Penang Trial 2018

Continuous Writing
Write a story where your action helped to save someone’s life. In your story,
give details of the incident and the lessons that you have learnt.

A sunny, breezy day last August, I heard a commotion as I was chatting with my
friends in a party in San Francisco’s Candlestick Point Park. A group of party
guests had gathered at the edge of the picnic area, yelling and pointing at
something floating in San Francisco Bay. As I ran to investigate, I soon saw
what was wrong: A couple of kids in a rowboat were caught in the current and
being pulled out to sea.

Two 12-year-old boys, Christian and Jack, who had been at the party earlier,
had climbed into an eight-foot moored nearby and had begun rowing out to
retrieve a football. Once they’d paddled beyond the calm waters of the cove, a
beach umbrella rigged to the small craft caught the wind and tugged the boat
into open water. The pair panicked and tried to row back to shore. But they were
no match for the elements and spun helplessly in circles.

Without hesitating, I sprinted half a mile to the farthest point of land. The boat
was already just a dot on the horizon. I knew that the flimsy craft would soon be
overtaken by the waves.Everything went quiet in my head. I was trying to figure
out how to swim to the boys in a straight line.

As a former lifeguard, I stripped off my clothes and jumped into the frigid
water. Every 500 yards or so, I raised muy head to assess my progress. “At one
point, I considered turning back. I wondered if I was putting my life at risk. After
30 minutes of battling the current, I was about a mile from his starting point and
close enough to yell to the boys, “Take down the umbrella!”

Christian wrestled with the tangle of cords and duct tape that held the
umbrella. Finally, he uncoiled the knotted cords and freed the umbrella.

Then, I was able to catch up and climb aboard the boat. “We’re going to get
back,” I told them.

I took over rowing, but the waves and current were almost too strong for me.

“Let’s aim for the pier,” Jack said, pointing to a dock at an abandoned shipyard
about a half mile away. I turned the vessel toward it. Soon afterward, waves
crashed over the boat, and it began to sink. “Can you guys swim?” I cried. “A
little bit,” the boys said.
Once they were in the water, I decided it would be safer and faster for me to pull
the boys toward the pier. Christian and Jack were wearing life jackets and
floated on their backs. I held the tops of their jackets in one hand and
sidestroked with the other arm toward land.

I swam desperately as water washed over the our faces. “Are we almost there?”
they asked again and again. “Yes,” I assured them each time.

After 30 minutes, we reached the pier. We scrambled up a metal beam to the

dock and huddled there until a Coast Guard boat picked us up and took us to a
waiting ambulance. I was hypothermic and exhausted but I managed to greet
the boys’ parents with a smile when they finally arrived.

To the boys’ fatherr, Mike, I had been a stranger before that day. Now, I was the
man who risked my life to save his son. “You’re a hero,” he told me.

I was not sure if my actions were heroic or reckless as I could have lost my life.
Hoeever, I have learnt that if I just stood there not doing anything, I would not
be able to live with myself for the rest of my life.