Being a lifeguard is not an easy job. There is vigorous training that you need to go through to become certified. You have to be 15 years of age and pay a fee for the certification class. During that class you learn how to properly rescue someone in all types of situations. You are taught the correct way to do CPR on an adult, child, and infant. Performing CPR on a dummy is one thing, but giving CPR to a real person is completely different and extremely scary. Being a lifeguard is a good job because you get to spend your summer outside, but there are a lot of responsibilities. You don’t just get to sit up in a chair all day and slack off.

When you’re lifeguarding you have to be alert and attentive. You have to scan the whole pool to make sure nothing is going wrong. There are three levels of the pool that you have to scan. You must scan the surface to see if anyone is floating face down or is struggling at the surface. You need to scan the middle layer to be able to catch if someone starts sinking to the bottom, or if they’re struggling underneath the water. Finally, you need to scan the very bottom of the pool to see if someone has sunk all the way to the bottom. 

The last part to cover is the rescues. The rescues are extremely important and is what could be the downfall of you completing a successful rescue. Every different drowning situation will have their own rescue which is different from someone else’s. There are special rescues for someone who is turned away from you, someone who is looking at you, someone on their back. There are so many more than that too. Therefore each rescue needs to be done a specific way, at a specific time to save someone’s life.