Sink or Swim

Recently I have found that whenever I look back at the previous three years of my life, I look at only the bad things that have happened. Granted all the major events in my life have been rather depressing but still, I thought that for a change I would look at some of the more positive things that I have done.

I should point out that this sudden realisation stems back to a phone call I received yesterday. A couple months ago I was working as a divemaster on an open water course. For those of you who don’t know what that means; I was assisting people who were learning how to dive. This includes the entirely un-glamorous task of packing and unpacking dive gear that has invariably been peed in, making sure that the group stays together underwater and that nothing goes wrong, and because something always goes wrong, knowing how to fix it when it does.

This course was different however. I have worked on many courses with students; people who are my age, in the same mind-set as me and people who are more scared of failing than they are of putting their face underwater. This course was to be with adults though. Now this wasn’t too intimidating. I can speak to adults quite easily and I have a strong belief in respecting my elders that was drilled into me by many years of education at a private, Christian boarding school.

The course was going just fine until we got everyone into the swimming pool for the first session. The minute their faces went into the water chaos ensued and it no longer mattered how old they were, all that mattered was making sure that everyone got to the bottom safely. There were some people at the bottom whilst others tried their best to get down and still others who were panicking at the surface.

This is how I got to know Mari. She was just one of those women who, despite the fact that she was petrified, tried again and again to get down and she did eventually and now has a qualification to prove it. It is this quality that I admired in her.

Anyway, yesterday she phoned me to find out when she could collect her qualification. Usually these sorts of phone calls involve very little personality and a lot of to-the-point questions followed by the beep from the hang-up. Mari asked me how I was, told me she was going diving soon, asked me how the diving was going and was just generally interested in my life.

I realised once again that she has many qualities that I truly admire, but her ability to continue trying even when she thought for sure that she was drowning is the quality that has stuck with me. It is the reason why this morning when I woke up I thought about the fact that I have recently become both a SCUBA and First Aid instructor, I have a dive job at the Maties Underwater club, I am in my final year of a BSc degree, I write for the University Newspaper and I am a regular supporter of several charities and donate blood. And best of all, I have this blog.

These are all things which make me incredibly happy. These are things which make me realize that I can swim even though the last three years have tried to tie lead weights around my feet and drown me. And besides, I actually love being underwater.