Lately, when Bachelor Nation has seen Brayden Bowers and Aaron Schwartzman by the water, the two Bachelorette alums have been looking for love on the beaches of Paradise.
But in September, Bowers, 25, and Schwartzman, 34, found themselves stranded off the coast of San Diego after going out on a boat ride. It took more than three hours before the reality stars got rescued.
“The fact that they drove to what they thought was a debris, like a debris field in the water, is the only reason I am right here. That is the only reason,” Schwartzman told Joe Amabile on this week’s episode of the Bachelor Happy Hour podcast. “Three and a half hours, man. I maybe had two hours left before something, you know, like health-wise happened or God forbid — the man in the gray suit — there are some massive great white sharks out there.”
Schwartzman said he felt an “immense feeling of gratitude and thankfulness” after being rescued and believes the incident “definitely changed my perspective on life.”
“A majority of people in this world have not had a true life or death scenario, right?” Schwartzman, who works as a firefighter, asked Amabile. “And I’ve been unfortunate enough to have that at work, but not for this magnitude. At work, I can get out of situations that are life or death through training. I rely on my training and maybe the guys behind me on my crew. But when you’re in a situation like that — helpless, with no help coming, no cellphones, no radio, no nothing — it’s a whole new mindset.”
The unexpected occurrence caused Schwartzman to “reset some of the things that I’m going to do going forward.”
“We overlook a lot of things, we take things for granted,” he continued. “Life is really just a unstable deck of cards that we expect to be upright every time we wake up. When one of those cards falls, you know, your entire stack can fall. And we take that for granted all the time.”
Schwartzman shared that he no longer wants to take “the little things” for granted.
“Life is life,” the Bachelorette alum said. “We both know that at some point, your timecard is going to get punched. And up until that point, you take all this stuff for granted and it’s only until you have this crazy scare that you truly appreciate the little things.”
Amabile, 37, called the tale “the craziest story I ever heard” on his podcast before Schwartzman confirmed that it made his bond with Bowers even stronger.
“Brayden and I were bonded before this s — — even happened. We became best friend right off The Bachelorette, the day he came home we became brothers,” Schwartzman said. “And yeah, if anything, this is another one of those pages in our book of friendship that bound our book even tighter than it already is.”
Schwartzman explained that now, he feels closer with Bowers’ family.
“I was just at a winery with his aunt and his mom. They literally call me their adopted son,” Schwartzman said. “So, you know there’s always a silver lining to something that’s kind of dark and scary. You just got to let that door open for you. Walk right in. See what happens, man.”
Schwartzman and Bowers have been seeking a second shot at love on season 9 of Bachelor in Paradise. Schwartzman connected early on with Sam Jeffries, but she may have to leave the beach because she hadn’t pooped since arriving in Mexico.
Bowers, however, received a rose from Kat Izzo, but she decided to pursue a relationship with Tanner Courtad after he arrived and took her on a date.
Bachelor in Paradise airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.
