It is over...

Well, it is finally that time where I can take a breath and relax a bit. For the last 12 years of my life I have been living in the "waterpark world schedule" - I dread summers and enjoy the school year time - usually quite opposite to many people around me (especially my teacher friends & family). When most people hear I run a waterpark they think it is the coolest job and immediately tell me what a fun job I have. Well, it is a fun job - but there is a lot more to it that most people think about. You won't be able to find me floating around the river, or sunbathing, or enjoying the slides - in fact I don't even think I have ridden all of the slides at my park. But they are right in the fact that a waterpark is a fun environment to work in (probably what has kept me going for 12 years) and it does have some unique advantages!

My job has 2 opposite extremes for me...I LOVE part of it and I HATE part of it. The work itself is enjoyable. I love training new employees, managing employees, making decisions, marketing, creating, making improvements to the park, managing the operating, and even dealing with the guests for the most part. It is truly a passion of mine and very rewarding. On the other hand, my job has a level of responsibility that I take very seriously that adds a tremendous amount of stress to my life during the summer - a level of responsibility that most people don't understand or can't relate to. I take responsibility for every single person's LIFE that comes into my park - which is over well over 100,000 guests. In the waterpark world this is an element of the unknown. I have to trust that my employees are trained enough to understand the seriousness of their job and will not take their eyes off of the water, and I have to understand that parents, counselors, and guardians (for the most part) do not understand the danger with water and rely on my staff to watch over their children. It is amazing how many parents are uneducated about drowing - that it only takes 30 seconds for a child to go unconscious and only 1 inch of water for a child to drown, not to mention dry drownings or delayed drownings. Parents blindly send their children to camp /daycare and the camp counselors (at a ratio of 1:10) have no intrest in watching their campers, but would rather sunbathe on the deck. This is the part of my job that seriously makes me reconsider my choice of profession every summer. I constantly ask myself, "Is it worth it to have so much responsibility for someone else's life". So much of how my life could be affected rests on the responsibility (or lack their of) of other people - my guards, my trainers, my supervisors, the parents, the children themselves. I know in my heart that God will not give me more than I can handle, but some days it feels like I am being pushed to my limits. It is a hard situation to deal with injuries, and not just the injury itself, but to deal with the fact that someone's "baby" has just been injured. I guess it is one thing to feel responsiblity for the well-being of your own child, but when the well-being of over 100,000 people is put on you it is extreme stress. It is the stress of not knowing what is going to happen next, will I be treating an injury, sending someone to the hospital on a backboard, will I be helping to pull a child out of the water unconscious, will I be performing AR / CPR on someone, will an adult suddenly have a heart attack at my facility, will an employee do something to hurt someone or themselves, will a guest decide to not follow the rules and seriously hurt themselves, will I have to call the parent of a child being airlifted to the hospital to tell them where their son is going, will I have to comfort a child whose brother was just sent to the hospital, will I have to wait 3 days to see if that child is going to be okay, will I receive a phone call on my day off that something has happened and I was not there, and if something did happen was it handled properly, and after something tramautic happens how are the employees mentally and emotionally.??? This is all a lot of pressure and part of it I put on myself because I know how things that happen at my facility can and will affect MY life for the rest of my life. I also know that part of the reason my facilities are so safe and do perform so well is because of this seriousness I have for my job - because I do care so much. I know that without me at the facility it would not be as safe or ran the way I do things, and by my efforts I save thousands of injuries and protect thousands of lifes...but I still ask myself "Is it worth it"? There is so much of it that is out of my control but in the end it is still my responsibility and will have an impact on my life...

So, as I sit here now with the 2008 season completed it feels good. Many of the above potential stresses were experienced this summer, but thankfully all seemed to work out well. I long for some relaxing normal months of less stress related work and planning for next season. To be asked the never ending question, "So, what do you do in the winter?" I can't say that I will always be able or willing to continue with the yearly summer stress that is involved with running a waterpark, but for now I know that the 2008 summer season was successful largely because of my efforts - for that I am proud!

For those of you who have never been to or seen my park - here are a few photos. Enjoy!