Exploring Unknown Territories: Scuba Diving

Take a deep breath, settle in, and look around.

Clear mask and look up, the instructor gives the "okay" symbol and I return with one of my own. I find myself in new surroundings 30 feet below the ocean's surface, the boat just a small shadow on the sand slipping through the cracks and beneath my flippers. It's time to swim forward. A quick pinch of the nose, a small pop to my ears, and I pull the water past with my fingertips, eyes widening with the schools of fish, reefs, and shipwrecks in front of me. I weave through the traffic of it all and look over, my dad to my left, my uncle and cousin just mere feet away. "I am diving in Aruba, how cool is this," my internal thoughts rattle on as I find the comfort easing with the currents pulling me.

Since early 2022, I embarked on a challenge and goal that had pestered me till I found no excuse to not just do it. Joining the scuba club at school, taking hours of coursework and pool certification training, and most importantly a multiple choice test, I now have been open-water scuba certified and can dive up to 130 feet. After charting nearly ten training and full ocean dives, I reflect on the time of year that now marks two years since I completed that first step, signing up for club scuba. The dream, influenced by my father who talked for years in my childhood about scuba, became a reality that now is a shared bond.

Why do it though? You're stuck underwater, relying on a breathing apparatus that is simply an oxygen tank of life support, and for extra moral support, goggles. Is it just the need to take a risk and put yourself in a situation where the stresses of life are seemingly swept away by the currents? Maybe that's the reason, or simply the burning desire for us humans to explore the unknown in life and do so through one brave risk.

Take a deep breath, settle in, and look around.