choke and grope

I am finally FINALLY lifeguard certified, after a solid week of training and 8 hours in the water today learning deep water backboarding and doing our final skills scenarios.  I am so thankful to be done and I am grateful for the patience of our instructors and the wonderful girls who through all of this have become good friends.  Choke and grope refers to the proper way to support someone with a head neck or back injury in the water, which we all did A LOT of today.  I shared my testimony during life stories tonight as well as hearing some heart-breaking-yet-inspiring stories from my fellow staff.  Its one of those things that you always think about how it could have gone better when you are done, but I'm not unhappy with tonights telling.  We have a day off tomorrow.  So far my plans include going for a hike led by our executive director, and possibly going into Yakima for dinner.  It will be nice to have a day off and to do something different and hopefully get to know people more!  Campers come on Sunday (ignore previous posting).