To go full circle : through a series of development​s / e​ vents that lead back to the original 

situation or to complete reversal of the original position.  

Who knew that​ ​my own life, in such a short period of time, I would come full circle. We 

never really know where our course in life is going to take us, and especially how we will 

respond to that chain of events. How we respond and react to change is how our lives are 

shaped, we’re not trapped on the same course as everyone sees us on. You can change your life 

at any given moment. All things are delicately interconnected on a level that some don’t even 

realize, including myself, until I took a step back and looked at my own life.  

September 3, 2013 was a normal day. I ate breakfast, went to school, went to practice, 

and then came home. I had an orthodontist appointment, and my other siblings had swim 

lessons. It was stormy; torrential downpours with bursts of lightning that painted the sky. 

Almost to the orthodontist​, my mother got a call that the power was out and the office was 

closed. Our babysitter called to say that swim lessons were cancelled. Then my dad called. My 

mother hung up the phone, pulled into our driveway, and dialled 911. 

  Our house was on fire.  

Fire trucks, police cruisers, and ambulances all pulled into my driveway--lightning had 

struck our house. Firefighters were rushing into the house--and then one firefighter was 

brought out of my house, injured. We stood side by side in the pouring rain, with only the 

clothes on our backs and didn’t say a word. We lost everything in the fire. Just like that, 

everything was different.  

We were the talk of the school after that, everyone constantly looking at me as if I was a

hurt puppy, asking me if I was okay. It’s funny how much attention you can draw when you least
want it. I don’t know why, but I was embarrassed. Everything was different. We moved five

times in three years, and I transferred schools twice. Thankfully, I ended up at a school where I

found my second family. I learned that a house is not home; your family, friends, and whatever

else surrounds you with love is your home.

In the summer of my freshman year, I had earned my lifeguarding, first aid, and water

safety instructor certifications, and I had my dream job as a lifeguard. It only seemed fitting sin​ce 

I grew up by the ocean, swam for twelve years, and went to the beach practically every day 

anyways. There has always been a part of me that wanted to help people and give back to my 

community. Lifeguarding gave me the chance to do that.  

I was not originally scheduled to go in on Saturday July 28; I was covering a coworker. 

We opened the beach like normal, and as my fellow guards and I were switching rotations, I 

saw something. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a woman on the far side of the beach near 

the boat ramp yelling, "Lifeguard, Lifeguard!" My heart and stomach dropped simultaneously. 

Then I was sprinting the fastest I ever had with the backboard and first aid kit in my hand.  

A woman was drowning.  

All I felt was adrenaline. I don’t even remember swimming out to her. No pulse was 

detected initially, she was foaming at the mouth and all signs of a stroke were there. The seven 

minutes before the ambulance arrived felt like a lifetime. We carried her on the backboard from 

the end of the boat pier to the end of the beach where we met the EMTs and helped them get her 

onto a stretcher and into the back of the ambulance. We waited for what felt like an eternity 

until an EMT came out of the ambulance and told us that they were able to gain a stable pulse. If 

it weren’t for us, he said, she would not have made it.  
 When I saw a woman waiting outside of the ambulance with us, I asked her if she knew 

the older woman. She replied, “Yes, that’s my mother.” I had just saved her mother. I know that 

when people say, “I know exactly how you feel,” they usually don’t. I did. I knew exactly how she 

felt, because she had the same look of fear and helplessness in her eyes that I did on the day my 

house burned down. My life had gone full circle in that exact moment, from receiving help from 

first responders to becoming a first responder.