Defocused Temporal Perception

So having recently become a new “clean-cut” lifeguard after completing my National Lifeguard Service (NLS) (the fruit of 16 months of lifesaving courses) this summer, I decided to apply for a position for the UBC Aquatic centre.  Living on campus now this would have been the ideal part-time job to bring in a little extra cash.  Also quite frankly, lifeguarding has really grown on me in the last year and I’ve have to say that I enjoy it.

But “Holy Applicants Batman,” rumour has it that more than 100 other students had the same idea as me.  With only, I’d say, 5-8 positions available what it boiled down to was two days of packed, five hour, competitive staff screenings with 20+ other well qualified lifeguards (most with much more practical experience than me).  They tested our first aid with technical complications, physical NLS fitness standards, swimming technique and teaching skill.  Since we are doing this almost all at the same time its pretty much a time consuming mess on both sides.

All in all I thought I did fairly well in the screening.  There were a few bits of the First Aid that I felt I should have done better, but I thought my physical and teaching standards were pretty solid.  Now if only I were able to fetch 60-lbs from the bottom of the pool, pretty much the “superman” lifeguard standard, I’d be golden.

Now that its over, I’m just waiting for them to get back to me.

"The Hoff" - Superman amongst lifeguards