and easy to understand and covered everything. She told the importance of a VAT; if you can’t see a VAT, then how are you going to see a drowning person? It was really good and there was hardly any constructive criticism from anyone, except Doug, of course J

            When we were done with the water teach backs, we went back into the party room and started on our land teach backs. They were everything from v vacks to CPR to FBAO. I have to say that they were all really good. Some were a lot better than others, but everyone did a fantastic job. I could see where corrections could be made and where improvement was needed in each individual. Cesar stumbled over his words a lot, but that was okay; that was what he needed to work on. Someone else sometimes didn’t make sure that everyone could see what they were showing them. Everyone had something to work on; even Doug. He was teaching us about AEDs. Even he forgot to tell about the child key to reduce the shock.

            But that’s why we were all there, to help each other out, so that we could realize our weaknesses and strong points, so that we could use our strong points to help others strengthen their weak points in their job. I have to say that that was the mane reason for the BLT class; to strengthen each other and to boost the confidence.

            I went last in my teach back, since I had child CPR and everything that was already taught lead up to CPR. The only problem with my teach back was that everyone in the room had just sat through three hours of teach backs from other people. Everyone was tired and capturing the full attention of every person in the room was going to be a bit of a challenge. Unfortunately, I couldn't actually demonstrate it because everyone was sitting in chairs at tables at the wrong angle and would not be able to see me working on the floor. But I had a poster prepared and handouts with very clear guide lines and instructions on how to perform child CPR and rescue breathing. I asked for a volunteer to hold the poster, and I got two. I used a very clear vocabulary, explained what CPR meant along with other things, and explained why things were the way they were. I used a clear voice and made eye contact as best I could with the people in the room. I asked questions for everyone to answer together as a group.

            When I was done, I got a lot of good compliments and one piece of constructive criticism from Doug. He said that I should explain more why we do things. He said we could just do the CPR, but we should know why we are doing each step to it. He was right, and in fact, I was planning on doing that a lot more. I had everything all planned out in my head, but when it came down to it, I couldn’t remember absolutely everything; especially since I was the last one to go for the day.

            “Okay everyone,” Mike said as he handed out iPads, one for every few people. “Do not try and unlock these until I say so.” He finished handing out the iPads and then instructed everyone to unlock the iPads, telling us the passwords, and showing which app to open up.

            We spent the next forty-five minutes going over everything in the portal. It held all the paperwork needed for a day to run correctly. It had VAT forms, rescues reports, incident/accident reports, daily task reports, delegating future tasks to other supervisors and managers, and everything else needed. Some of the iPads were being stubborn and didn’t want to load because the wifi connection was weak in that stone walled party room. But we made it work and stood on chairs and held up the iPads until they loaded.

            This was the time to be using our notebooks. I took mine out and took some notes about each form; what each one was for and when it was to be used. To be honest, I was confused. The forms made sense, but I wasn't sure how I was going to remember each and every little detail about them. I took some simple but clear notes and did my best. Some of the other lifeguards who were already supervisors told me it would get easier the more I did it. I knew they were right.

            The day came to a close much like the one before. We went around the room and everyone told one good things about the day and one thing everyone needed to work on. I could already see the progress that everyone in the room had made. I realized I didn't know the real reason why no one under 48 inches was allowed to go down the slides; it was because of the requirements made by the slide company from the speed and turns, someone under four feet tall could get hurt. Everyone else in the room learned other things much of the same sort.

            I heard lifeguards talk about the BLT before; that someone could be a supervisor just fine without the training. Well in some cases with certain people, that may be true. But I do not believe so with most of us. For me, I would not be a good supervisor without the BLT. Even though it may have seemed like all we did was do a bunch of skits and teach backs and then went through the iPads, I feel like we all learned from that. Just having everyone gather there in that room, all of us building leaders out of each other, makes us learn a lot.

            Day two was over. Now for the final day.

Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato day 1

Day 1

Written: 5-25-2013

“If you go to any other lifeguard company and ask them for a cup of water, they will bring you exactly what you asked for. If you ask a Jeff Ellis lifeguard for a cup of water, they will bring you a cup of water with ice, a lemon slice on the side, a napkin, and a little umbrella on top. When you tell them you didn't need all that, they will tell you its no problem, they do it every time.”

