I never really wanted to go to the beach that day. It was a typical summer day in Bellevue, not hot, but warm enough to want to go outside. My friends and I were trying to think of something to do. After some talking, arguing, and pleading, we finally decided to head to the beach and swim and sit in the sun for awhile.
We got to the beach and picked out a patch of grass and decided to set up camp. We sat around and talked about random stuff that had no real meaning in our life. Every now and then, someone would say something philosophical like, “What is the meaning of life?” or “Why are we here, what is our purpose?” We ignored those questions and threw tennis balls that that person. After some time of talking about nothing and eating what little food we had brought, we decided the next best thing to do would be going swimming.
We got out onto the dock and were looking at the water, thinking about how cold it was. The wind started to whip up and we pulled our shirts and towels closer to our bodies. Some of my friends kept threatening to push me in and one time they tried and failed and fell in themselves. Some were dry and some were drenched but we were all laughing. Then we all heard a scream coming from somewhere behind us. We saw two girls struggling in the water about 20 – 25 yards off the dock in the no swimming zone. Without thinking, my friend and I jumped in and began swimming for ours and their lives. We reached them in no time at all it felt like. I took one girl and my friend took the other. I began swimming back toward the dock; holding her head above the water. Once we reached to dock, I hoisted the girl into the waiting arms of my other friends that were still on the dock. I swam around toward the ladder and climbed up. The girls that I had just saved ran off and I have never seen here again. My friends were still in shock about what my friend and I had just done. We dried off and wrapped our towels around us and put our shirts back on. Then my friend turned to me and said, “Hey, we both have lifeguarding shirts on! Cool!”
To this day I don’t know what possessed me to jump into the frigid waters of Lake Washington. It might have been the scream, I will never know. When I think about this event, I laugh because I never really wanted to go to the beach. We don’t know what made us go to the dock at that particular time. We is even more mind boggling was the fact that my friend and I both had lifeguarding shirts on and we weren’t even lifeguards. I believe that the world has its plan for me even if it doesn’t make it clear. Things just happen for a reason. There is nothing I can really do but just sit back and go along for the ride.