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My 16th birthday was the worst day of my life. It should have been the best. I was going to get my deriver’s license in the morning, go out to lunch with my mom and my little sisters, meet up with my best friend to go prom dress shopping and then drive out to the pier for dinner with my family at sunset. The day started exactly as it should have. I got a perfect score on my driving test and was headed to the restaurant with my mom when everything went wrong.

I was sitting at a stop light when suddenly, I wasn’t anymore. I don’t remember much, but from what the police told me, a semi-truck lost control and slammed directly into the passenger side of our car. We were flung across the median and into oncoming traffic where we were hit again by two more cars. I remember a lot of pain, ringing in my ears, flashing lights and cold hands holding mine. The next thing I remember was waking up a week later in an unfamiliar, white room. My dad was asleep in the chair next to me, his warm hand holding mine. He woke up when I squeezed his hand and immediately called for a doctor. 2 days later, I finally asked about my mom and sisters. No one had survived the wreck. The funerals had happened while I was in a coma.

When dad and I finally got home, we couldn’t bear to stay in our house. Dad told me to pack anything I needed and anything sentimental. I thought we were going to my grandparents, but he told me we were going on the trip he and mom had planned as a surprise for my birthday. We got on a plane and left for Australia that night.

The trip wasn’t supposed to be for another few weeks so we didn’t have hotel reservations when we landed. Tired and jet lagged, we found a secluded, relatively clean alley and slept there for the night. In the morning we found a local cafe for breakfast and then set out to find somewhere to stay. The only thing we could find was a vacation house in Bondi. We got in an Uber and rode the two hours to the house. We arrived at around 2:30p.m and when we got there, we finally slowed down. The weight of the past 2 weeks catching up to us and we broke down. We held each other and cried until it was time for dinner. We ordered pizza and went to bed.

For a month this was our routine; wake up, cry, eat breakfast, go for a walk, come home, cry, tell stories, cry, lunch, sleep, cry, movie and dinner, cry, sleep. We were doing the bare minimum to survive. After a month, we decided we needed to start to pick up the pieces and get back to living. Mom especially would have wanted us to live. We began to fully enjoy the beauty of Australia. I started online classes to keep up with school and dad did some of his work from “home.” After a week of this we finally decided to visit Bondi Beach. Little did we know, that one afternoon would change our lives, again.

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On our third to last day in Australia, months after we’d arrived, dad and I finally made it out to Bondi Beach. We grew up in Florida in the U.S and are very confident in the water. We noted the safe zone marked by flags to the north, but also noted it was very crowded up there. We decided that we knew our way around rips and tide changes and waves well enough to swim in the less safe south end. Avoiding a rip a lifeguard stood in front of, we entered the water at the south end of the beach. We spent hours in the water before heading back to shore for lunch. After lunch we walked all the way up and all the way back down the beach. We got to see some rescues performed by lifeguards and found a surf shop up the north end. We decided to go for a surf seeing as we hadn’t been in months. We rented boards and headed back to our spot down the south end of the beach.

The waves were 4-5 feet, a respectable height, and the rips were roaring. We used the rips to paddle out quick after each wave we caught. After about 20 minutes, I noticed a girl about my age struggling to get back to the beach. I held her up on my board until a lifeguard arrived to take her back in. We surfed for another 30-45 minutes before heading back in to drop off our boards and go for another swim. While we were swimming, we heard the announcement that it was 7 o’clock and the lifeguards were going home. Dad and I decided it was safer to head back to the beach and watch the sunset than to swim with no lifeguards on duty.

We watched the lifeguards pack up and drive away from where we were on the beach and sat down on the waters edge to enjoy the beautiful sunset. At around 7:30, just as the sun began sinking behind the horizon, we heard a yell. There was someone caught in the rip, drowning in front of us. I was trained as a lifeguard for my summer job in Florida, so I immediately jumped up and ran into the water to help. My dad, a slightly weaker swimmer than me, followed close behind to make sure I was okay. When I reached the person, I realized it was the same girl I’d helped earlier on in the day. The only difference was that this time she was face down in the surf. By the time I had swam out to her, she had gone under and stopped breathing.As I reached her, I flipped her over in the water and floated my body underneath her to keep her afloat. I kicked both of us out of the rip and onto the nearby sandbank.

