Common App Short Answer Lifeguarding.

makenna
Mon, 22 Oct 2012 19:12:07 +0000

I’m doing the short answer on the common app that asks you to elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities. I chose my summer lifeguarding job, and I really need critique!

The sun blared through my tinted sunglasses. Sweat dripped down my sunburned cheeks. I remained focused; I needed this money for college. In the two seconds I glanced over at the diving board, the seven people in the shallow end suddenly became six. Adrenaline pumped so rapidly through my body that instinct became the only controlling force. I leaped from the lifeguard stand and swam as fast as my body would enable me. I pulled the struggling boy out of the water and performed CPR. As soon as his silent body let out a faint cough, my heart was relieved from my pounding chest. He was alive. The toddler’s mom rushed over and tightly hugged me with eyes full of gratitude. During the three summers I lifeguarded, that was the only time I saved a life. But that single moment remains embedded in my mind as a constant reminder to never undervalue the importance of your work and to always appreciate life.

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