When we were little, we all did stupid things. We never thought about the consequences or how dangerous the situation was, we just did whatever seemed fun. It is a miracle that we have all made it to this age. Maybe there was someone looking out for us to make sure we didn't die when we jumped off bridges into a river or some other crazy thing. The "guardian angel" that is so often attributed to safety through strange circumstances is who saves us sometimes. But other times, there are people who were put at a certain time in a certain place to save someone in their time of need.
A few weeks ago, I went to a local public beach for a relaxing day outside. I had been there for a couple of hours, and had read enough from the book I had brought to entertain myself, and decided to go cool off in the lake. So as my girlfriend and I chilled out in the water, I noticed a group of 10 to 12-year-olds who were swimming out to the deepest part you can go to and hanging on the buoys. Normally I wouldn't give this any attention, but I noticed they had a trailer swimming up behind them. It looked like a seven-year-old little brother who wanted to come out where his big brother was. For the rest of the time we were out near them, I watched him closely because I knew that where they were was roughly 20 feet deep and the other boys were not making sure he could handle the swim at all. After about 30 minutes I saw the older boys starting to swim back to the beach. The younger boy though, gripped the large buoy as tightly as he possibly could. The look of terror on his face told me that something was very wrong and he was not going to be able to make it. He suddenly took off, trying with everything he had for the shore which was probably 60 feet away.
I stood up from where I was sitting about thigh deep in the water and began swimming as fast as I could towards him. There were people closer to him than I was but I am pretty quick in the water and I got to him before anyone else could. I said, "Hey buddy get on my back and I'll have you in soon don't worry." I kept him on my back above the water and went under to swim him into the shallow area where I could walk him into the beach. As we walked in I asked him his name and where he was from and we had a small talk to calm him down. We finally made it into the beach and I sat him down so he could walk from there. I got down on one knee and he said thank you and I told him to make sure he stayed safe for the rest of the day. After that we parted ways and I never saw the kid in the water again, and I was definitely looking just to make sure he didn't get into any trouble.
Am I a hero? No. I didn't do anything special or anything any other person wouldn't have done in that same situation. Was I put there that day for the reason to make sure that little kid didn't drown by a higher power? Yes I was. There were too many coincidences that happened for me to be there at that exact moment on that beach. There is never a life guard on duty there so you cannot tell me I wasn't put there for a reason. So to answer the question, "What does it feel like to save a life?" I answer, "It makes you feel like you are really the one being saved. In that moment, time stops and you don't care about yourself or anything other than that person no matter the cost. In that moment, you find salvation."
