As of today, I am officially a certified scuba diver! But let me tell you, my journey to get certified was long and arduous. For my 11th birthday, I got two gifts from my parents. One of them was tickets to a concert of one of my favorite bands, Imagine Dragons, and the other one was a course to be a certified scuba diver. I was very excited about scuba diving because it was an activity I could do with just my parents on our amazing trip around the world.

Originally, I was scheduled was to do the courses (at Diver Dan's where my mom and dad got certified too) with my Grandpa in March of 2018, but unfortunately my Grandpa got a respitory infection (twice with two separate courses of antibiotics) and was unable to dive. So, instead of me getting the certification without him, we decided to push the certification to June.

My Grandpa and I both got through the knowledge review book work with ease, but the pool work was a different story. My Grandpa needed more time in the pool and I barely passed it, so the following weekend, I went to Monterey to get the ocean dives done—alone.

We went to a little place along the Monterey coast called Breakwater. From land, there were no waves and the water looked calm. I was excited to get to certified! We geared up and got a briefing about our dive. I had a little trouble gearing up and I could feel my confidence waiver. From there, it all spiraled downwards.

When we entered the water, I felt that the surf was bigger than it really was. The water was icy cold, and I was having trouble even getting to the spot where we were going to put on our fins. I was really struggling. Putting on fins in the water has always been difficult for me, let alone doing it with two wetsuits and thick gloves. Also, the fact that the closest parent (my Mom) was on shore, did not help me calm down. I started to feel extremely nervous and I decided to look underwater to help calm me down. Usually, I find the water calming, but on that particular day, the visibility was like mud. So, when I put my hand out in front of my face, I couldn’t see it. When I rolled over, I told my dive buddy that I decided that I was done and I couldn’t do it. The dive instructor came over to try to help me out, but I insisted that I was done and would complete ocean work in Belize.

After the attempted dive, I felt very disappointed. I did feel better when a girl (about the same age as me) also came out of the ocean because she didn’t want to complete the dive. We learned later that the visibility was the worst it’s been in a long time (less than two feet) and my buddy got separated from the group.

Fast forward to today, about a month later than the Monterey attempt, I am officially a PADI certified scuba diver! My first four ocean dives (with Hamanasi Dive Resort) have been spectacular, and I got to share them with my Dad! Some points of interest have been swimming with a nine-foot Nurse Shark (that actually circled me), a big Eagle Ray (about 5-feet across in diameter), another type of stingray (much smaller), and a sea turtle!

I feel great knowing that I conquered my fear and that I will be a certified diver for the rest of my life. My big take-away from this experience is to never give-up on anything because you could be missing out on a spectacular experience and feeling! Thanks for taking time out of your day to read this blog and to learn more about getting scuba certified, visit the PADI website! Oh, and my sister made a video that you can watch about my experience!