A Hero Can Be Anyone....

 I'm not sure if I ever put it here on the blog, but for the last 4-ish months, I've been working at the local YMCA as a lifeguard (and occasionally swim instructor). And for the most part, just as everyone likes to make comments about it, 99.99% of the time I don't do anything outside of sit in a high chair, test pool chemical levels, or walk on the pool deck out of boredom and as a way to "get exercise". But as I also tell people when they ask if I get bored doing my job, I tell them that it's usually a good day when I'm bored because then I don't have to save anyone or worry about someone's life being in danger.

Today managed to hit the 0.01% of times.

Now it wasn't bad, but I did have to jump into the water and perform a rescue. Luckily myself and the group exercise instructor caught it before anyone sunk, so it was a preventative action more than a saving action, but it was a rescue nonetheless. I'm not exactly sure to what extent I can say or write, but I'll put the gist of it down and hopefully you get the idea.

I was simply just pacing around, hanging out by the deep end of the pool because the group exercise class was in the deep water. I'm not sure if it's just for appearance's sake but I've been told that if the class is in the deep end, go over there rather than sit in the chair. No big deal, I'm over there stretching out my legs and getting some blood flow to keep me awake (the humidity because of the indoor pool does make me drowsy if I sit for too long). The end of the 1 hour class time was coming to a close and the instructor says for everyone to make their way back to the shallow end so that they can stretch before leaving.

Naturally, I figured as the lifeguard I should be the last one to leave the deep area. So I continued pacing a bit. That's when it started happening. I look and see an arm reach up and backwards, as if to try to find something or someone to hold on to. As I continue to look, I see the patron has fallen off/lost balance on the floatation device they were using and did not know how to swim (from the lack of immediate action to catch oneself from sinking). I increase the pace at which I'm walking to get closer and a better opening to get in if need be. Next thing I know it's go time. I hear the instructor simply say, "guard!" and then I'm in the water. I didn't even get a second to think nor remember the technical plan of action if I ever had to get in the water. As a result, I didn't even think to blow my whistle like I'm supposed to, nor did I have the strap of the rescue tube on, so I went in and abandoned my tube to take action.

Luckily, I managed to get the patron close enough to the pool wall so that they could grab on. I supported by holding them from the base of the neck and under the legs by the knees (patron was facing up towards the ceiling). I see my boss is there as he was checking in on a lifeguard training happening on the pool deck next door, and he begins asking questions of what happened and how can he help. Since we now knew the patron was safe, we escorted them towards the shallow end with myself the lifeguard instructor helping to guide and assist me as necessary. The patron did most of the movement, going hand over hand along the pool wall while myself and the lifeguard instructor were there for backup. Once we got them to the shallow end, we exited the pool and my boss took my rescue tube and said I can go dry off since he can guard while I'm away for a few minutes.

It all happened so fast, and I guess what better time to have a lifeguard training session. The trainees were able to see what happened, and now they probably got a better training than I did since they got to see an event happen in real time. Now granted we don't want regular events to happen, but as it is it works. As I entered the other deck to grab my towel (that I always pack in my bag), the trainees were impressed with my reaction. One says "my man!" and the other goes "wow great job!" I simply responded with "that's why we're here, right?"

Later on, word of my rescue goes around and some other supervisors come out and keep saying to me "you're a hero!" I tried my hand at humility and just said "I'm just doing my job," because that's all I did. I wasn't trying to be heroic, I know that the job may contain these instances, and it just comes down to acting and not thinking.

After all the nerves and the adrenaline had slowed down, I got to thinking: just earlier this morning, I was thinking about the one time someone had called me their hero, and how I can almost say without a shadow of a doubt that most men go through life imagining some scenario in which they perform some heroic deed and they get hailed as a hero. Either that's true, or at least for myself and many other men I've seen on social media. I suppose it boils down to a fact that men are typically valued for their accolades and achievements that being a hero is a title to add to a collection (or to start a collection).

As my supervisors and fellow lifeguards (as they come in to relieve me of duty so I can go home) learned about the event today and called me a hero, I just kept trying to say "I was just doing my job, there was no time to think, just do." And maybe I stole that reference from Top Gun: Maverick, or maybe it was somewhere else but that's the most recent media I can think of, but it's true. Some jobs or actions have no time for you to stop and think.

Some of the times that I just said I was simply doing my job, I was countered with, "you did a great job, you should own it", to which I reply, "I don't want to let it get to my head." Because think about it: if people start calling you a hero, that can easily feed the ego and become a point of developing a superiority complex. And maybe that's an extreme thing to think, but I suppose I also cling on to (I think) some part of Scripture (as if I'm really one to talk about religion, faith, and theology) that said something of "blessed are the meek." To acknowledge when I am being praised but to take it for what it is and not what the words could be is something that I wanted to instill in myself, and display to others that I'm not in it for the glory. I just am here to do a job and to do it well because no matter if lifeguarding is not my final job or my career, but I should and must do it to the best of my ability because why be lazy in a job and risk harm or error if it can be avoided. I'm also not saying to bend over backwards and sell your soul for a few dollars, but just do the job well and no one can complain.

To wrap it all up, it was also kind of "funny" or coincidental rather that this happened today. Because some days while I'm sitting up in my lifeguard chair, I think about and just start quoting to myself various movie scenes. And the one that popped into my head today (in the morning, a few hours before this happened) was the ending scene to The Dark Knight Rises, in which Batman is about to make the sacrifice and pull the nuclear bomb out of Gotham, meanwhile Gordon is saying he never cared who Batman was under the mask, leading to the quote of "a hero can be anyone even a man doing something as simply and reassuring as putting a coat around a young boy's shoulders to let him know the world hadn't ended." So I suppose a hero truly can be anyone, and in this case even a man doing something as simple as performing a rescue despite it being in his job description.