Today I got my three-hundredth dive. I have done over 120 dives with SCUBAnauts. I honestly only remember the dives that mean a lot personally to me. My most memorable dives are the ones I have done with my mom, my friends, and combat wounded vets.
I went on my first dive trip with my mom when I was 12. I went to 100 feet deep and that was a milestone back then but that was only my ninth dive. When I joined SCUBAnauts I had 12 dives. I looked up to the older nauts who had 75 or 76 dives and said that I wanted to get that many. At that point the coolest site I had been on was a tiny reef off West Palm Beach. Now, I have dove many places around the Caribbean, but my favorite dive site is any dive site where I can have fun with my friends.
I have had more dive buddies then I can count, but my favorite dive buddy I’ve ever had the pleasure of diving with has over 75 dives with me: Shaian, a fellow Naut who is now an adult leader for SCUBAnauts. She knows my diving style in and out–she knows I will do something before I know I’ll do it. My friends with whom I SCUBA dive I consider family and because we are family we fight sometimes, but we always stay close.
But my favorite dives I have ever done are the dives with the combat wounded vets because they are amazing; they are injured, but they are doing one of the most dangerous activities a human can do. They have taught me more lessons then they could imagine, they never give up, and have shown me that a person can jump even the highest hurdles.
Writing this post has brought back a lot of memories from diving, and has made me very happy but kind of sad at the same time because a lot of my dive buddies are going to college or moving away. I have thought about stopping diving a time or two, but I have pictures on my wall of me diving with my best friends, and that reminds me that I have and always will love diving.
