Lifeguarding and its Benefits by Joshua

Lifeguarding and its Benefits by Joshua - September 2015 Scholarship Essay

I am a lifeguard year-round for my local YMCA. It is a lot of responsibility watching and keeping people’s lives safe. I have to constantly scan the pool area and make split second decisions based on what I observe. It is not an easy job, though some people may tell you that it is. Lifeguarding has helped me to be a better student in school and other activities.
To even become a lifeguard, you have to become certified. The certification process is not an easy one either. It usually takes a few weeks of studying water rescues and performing them in the certification class to even take the test. The studying helped me out a lot with how to study in school. Before, I would just kind of skim over my text and pick out something here and something there, but now, I actually pay attention to what I read.
While lifeguarding, you learn to pay attention to everything, even to the weather, to make sure that there is no lightning or big rain clouds. That has been translated into my school work in that I pay attention to what I am learning.
Lastly, lifeguarding helps me care for others. I sometimes have to clean up a cut or a scrape, and fixing up either of those shows the hurt person that you care. That is something that school cannot teach. No matter how much you study or succeed, you cannot learn compassion through school.
Lifeguarding has helped me in many ways to be a better student. It has helped be to study better. It has taught me to observe what I am doing. It has taught me to care for others, which is the most important thing that it has taught me.