Jumping Into Trouble

We ran out the doors without a care in the world.  It was a warm summer day, and my friend, Makayla, had finally moved into her new, beautiful home.  Our mom’s, who had been friends throughout most of their lifetime, toured the lavish house while Makayla and I snuck outside to jump into the pool, ignoring our mother’s orders to stay inside.  After all, what could go wrong?  Little did I know, I would come close to losing my life.

                Before jumping off of the long, white diving board, I slipped a large diving mask on to cover my eyes.  Makayla shouted, “1…2…3… Jump!” I plunged into the cool water with my smile reaching ear to ear.  Once my feet reached the deep, course pool floor, I used all of my strength to push myself to the bright surface.  As a soared to the top of the pool the mask, which was at first intended for protection, slid up my face and suctioned to my mouth and nose.  The more I swam, the tighter the mask would suction to my face.  Once I reached the surface, I gasped for air that didn’t exist.  I attempted to rip off the mask to release the pressure that had built up.  My chest tightened as my lungs ran out of air.  While the mask suffocated me, I ran out strength, sinking to the bottom of the pool.  After only a few seconds, I could no longer see and everything turned black.  I lost consciousness.

Once Makayla realized that I hadn’t returned to the surface, she sprinted into the house and screamed, “Mom! Mrs. Kim! Something is wrong with Rachel, she needs your help!  Hurry!”  Our mom’s panicked, realizing that we had not listened, and fled to the backyard to see what we had gotten ourselves into.  When they reached the backyard, they saw Makayla yelling and pointing to the bottom of the pool and found that she was pointing to me.  Kaylynn, Makayla’s mom, immediately dove to the bottom of the pool and pulled me out onto the hot concrete while my mom called 911 for help.  As she tried to rip the mask off of my face, Kaylynn realized she was running out of time.  I had already turned blue.  After cutting the mask off of my face, Kaylynn did all that she could to save my life by giving me CPR until the ambulance arrived. 

Once the ambulance reached the house, I had barely begun gaining consciousness.  I slowly opened my eyes and found myself surrounded by paramedics.  The sun pierced through my eyes and the hot concrete burnt my skin.  I could not remember what had happened; however, I knew I was not the same.  I was immediately taken to the hospital.  At first, I was not showing signs of recovery.  The doctors asked my question after question while I just stared at them, lost and confused. 

After hours in the hospital, I began to see thing more clearly and recognized more of the people around me.  Once the doctors ensured that I was going to be ok, my parents and I couldn’t thank Kaylynn enough.  She saved my life.  The next day, I woke up thinking the day before had just been a nightmare; however, after glancing at the white medical identification bands tied around my wrists, a chill raced down my spine.  I realized how lucky I was to still be alive.