A diver...

Swimming in the ocean with a mask, fins and a tank. I never thought I could be that person, a diver, but I am. The ocean calls to me more than most places I have stood with my two feet. How can words properly describe the feelings I have about diving? I am fearful of the oceans surface, the waves crashing about so haphazard and powerful but when given the sign that we are ok to descend, the fear stays on the surface. The calm and serenity of the ocean underneath, it is indescribable really. When someone says “Go to your happy place” it is the blue of the ocean that my mind instantly surrenders. The bright fish and sea turtles; the flow of water bending the edges of the sandy bottom into tiny scalloped ripples; the tiny snake like creatures that protect themselves by appearing to be sea grass slowly sinking back into the sand when approached; the seemingly bottomless and endless darkening blue that deepens below you as you search a coral wall for creatures. I didn’t consider myself a swimmer before I was a diver, but I suppose they go hand in hand. I don’t jump into a pool and set fear aside and stick my face under water and not worry about drowning, but when I take my giant stride into the ocean from the edge of a bobbing boat I set fear on the deck and jump into myself. Into a world that not everyone is brave enough to go. There is a sense of pride that comes along with the knowledge that I am a diver.....