Once I got us onto the bank, I was able to stand up and drag her into the beach. As I reached the dry sand, my dad caught up to us. He helped me carry her up the beach a little ways to get her away from the water. An important thing to note is; my dad has this reflex where he passes out when he experiences or sees a significant medical event. I was able to get him to call the Australian emergency number and get them on speaker before he passed out.

While dad called paramedics, I started CPR. I had been trained and certified for years, but had never before had to use those skills, now I was beyond glad for them. With the phone on speaker, I relayed what happened and requested an ambulance while performing compressions. No sooner than finishing the conversation with the operator, I glanced up to see a blue shirt crossing the street from the tower toward the locker room. Knowing I needed help and knowing I couldn’t do compressions much longer, I was exhausted, I did the only thing I could think of the get a lifeguard’s attention from half way down the beach, I screamed. Now when I say I screamed, I mean a loud, piercing, impossible to miss scream. I saw the lifeguard turn towards me and I screamed again. This time, confident I had his full attention, I reached up and did 3 pumps in the air with my arm, the sign for a resuscitation.

I don’t know exactly what the lifeguard did next as a turned my attention back to the girl in front of me, but a minute or so later, I heard engines. I looked up just as one of the boys with a star tattoo on his chest, looking only slightly older than me, drove up and headed toward my dad. I frantically tried to tell him that my dad was fine and that I needed his help. Just then more and more buggies with lifeguards, half way between civilian clothes and uniform. One of them put their hand on my shoulder and said in a slightly different accent, “It’s okay, we’ve got her now.”

For a split second, I didn’t stop, not really realizing that there truly was help now. The same lifeguard with their hand on my shoulder gently pulled me back to make room for his colleagues. I lay on the sand with the strangely accented lifeguard gasping for breath. He sat with me and calmingly reassured me that I had done well and that she would be okay. When I caught my breath, I realized my dad was still passed out with the first lifeguard. I crawled over in the sand and sat by his head. Knowing he would just go again if he saw the resuscitation happening, asked for help to roll him so he faced the other way. Once dad was rolled over and I knew he would be okay, I turned back to the girl I had pulled from the surf.

I watched as the lifeguards cut off her suit top and fitted her with the AED. The AED would shock her if it found a rhythm in her heart that could be restarted. After a minute or two, the device called for the lifeguards to clear and it shocked her. Like a movie, she suddenly came to, gasping. As the lifeguards tended to her, relief flooded through me. I didn’t realize I had stood up until I collapsed and began to cry with relief. I felt arms wrap around me and I leaned into the contact. For the first time since I got to Australia, I cried for something other than my mom and sisters.

By the time the ambulance arrived, the girl was breathing on her own and was lucid enough to tell us that her name was Brianna. Brianna was wheeled off the beach while I sat with the first two lifeguards and my dad. The adrenaline began to wear off and I realized just how tired I really was. I also felt that my ankle hurt really bad, I must have hurt it dragging Brianna out of the waves. I thought I would still have enough energy to get myself off the beach, but as I stood up, I felt myself wobble and fall. The lifeguard with the star tattoos helped me to the tower and the other one walked behind us. On the way they introduced themselves as Maxi and Harrison.

When we got to the tower, they helped me inside and into a chair. I was given an ice pack and an ace bandage for my ankle, all the lifeguards were present and once they made sure I was settled they started to do a little debrief. The head lifeguard, identified as Hoppo, asked who originally pulled her out. He thought it was Maxi because Maxi called it over the radio. Maxi shook his head and pointed to me. “She screamed from the sand already doing CPR. I have no idea what happened before then.” Hoppo looked to me, “Would you mind telling us what happened before we got there?” He asked the question carefully, almost as though it could break me. I guess it could have if the months leading up to this hadn’t been so bad.

I recounted what happened before Maxi had showed up to help. When I had finished my story, I looked up to see an impressed look on the head lifeguards face. “How old are you?” “I just turned 16.” He looked at my dad, “Has she ever wanted to be a lifeguard? There could be a place for her here.”

