Courage

Courage is "quality of being brave: the ability to face danger, difficulty, uncertainty, or pain without being overcome by fear or being deflected from a chosen course of action."  I was courageous when I was an off-duty lifeguard this past summer.  I was at the beach one day with my friends, we spent the whole day there and planned on having dinner there to watch the sunset.  While enjoying the setting sun and the yummy pizza we had in front of us, I noticed a swimmer.  The waves had grown twice the size they were that day and there was no lifeguards on duty.  The swimmer looked as if he was struggling and needed help.  I knew if I went out and tried to help him I could have been taken down by the waves or pushed under by this full grown adult.  That was my biggest fear that the lap swimmer,would have been so shaken up and nervous by the undertow that he was in and would have tried to push me under.  I knew that I would regret every moment of not helping this struggling man for the rest of my life so I decided to be courageous and dive in and help him.  I told myself that I wouldn't get too close for the safety of myself.  I swam out towards the distressed swimmer and began to tell him what to do.  I instructed him to not try and swim in but rather swim parallel to the shore in order to break out of the rip current.  The man and I swam about 15  yards and we had escaped the rip current and swam safety back to the shore.  The man thanked me numerous times and said how grateful he was to have someone as courageous as me there to help him.