I Have Saved Someones Life

I was at the swimming pool not too long ago, on a Friday. On Friday night, there is basically this big family swim thing. Anyway, I was with a friend, who had left me to go to the washroom for a minute. There was this tiny girl hanging off of her kickboard. Thinking nothing of it, I continued awkwardly standing around waiting for my friend to return. I noticed someone, a woman in her 30s nearby. I watched in surprise, as this woman turned away to talk with someone. No one else was particularly nearby, so it seemed only possible that she be the mother or caretaker. With her back completely turned, the young girl, probably about 3 or less years old, ceased to be able to hang on to the kickboard. Her tiny hands left the foam, and she began flailing madly in the water, only a few feet away from me. After watching in complete surprise for half a second, I quickly lifted her up an armpit, and used my other hand to move the kickboard back within her reach. The mother finally became aware of what was happening. She turned to me, I gave her a disapproving look, and floated her child over to her. That was it. She always had her daughter in sight and close to her when I noticed her later times that night.

I don't think I can really declare I've saved someone's life, as I'm sure the mother would've noticed fairly quickly and come to the rescue, or someone else would've scooped the very clearly drowning child out of the water. Even still, the event scared me a little. Sh*t happens. The mothers half a second of distraction created a minor incident, which could have gone much much worse. All it took was a tiny distraction. The event was so sudden, so minor but so real. As a trained lifeguard, I've seen videos of people drowning before, and it's easy to see a panicked splash over a casual one, but to see the motions of someone who cannot swim at all happening right in front of me, really was something else. Scary.