Feeling Alive (Part 2 of 2)

Another opportunity I was giving was the ability to get Scuba Diving Certificated. By being Scuba Certification, it is a life long Certification and I will be able to dive with a “Master Diver” anywhere in the world. My dear Alicia (other PCV) and myself, sign up for Scuba Diving. She is amazing person to do it with, because we are both a little unsure about the whole thing, have a little or a lot of anxiety, and best of all we both have no problem experiencing our concerns to each other. She is a psychology major and I am a Social Work major, it just works well.

Anyways, one looks extremely strange and awkward when they have all of their gear on to die. Flippers, scuba mask, and a MASSIVE tank on your back, there is nothing attractive about the outfit. It is just the two of us in the class and our instructor is amazing. He is a really chill, laid, a little sassy, man from Dominica. There was moments during our 8 hour training today (we have 3 more days) that I wanted to cry or scream out of frustrating of not knowing how to do silly, simply task. Or when I swallowed a half gallon of sea water or the time was I was drifting away because the current was taking me. Or the moments when I would smile out of nervousness and it would mess with either my snorkel or my breathing respirator. Through all of that, Alicia was right there with me with her own little troubles. Through the moments of frustration and anxiety was a moment when it was all worth it and once again, “I came alive!” After our almost full day of training, he tells us we are going to go on a little dive, not to deep, just something simple. At this moment, I will not pretend to be more brave then I am, my heart dropped, and my anxiety rose. After some issues of not breathing correctly (if you do not exhale then you do not sink). We were our way to the deep blue sea.
It was AMAZING, my face light up like a Christmas tree, when I say my first school of fish and eel. The moment I will not forget is when the instructor, Alicia and I were finished swimming around, and still underwater, the instructor came over to me (A person can tell how quickly you are breathing because you start to raise to the surface and the air bubbles)! As the instructor came over to me, I got nervous and I started breathing a lot quicker then I was suppose, he so calming sticks his hand in my face like stop sign, and I calm back down. Both Alicia and I were struggling with clearing our mask when water fills up. That was what I was suppose to do, and I did it! Not once but twice. I got a little water up my nose, in my mouth, and in my eyes, but instead of rushing to the surface, I calmed my breathing and got everything under control again. After I completed, he put his hand out, HIS face light up and he gave me a HUG high five for a job well done. That moment of accomplishment over rode all moments of frustrations, stress, and feeling like a failure.