Now the thing is I had wanted to lifeguard at a bigger beach than the tiny Florida one I worked over summers. Especially after my family’s accident, I wanted nothing more than to do something meaningful. My dad looked shock. “She has expressed an interest in life-guarding. She does it as a summer job back home in Florida. I don’t know how serious she is about it. Plus her mom and sisters just passed so I’m not sure if that passion is still there.” Before the ‘I’m sorrys,’ I chimed in, “It is. If anything it’s grown. I want nothing more than to be helpful, to do something meaningful with my life. Hoppo offered me a job as a trainee that summer and for the rest of that year. I was so excited. I wanted to do it so badly. My dad looked sad. “Our visas are going to expire next week. We have to go back home.” My face fell. “Please Dad, can we renew them?” “I— I can’t. I can’t leave them behind.” I immediately knew he was going home, but what if I could stay.

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The walk back to the hotel was quiet. When I brought up staying in Australia, my dad had looked furious. I guess I could understand. He just lost his wife and two youngest daughters and now his oldest wanted to live in a country on the other side of the world. To him it must have felt like I was abandoning them. I wasn’t. Dad felt that by leaving Florida, we were leaving them. To me, there was nothing for me in Florida. I needed out, I needed change. The opportunity to work and save lives at such a young age had fallen right into my lap. It was exactly what I needed, but Dad couldn’t see that. Arriving at the hotel, we headed to our room in silence. Neither of us knew what to say. “Dad, I—“ “Olivia I can’t talk about this right now.”

Dad never used my name normally I was Livvy or Livs. He was mad. Either way, we needed to talk about it then. We were leaving soon and for me to stay, things needed to happen. I would need to find someone to be my guardian for starters. “Dad, we have to talk about it. I really want this. There’s nothing for me back home. If they are gone, I won’t be able to stand it. The house will just be filled with memories that I can’t take. School will just hurt too. They were supposed to join me for next year and I can’t go if they don’t. I know you can’t live without those memories, but I think they would kill me.” He was tearing up now. “I love you and I want you to heal, but that might mean we need to separate. What I need would kill you and what you need would kill me.”

“Okay, let’s talk about it.”

By the end of the night it was decided, if we could iron out details such as accommodations and visa stuff within the next two days, before our scheduled return flight, I could stay.

I had an idea. I am not an Australian citizen, so I don’t know how to iron out logistics or where to go to find out how. I was going to ask Hoppo. I knew Dad had work in the morning, so I asked if I could go back down to the beach for an hour or two while he finished up some stuff. He let me go under the condition that I stay between the flags since he wasn’t there. Knowing I wasn’t planning on swimming, I agreed easily. I put on a swim suit anyway, I was going to the beach, and headed straight for the tower. I knocked on the door and suddenly got very very nervous. I second guessed myself, They were just being nice last night right? There’s no way this could work. I couldn’t be a lifeguard. I don’t belong here. As I turned to walk away, the door opened.

A lifeguard I hadn’t seen before answered the door. “Can I help you?” “Hi, yeah I’m looking for Harrison, Maxi, or Hoppo?” The lifeguard gave me a strange look. “Okay, come on in,” he said hesitantly, “Harrison and Maxi are in the tower right now actually.” We walked in and around the corner. “Hey boys, you’ve got a visitor.” The lifeguard guiding me in left me at the stairs and walked over to the desk to watch the water while the other two turned to look at me. “Oh! You’re the girl from last night,” Maxi excitedly turned toward me. “Yeah that’s me. I wanted to talk to Hoppo about the offer from last night, but first I wanted to make sure it was real. Did he mean it when he offered me a job? I don’t want to meet with him if he’s got a full team a make a fool of myself.” Harrison smiled brightly, “Mate he meant it. After you left he kept saying how much potential you must have and how much he would love to have you on our team. He’s actually across the road in his office right now and would be happy to see you, do you want me to walk you over there.”

Harrison led me across the road and into the pavilion. We walked down the hall and came to a store outside an unlabeled door. Harrison knocked gently and we heard a come in. Harrison let me walk in told Hoppo where I’d come from and then went back to work. Hoppo had me sit down to talk. I asked if he was being serious when he offered me a job. He told me he was very serious. I told him exactly what I needed to do and by when. Hoppo knew exactly where to go to get me a work visa. Hoppo also said he had a few ideas for the rest of my needs should I stay in Australia. He told me to bring my dad back to the beach around seven that night and we could all talk. I had a day and a half left to sort everything out to be able to stay in Australia.