‘That day’ finally came!

To say it was wrought with anxiety and tension would be an understatement. I woke up not even sure I wanted, or cared to go.  Yes, I am so glad I am diving, but, so sad I was ‘going alone’, ya know?  Or, maybe you don’t.

With that being said, let me back up a bit.  Perhaps you don’t know what ‘that day’ is!  A quick re-cap, I am a blessed recipient of Live the List. I applied for Scuba lessons, as that was on that list. I cried when I realized I was chosen! Live the List is a non-profit built to bless widows and widowers to live out the ‘we will do that, when the kids are gone, after we retire, next summer,,,,’.

I had an appointment on Thursday morning, and she asked me about scuba, so I had the opportunity to share with her and guests where I was in the process, and it sure did bring tears to my eyes!

My appointment was at 3 p.m., as you can see from the text message, I was simply not prepared.  (Though, obviously the textee didn’t think about not being able to eat under water?)
My anxiety was through the roof, the fight or flight was running quite high! I had absolutely no idea what to expect, except I knew that having to purchase a form-fitting one piece bathing suit was quite a motivator to reduce the weight, but, hey, that’s not today’s topic!

Jeff, the owner of Aqua-Hut and his son Ian are great guys, and I love that everything is personal, 1:1 service. I’m not convinced I would have had the strength to do this first day in a group.  Emotions were running a bit high.

Jeff went over everything with me, and I stood there thinking, ‘yea, I did learn this with the on-line courses, but, where did it go, out my ear’?? It sure felt like it did!  I stood there thinking, there is no WAY I can breathe through ‘that’ thing!  I’m gonna die.  What did he just tell me?  Let me just say, a tank loaded with air isn’t very light.  Strapped into the vest, with all those hoses, and weights,  I tossed that puppy into the water. It floated.  Imagine that.  I jumped into the water, Jeff strapped that bad boy on me, and I still floated.  We added weights.  Then more weights.  Finally, I sunk.  Folks, I don’t sink.  I don’t know how to sink.  I float.  I float on my back, I float on my stomach, I float along, like a lazy river.

Breathing under water is not a natural thing for a human, that adjustment took a bit of time, to say the least.  Getting used to not using your nose is quite different.  Again, Jeff did an amazing job simply playing a game to relax me.  My new toy is a plastic torpedo.  How did that work? We played catch.  Seriously.  It was rather fun, actually.  Objects really do look further away under water!

Jeff taught me how to purge my mask of water, which I was able to master the first time!  He also taught me the universal sign for, ‘thanks for knocking my life-support system out of my mouth’. 

He then left me to enjoy the water on my own, practice filling my mask with water, and then purging it.  However, while I was under the water, the most tragic thing happened! MY TOE RING FELL OFF. GASP!   Panic set in, I had to go find it!  After that, I found a dime and a penny.  You can say, I went on my first under-water treasure hunt.

To say that I completely enjoyed myself would be an understatement!  I have another lesson next week, as Jeff is out of town on, yea, a dive – He said, it’s tough, but someone has to do it!

Day one is IN THE BOOKS!  More to come!  It was so much fun, and really, breathing under water isn’t all that traumatic.

Until next time,
Join me on this journey, it’s fun!

Growing in Grace,
Laura B.
lgbeck59@gmail.com
Manager ~ Beautycounter