The Life of the Lifeguards

Let me explain.
A handful of counselors have arrived at camp prior to Orientation week, in order to receive extra training for their specific roles at camp. For some, this means being Barn Staff and prepping the barns and getting the horses comfortable. For others, like myself, this means Lifeguard training, and getting up at the crack of dawn to do laps in the freezing lake.

Yesterday was such a morning.
7.30am, 13*C with a heavy wind and light rain, the brave lifeguard trainees frog marched down to the dock and began their daily 500m warm up swim. This was followed by breakfast, which I must say, was the best one yet: M&M cookie dough pancakes made by Garrett, the camp director himself... They absolutely made the day worth getting up for!

After breakfast it was back in the water for more vigorous training and countless drills that all included intense endurance, physical strength and serious mental focus, and all took place in the freezing water. After many hours, and when the threat of Hyperthermia was real, our instructor got us out the water and proceeded to teach us CPR and other such skills. We breaked for lunch and then, with almost broken spirits, headed back into the water for and third time that day. This time was more serious, however, as we began our practical examinations, which consisted of multiple endurance exercises and many variations of saving drowning victims, and applying care as necessary. Our instructor has a habit of making us all panic, so this was a very stressful few hours and exceptionally tiring after a day that had started with so much physical exercise.
Despite the difficulties of this week and these training sessions, I loved it all! The challenge was intense and seemingly insurmountable; my favorite kind!

Once again we were allowed out of the ice bath and ran to our cabins to dry off, as if that were possible due to ALL of my towels being soaking wet. We met up again for more learning and were surprised by two spot tests which we all passed! We were finally allowed to leave at 9.30pm and told that we had the entire next day off... Imagine our relief.

The upside, as always with extreme situations, is that the group of Lifeguard candidates have bonded in a way that would not have happened naturally. We have such fun together and create such a strong team with close to no weaknesses. We all complement each other and support one another in a way that just works. This is perhaps one of the more important things for a potentially lifesaving team, and teamwork has never seemed more important. Regardless of personal traits, at the end of the day, I know that I can trust these people, and that is truly priceless.

This morning we were graciously given off! We were allowed to sleep in, and only had to report at noon! We all officially checked into camp and received an entire bag of camp decorated goodies! Orientation for all the camp counselors officially began at 2pm as more and more staff arrived, smiling and excited. We all headed to the gym where we proceeded to play many "Name Games" and bonding games and were given a #selfie scavenger hunt were we broke up into teams and had to take creative selfies at each place on the list given to us. We had the best time! There were a lot more people on camp grounds than the days beforehand, maybe close to 100 or so? We reported for dinner and were given our next challenge: the ugly counselor pageant. Basically this consisted of one person from each team to be dressed up in the craziest outfit possible and pretending to be in a beauty pageant. The brave Miss Kelly was nominated as tribute and we dressed her up and headed over to the competition.

Another part of the competition consisted of a dance routine performed by the entire team, the crazy thing is our team won!! Honestly I'm not entirely sure how as I cannot dance to save my life, and some of the other cabin's routines were so good! One of my favorites was a "Glee" parody that was flawless! We then headed down to a camp fire and sang songs and made s'mores and chatted to the "new" staff. It was a really great day. All the "new" people are vibrant and excited and are going to bring such life to the team!

On a side note, I'm still working off the limited wifi here at camp and will do my best to post often but now that Orientation has officially begun, we have fully planned days and much stricter rules. Also, bare with me if some of the tenses do not make complete sense, as I am typing days up and then waiting for the opportune moment to post them...