Taking my place at the lifeguard station on the pool deck, I noticed that nobody was in the pool yet. The regulars were sitting outside the steam room when the door opened, and an older, clean-cut man with a short, painful gait came in and took a seat next to them. He looked at me and said something that made me question my hearing. “Hey, who was president in 1970?”

I took a few seconds to think about this unusual question. I replied, “Nixon right?” He looked at me with his cloudy eyes and gave me a nod of approval. I sat there next to the steam room for the next 30 minutes as the man continued to quiz me with various questions about past presidents and politics. At the start, I was mildly annoyed by his questions, but as time passed I grew interested. Every time I got an answer right, he grinned and then asked a harder question, and after a while, he stumped me on a question about the time frames of the Alamo.

Soon, he decided to move on to science. At this point I was drawn into his game that previously felt like a burden. His questions ranged from atoms to scientific acronyms. After stumbling my way through what LASER stands for I asked him, "How do you know all this stuff?”

He explained that his love of learning came from his parents; although he was always the smartest in his class, he was the least academically accomplished in his own family, which motivated him to keep picking up information and learn wherever he went. He quizzed me for a few more minutes then stood up, said, “Good luck kid. Thanks for playing my game,” and left. I haven’t seen him since.

The pool at the YMCA Tacoma Center is only 5 feet deep and about half the length of an average pool so only one lifeguard is needed. On Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, that one person is me. The pool is not just a place for the people of Hilltop Tacoma to swim, it’s a place to escape for a while, where locals can sit down in the hot tub or steam room, swim a few laps, and forget about everything else. Until that old man came in the pool I had never had a conversation quite like that when lifeguarding. Every shift, when I arrive at my spot on the tool deck, I glance over to the chairs outside the steam room, half expecting the old man waiting there, ready to challenge me.

A lot of people talk about my near thirty-minute commute to the YMCA Tacoma Center like it's a bad thing, but in all honesty I enjoy it. I use the time to prepare myself for the shift, and more importantly the people. I like to gather stories from my day. After that encounter, I think about the man and his questions on the way to work. Before meeting him, I always dreaded my harder classes. His interest in the pursuit of knowledge now motivates me to find joy in learning in all aspects of life. Now I brush up on trivia during the drives, ready to be humbled by him. I research the Battle of the Alamo which spanned 13 days in 1836, and recite the scientific acronyms he taught me. I consider what I would ask him, drawing questions from the week's lessons in government and physics.

His spark and curiosity have motivated me to seek that in others. I find myself looking for different perspectives and striking up conversations with people I might not have approached before.

You never know who might expand your world, and in these shared exchanges of curiosity and learning, I see the quiet pulse of America.

© Ray. All rights reserved. If you are interested in quoting this story, contact the national team and we can put you in touch with the author’s teacher.