            Mike Johnson, the assistant area manager of Illinois, used this comparison to show us lifeguards going through the Basic Leadership Training that our company will give more than is expected. A new guest may come into the pool for the first time and expect a lifeguard to sit there and stair at the water, but we give them more. We scan our water, checking in every corner and making sure everyone is safe. We come in several times a month to maintain in-service hours where we practice and fine tune our skills so they are never forgotten and always improving. Guards are tested at random with Vigilance Awareness Tests. We are audited three to four times a year by a licensed auditing team. And discipline is at its highest.

            On the first day of leadership training, I was ready and prepared. I dressed nicely and sat up straight. I made sure to pay attention and absorb all the information and skills that were being taught. I worked hard in the past year to get up to this point, and here was my opportunity to become a leader.

            The class was called the Basic Leadership Training, or just BLT. Or what I like to call it, the Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato class. The training was held at the Vaughn Athletic Center in Aurora. The only room that was available for use was the party room, then temporarily our meeting/class room. There were about 40 of us all crammed in it, and it got a little stuffy, but we fallowed our lifeguard mado and made it work. We all were either renewing their licenses or earning them for the first time, becoming supervisors-in-training, supervisors, managers-in-training, or managers. Some of us were even going to be roving managers. And then of course we had our trainers, the ever-so-wonderful Jerica, our area manager, and her assistant Mike.

            Many of the people in the class I already knew, but there were some who I didn’t. They were from the smaller pools that I never worked at, and so it was really nice getting to meet them and getting to know them.

            One person who I was delighted to see in the training was none other than Doug one of the best managers I ever worked with. He gave me even more motivation to do well than anyone else. I looked up to him.

            At the beginning of the first day, we went around the room and we each told our names, where we worked, how long we had been working, and an interesting fact about ourselves. For my interesting fact, I told everyone I played the violin. Simple, but a cool one at that. When it was Doug’s turn, he surprised me a bit. He said he almost drowned when he was little. Well, there was something I could relate to. He wasn’t the only one. Brad from the Fermi Lab pool said he was a graduate from college for music and band. He was currently in the process of getting a job as a music teacher. I already knew that one, but I though it kind of cool, since not a lot of people are really that dedicated to music anymore to take it on as their college career. Cesar said the same thing as Brad, except that Cesar just graduated from high school.

            After that, Mike and Jerica threw us all in the pool (not literally). I was glad we were in the therapy pool because the water was warm. All of us were divided into three groups and put at stations. At each station we went through different scenarios and skills. Mike gave us a little speech before we got in the water: “I want to see great and confident work here. We are leaders. We are going to be teaching this stuff to the new guards. You shouldn’t have to be told how to do it anymore.” This was our time to show how good we really were at our lifeguard skills. Here was our chance to be leaders.

My group went to the CPR station first with Doug. He took us over by the window and had us partner up with someone. Doug walked around and corrected little detail as we performed scenarios on each other with rescue breathing and CPR. I did mess up on a something that was really simple. Doug gave me a look that said, “C’mon Martina.”

When we were done with CPR, Doug asked us, “How come we do a proper jaw thrust? Think of it like a straw. You bend it and your drink isn't going to come through very well. Straighten it out and it works perfectly. You straighten out that airway on the guest and air will go through.”

I liked that, how Doug always used other simple little things in the world to compare life guarding skills to. It made things seem so much simpler and easier to understand. I liked how he told us why something was the way it was, not that it just was that way with no explanation.

When my group was done with the CPR station, we went over to another part of the pool with Chad, one of the managers. Here he had us doing rapid extrications and spinals. We would either have to pull an unconscious person out of the water on the backboard, or deal with a spinal injury where we had to strap them into the backboard and immobilize their heads. A few of us grabbed tubes and someone, acting as the distressed guest, went out into the shallow water and did something random.

