I only have one really big fear (ok, besides my ridiculous fear of whales). I’m afraid of suffocating. When I have a panic attack (like when I walked through that tunnel in Croatia), it’s always because I’m afraid that something dramatic will prevent me from breathing.
And yet I decided to get scuba certified.
Scuba diving has been on my bucket list for years. I think it stems from my childhood desire to be a mermaid (tied with being an Indian princess). Someone recommended that I get certified in Bali because it’ll be considerably cheaper than places like Australia. So here I am, signed up for a 3-day diving course!
I’m going to be honest, I was more nervous about scuba diving than surfing. Surfing was hard and challenging, but never scary. Scuba diving is pretty terrifying to me. There are so many ways that things could go wrong.
But regardless of my hesitations and fears, I watched the online videos, I got on my gear (looking like Scuba Steve over here), and I walked my flipper feet into the water. And you know what happened? I learned how to breathe underwater. And it was amazing!!
I learned several basic skills like recovering my regulator, clearing the water out of my face mask, equalizing my ears, finding neutral buoyancy, signaling that I’m out of air, sharing air with my buddy, etc.
I really liked having all of these safety lessons at the start. By the end of the day, I felt amazingly comfortable though I’ve never been more conscious of my breathing until today. Thanks to yoga, I have very steady, even breaths. So that’s helpful.
Later at my hostel, two guys came into reception claiming that a roommate stole a laptop and left. So now their plan is to go to the bars around the area and hopefully find him. And I guess beat the crap out of him or something? The whole thing is just a really bad idea.
So I’ll be keeping me things super locked up …
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