It was an average Wednesday at the YMCA. It was about 6:45pm and I’d just gotten out of the shower. Normally, I would go to my locker, complain about how hard practice was, and start getting ready. After getting dressed I would realize I was five minutes late for my dad and I would panic and run downstairs. I was only 14.
I had to be outside waiting for my dad by 7:00pm but for some reason I decided to not get ready and go looking for my friends. The locker room at the Y was pretty big but I knew where to go. I went a couple rows away from my locker and turned into the row where my friends usually stashed their stuff. Ordinarily, my friends would be sitting on stools and tying their shoes but today they decided to go to a different part of the locker room. I thought nothing of it and went looking. That was when I stumbled across something I will never forget.
The YMCA where I swim tends to have a lot of older members on any given day. Most of them come at the same time as my practice so I was pretty friendly with the majority of them. Many were in pretty good health so they would swim alongside my team and then they’d also be done around the same time. There was this one woman, Francie, who I always talked to and she was consistently really sweet to me. If there was anyone who could make my day, it was her. She had the sense of a grandmother and had the sweetest smile. No matter how bad you felt, her smile would brighten your day.  So imagine my surprise when I walked down the aisle of lockers and I saw her on the floor, barely moving and surrounded by witnesses.
Francie was a healthy person, she could swim, she was fit. On any given day she would be smiling and laughing with her friends in the locker room. However, on the floor, it was like a completely different person had taken over. Her skin was pale and shallow, her normally bright and cheery eyes were dull and sad. Her energetic body which was normally lively, was lifeless and sluggish. Everything I liked about her, was gone. Gone was the happy, peppy, and spunky woman I’d grown to love and in her place was a weak and fragile individual.
I panicked--who wouldn’t? I didn’t know if I should help or if I should go get someone. No one really knew what to do about the whole thing. People were talking over each other and no one could make up their minds about what we should do. I got sick of listening so I went out to the lifeguards and I told them. I told them that a lady was on the floor in the locker room but I couldn’t really tell what else was happening. Naturally, as lifeguards, they sprang into action faster than a shark grabs at its prey. They knew what to do and they did it. The Head Lifeguard, Molly, asked me to take her to the lady. I knew that I couldn’t freak out because that would be totally uncool of me. I took Molly to the row of lockers and thankfully, it wasn’t anything serious.
Francie was dehydrated, she hadn’t had enough water to drink but she proceeded to go into the steam room for a while after her swim. It was a daily routine, go for a swim and then take some time in the steam room, never did she ever think that this routine would lead to serious consequences if she forgot a step. After Molly helped her up, gave her some water, and checked for any other problems, we called an ambulance and they did a more detailed check.
By this time, it was already way past the time I was supposed to meet my dad and I knew he would be mad but I realized that I’d just helped someone out, someone who was my friend. I didn’t need to be on time if I’d just done that.