We went Scuba Diving! We had a chance on our day off to go scuba diving at one of the top 10 spots in the world. Once we arrived, some of us had to go through a training class in order to go out. Now, I don’t think I have ever really had a fear until the time started getting closer, and once I found out that if I did something wrong my lungs could explode. Luckily, we were all able to make through training and head out on the water to our destination. On our way there, we saw a big whale within 20ft of us! It was amazing! As we stopped at our scuba destination, I started to get very nauseas. Oh yea, I had also had a banana milkshake on our ride to the water. But anyways, the time had come, all of the anticipation and training was ready to be applied. Then the skipper spoke, “3, 2,1 Go!”
We fell in, and grouped together to get ready to go down. Well before going, I started to feel like I couldn’t breathe well out of my mouthpiece and the longer I was remaining on the surface of the water, the more nauseas I was becoming. So I decided, ok, here I go. Well, I went down, and it became real. The ocean didn’t feel like the swimming pool we practiced in and neither did the pressure on my head. As I started going deeper, the pressure on my head was so strong, my mask was filled with water, and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I then started to panic and take quick short breaths, which is what they said not to do. I looked at the instructor and gave them hand signals that I needed to go up. The instructor signaled for me to calm down. Before jumping in, they told us we could only come up if we are crying. Well, I wasn’t crying but I felt like I was in a moment of life or death. I realized that I couldn’t calm down and I quickly started to swim back up to the top. When I came up, I was screaming, “I can’t do this, put me on the boat, I can’t breathe under there.” In my mind I thought I was finished. I thought I felt like I was going to die, and scuba diving wasn’t for me. There were also 2 other girls on the surface freaking out as well and my panic surely didn’t help. As I was freaking out, the other instructor tried calming me down, telling me that this is no different than training. Telling me that I can breathe ok, I just needed to relax. As I was on the surface, nausea arose again, and we reached a point where I needed to decide if I was going to do this or I would have to get back on the boat. Well, I thought to myself, I did all this training and I am floating here in the Indian Ocean, and I have a chance to experience something amazing. The time is now.
I decided to try again but this time I wanted to take it slow. Well everyone, the second time was a charm and I went all the down to the bottom of the reef. It was beautiful and something that I had only imagined doing. After our dive of 35 min, when we came back up to the surface, so did everything that I had eaten before. Yep, remember that banana shake? Well, it was all around me. And sadly my teammate came up swimming in it. But, I must say, scuba diving was an experience that I will always remember. It was a time when I experienced my first panic attack, but also a moment that opened my eyes to how strong I really am. I am definitely proud of myself for being able to overcome my fear.
