Introduction: My Summer Job
About a month ago a friend asked me what exactly I would be doing this summer. What I should have said was "Getting an internship at a film studio." Instead I mumbled the truth "I have no idea." So, he proposed an idea: Work at a kid's sports camp. Barring an act of God, I realized I would never get a job, much less one I might actually enjoy. So, I showed for a relaxed interview with the Camp Director and was hired on the spot. I had no idea what I was in for.
The first of many surprises was figuring out just how damn old I was. At 20, I'm one of the oldest counselors. This sucks. When a 17 year old says he's only doing this job because he's in high school and doesn't have any responsibility, you can only imagine the voice in my head "Uh.. aren't you in college?" Furthermore, another justification I used for taking this job, meeting girls, was shot to hell the first day. There are a few attractive girls around my age and by "a few" I mean the following:
"Michelle" Sophomore in college, has a boyfriend
"Jamie" Junior in college, recently moved in with boyfriend
"Becky" Freshman in college, rumored to be Mormon
That about sums it up. The rest are in the 16-17 range and frankly, not on my radar in the slightest.
So, girls out of the picture I was still stoked on the job. Until I was informed, as part of my job "training" I would be taking Lifeguard training or as I now refer to it: the sixth circle of hell. To all of you swimmers out there who are now smirking, allow me to remind you of the following facts: 1. I hate swimming 2. I'm in college.
These two facts are indicative of both my lack of enthusiasm for swimming 500 meters a day and my utter lack of fitness to be even able to attempt such a feat. Much less diving to the bottom of a 10 foot dive tank, rescue a paralyzed victim, perform a spinal hold, swim him to the surface, strap him to a board and perform CPR. This was not in the job description. The job description as it was loosely described to me was "You play with kids all day, umm... that's about it."
I'm more than a week into my lifeguard training and 3 days into camp and already the above description is completely inadequate. In the next few weeks you'll meet a camper who routinely pretends to be a jail inmate, my Lifeguard instructor who may want to see me drown, and of course witness me attempt to handle being a lifeguard, swim instructor and role model to about 300 kids a week.
If nothing else, it'll be interesting.
The first of many surprises was figuring out just how damn old I was. At 20, I'm one of the oldest counselors. This sucks. When a 17 year old says he's only doing this job because he's in high school and doesn't have any responsibility, you can only imagine the voice in my head "Uh.. aren't you in college?" Furthermore, another justification I used for taking this job, meeting girls, was shot to hell the first day. There are a few attractive girls around my age and by "a few" I mean the following:
"Michelle" Sophomore in college, has a boyfriend
"Jamie" Junior in college, recently moved in with boyfriend
"Becky" Freshman in college, rumored to be Mormon
That about sums it up. The rest are in the 16-17 range and frankly, not on my radar in the slightest.
So, girls out of the picture I was still stoked on the job. Until I was informed, as part of my job "training" I would be taking Lifeguard training or as I now refer to it: the sixth circle of hell. To all of you swimmers out there who are now smirking, allow me to remind you of the following facts: 1. I hate swimming 2. I'm in college.
These two facts are indicative of both my lack of enthusiasm for swimming 500 meters a day and my utter lack of fitness to be even able to attempt such a feat. Much less diving to the bottom of a 10 foot dive tank, rescue a paralyzed victim, perform a spinal hold, swim him to the surface, strap him to a board and perform CPR. This was not in the job description. The job description as it was loosely described to me was "You play with kids all day, umm... that's about it."
I'm more than a week into my lifeguard training and 3 days into camp and already the above description is completely inadequate. In the next few weeks you'll meet a camper who routinely pretends to be a jail inmate, my Lifeguard instructor who may want to see me drown, and of course witness me attempt to handle being a lifeguard, swim instructor and role model to about 300 kids a week.
If nothing else, it'll be interesting.
posted by greg at 10:52 PM
1 Comments:
ya but you did get to work with the coolest kid in the world and by that i mean me obviously.
Love,
Joe
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