Several years ago, I learned how to scuba dive.  It's kind of interesting how it all came about.  My husband had decided out of the blue that he would take up the sport; we had never  discussed it.  As a matter of fact, when he brought it up, I thought he was joking.   Why would he want to take up diving?  We had never even mentioned it as something we would like to do.  I was kind of at a loss.  I wondered what the attraction was and decided that if he was going to dive, than so was I.

I scheduled my first class and, frankly, I was surprised by the number of people enrolled and how the class was conducted.  The first two sessions were in a classroom with lectures and videos.  I felt like I was in high school or a horrible college lecture hall all over again.  I questioned why I was there and why, again, did I want to do this.  But then I had my first water class in a backyard pool.  We studied and assembled the gear and had to prove we knew what we were doing and why.  And we practiced in the pool; I even mastered underwater mask clearing.  I recognized immediately why I wanted to learn this particular sport.  It was incredibly freeing and the liberty it brought?  Unmatched.

Our next class would take place on a boat, in the Pacific Ocean.  We met at a dock in San Pedro and proceeded to Catalina where our entire class did a boat dive.  It was exciting and scary all at the same time.   I had to partner with a dive buddy - never dive alone!   I learned the in's and out's of SCUBA, and was awed by the magnitude of the underwater world.  The complexities overwhelming, the potential danger exciting.  I was taken in and practically devastated by the power and beauty.  Several times during the course of a dive, I got in trouble because I tried to go it alone.  "You have a dive buddy for a reason." But rocks, plants, and the exquisiteness of the undersea life captured me.

As I followed the group, I stopped - suspended in a kelp bed and studied the Garibaldi, California's state fish.   I turned away from "the team" and proceeded on the adventure that lay before me, that is until I noticed the group begin to pull away and I struggled to catch up to them.  But I couldn't catch up with them, no possibility.  I kicked, I paddled and no luck, I couldn't go anywhere.  Kelp had wrapped around the equipment on my back and trapped me. Out of nowhere, one of the dive masters showed up from behind and saved me.  Literally.  I thanked him later on the boat and he just reminded me of the dive buddy rule and I shamefully agreed to be more cognizant.

Life presents opportunities for greatness and adventure all around.  We have a tendency to rely on only ourselves, to give only ourselves credit when greatness is achieved or journeys accomplished.   Warnings usually consist of others' past experiences.  It really is better to have a dive buddy, a designated driver, a partner, an advisor, a mentor, a coach, a friend to listen to, to share with, to face life's ups and downs.  Someone that has your back- or at least the back of your SCUBA equipment.

"Solitude never hurt anyone.  Emily Dickinson lived alone, and she wrote some of the most beautiful poetry the world has ever known... then went crazy as a loon."  - Lisa Simpson

by rayannethorn