Chad did not direct us in what to do. He did not point out detail or things that we could correct, but he watched us carefully, looking for our detail. Looking that we really knew what we were doing. Looking for the confidence; looking for the leadership in us. Get the spinal guest strapped to the backboard and out of the pool within two to three minutes, while being careful, and pull an unconscious guest out of the water as quickly and as fast as possible.

The third station was basic rescues. We did everything from the usual front drive to duck plucks, to rear hugs, to unconscious rescues. As Chad did, Mike paid close attention to the detail. We all did every rescue two times, switching out the lifeguard who was on stand so that we all had a chance to go.

When everyone was done, Mike gathered us all by the doors to the pool and said, “Nice job everyone. Just remembers that it is important that every detail you get and everything you say is correct, because other lifeguards will fallow exactly what you do. There was a trainer back in Hawaii who was teaching a lifeguard class, and every time he would use the seal easy, he would shake it first out of habit. And I can guarantee you all that every lifeguard in that class shook their seal easies before they used them.” Everyone in the room laughed.

When we all changed into our clothes and met back in the party room, we all commented on the good points and things we could fix with everything we had just done out at the pool. For the most part, everyone did really well, except that the backboard was dropped a few times with a bang.

And then we started on my favorite part of the training; skit scenarios. Mike chose two people to go out into the hallway and wait while everyone cooked up a good situation that could happen at a pool with one or two guests. He chose some people to be the guests, and then brought the two people from the hallway back in. One acted as the supervisor, and the other acted as the manager. The guest, or guests, had a complaint about something with the pool or something that happened. The supervisor had to try and deal with it, while the guest argued more and more and found more things wrong. When or if the supervisor couldn’t solve the problem, they got the manager who would then step in and help out.

Sometimes the situations went on for several minutes; sometimes the guest was quickly satisfied. It all really depended, not only on how well the supervisor and manager handled the situation, but also how far the complaining guest wanted to go. There was even a situation where Doug and Jesus had a fight when they thought their kids were spitting on one another. They started yelling at each other, and then Jesus pushed Doug, and Doug pushed back, so it turned into a shoving war. The supervisor and manager had to come in and separate them and listen to both sides of the story.

I was caught in a situation as a supervisor where Meriah and another girl complained to me that the pool was freezing cold. I was glad that they picked something I had to deal with many times before. I talked to them about how it was the maintenance’s responsibility to take care of the water temperature and I would let them know right away. They argued more and then Mike stepped in and started also freaking out at me. When that happened, I got the manager to help.

Apparently I did well, according to everyone. Mike said my confidence built up as the situation progressed instead of going down, though Cesar did point out that I needed to work on eye contact. Ugh! I knew I had a hard time making eye contact with people in general. Some other’s also said I could have suggested the therapy pool to them or something, since we were pretending the situation was at the Vaughn Center. I thought of giving them a day pass to one of the outdoor water parks.

Towards the end of the first day of class, Jerica assigned everyone something about life guarding that we would have to teach everyone the next day. We had to teach them as if no one in the room had ever heard of what we were talking about. I was assigned child CPR.

When class was over for the day, we went around the room and each one of us told a good thing from the day and something we could work on. Everyone touched on pretty much everything. We all realized our weak points in the job that a lot of us didn't even realize we had before. We found what we needed to work on, and our strong points. We could use those to help out others in their weak places.

I went out in the hallways where my younger brother was. He just came over from Splash Country where he was at a cleaning of the water park. He was a new cashier that summer. I called mom to come pick us both up. She happened to be in the area so she headed over. We sat on a bench, and when Jesus walked by, my crazy younger brother said, “Jesus!” Only he said it in English instead of Spanish. He did the sign of the cross in the air. Jesus laughed.

Cesar walked by a minute later and said bye to me. He told me I did a nice job on my scenario. “Thanks, I tried,” I said. He went around the corner, but a few minutes later he came back. When he passed by, Matthew my brother, stomped his foot and jumped half way out of his seat while making some sound like he was going to attack Cesar. Cesar jumped a little and looked over his shoulder with a smile on his face. I just rolled my eyes at both of them.

            Day one was over. Day two was coming. So far, I was thoroughly enjoying myself and definitely learning at the same time.                                -Martina