Evan and I first met at a camp on a lake. I was a lifeguard, he was support staff. He had been out working on an island in the middle of the lake when a nasty storm blew in. Personally, being fearful of lightening, I would have refused to go out to the island knowing it was about to storm, but Evan obviously wasn't bothered by it too much.
I've had this deep-rooted fear of lightening since I was a kid. A boy in our school was killed by lightening riding his bike home when I was a 4th grader. A classmate's father was killed by lightening in a parking lot when we were in high school. For some reason those memories have always kind of haunted me during storms. I like to be inside when we have them.
Anyway, I knew Evan was out there on the island. I knew he probably wouldn't bother coming in. He'd taken a kayak out there with his tools and even if he left the island right then, it would have taken him several minutes of paddling back across the open water in a storm full of lightening to get to a safe place.
By this time in our summer, I really liked him. I didn't really want him to be struck by lightening.
I decided I needed to do something--anything. I choked back my fear and started up the jet ski.
What am I doing? I thought. This is nuts!
I snapped my lifejacket and hit the gas, sending myself zooming across the lake to the island as fast as I could go. Just get out there and bring him back, I kept thinking.
I hopped off the jet ski into the shallow, warm water and ran up the island to find Evan. We grabbed his tools and ran back to the jet ski and quickly made our way back to shelter.
There are very few people I would swallow that strong of a fear for to do something like that.
Good thing I saved him. :)
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