Jack went to the pool tonight to complete his lifesaving merit badge. It's not anywhere near the full life-saving course that is required to be a life guard, but it was a good reminder of water safety skills for him.
When I was a teenager, I took advanced lifesaving from a very demanding instructor over the course of a couple of months. He pushed us hard. When it came time for our final testing, he appointed himself to be the drowning victim we took turns rescuing. He did not make it easy. He wanted us to know exactly how dangerous it is to approach someone who is panicking in the water. Then when I got him into a cross-chest carry and towed him the length of the 25-yard pool, my arm was rubbed raw by the three-day-old beard he'd grown just to torture us.
He made class hell, but we all learned what we needed to learn and we sure learned it well.
1 comment:
And he obviously made it memorable.
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