Eyes straight, right hand on my mask and regulator, and one big step forward. SPLASH! My family is going to go on a scuba trip this summer in key west but only my dad has his scuba license. So in order to go on the trip, I, my brother, sister, and mom would have to get our licenses. Every Wednesday we had to learn about the gear and what to do and how to do it when we dive, but the last thing you have to do to get your license is to go on an actual dive with your instructor. Also, Ohio doesn’t have an ocean to dive in, so instead, we had to go to an old rock quarry that was filled with water years ago.

Our instructor tells us to swim over to the buoy and get ready to dive down onto the platform. My body is stiff from the wetsuit and the air from the tank has a copper taste to it, it is like I have been chewing on pennies. But it’s nothing that I haven’t done already. Finally, I reached the red buoy after what felt like a never-ending swim. As soon as our dive instructor asks if anyone wants to go down first. I unconsciously raise my hand and before I know it I’m halfway down to the old deteriorating wood platform. Depressurizing my ears and deflating my BC, inch by inch I finally make it to the platform. 

The first thing I feel is the bone-chilling cold deep in my blood. I try to focus on what I am looking at to numb the coldness but then I realize that this is the worst thing I could have done. The only thing that I can see is the dark green abyss, my terror and anxiety flair up and I began to see things. Terrible things out of the corner of my eyes, things such as a large fin, a mouth, and a shadow. The next thing I know I am shaking so hard that my mask is starting to fill with the nasty water, but I wasn’t shaking from the cold, from the fear. I try to remember what my instructor said about what I should do if I panic. I remember that he said to reassure myself that nothing in this quarry can hurt me but me. Suddenly I realize he’s right, I am 40 feet down and breathing underwater with scuba gear, not many thirteen-year-olds even think of trying this. Suddenly I feel as if I have been in a freezer for days. I can see the cold radiating off the bottom of the quarry in waves.

 Finally, I see a friendly face, my mom, then my brother, and the rest of the group come down to the platform and gather around in a circle. Our instructor demonstrated what he wants us to do, as he takes off his goggles completely we all understand instantly. Like an unspoken rule, The thing he wants us to do is to take our goggles off completely and sit for ten to fifteen seconds in the dark before we put them back on and clear the water from them. I go last and as he goes around the group I get more and more panicked. I think to myself, what if I freak out and snort up a bunch of disgusting mud water, and what if I fail and don’t get my license. Finally, it is my turn, he comes in front of me and signals to me that he is ready, my mind goes into a self-destruct mode over all the stress. 3, 2, 1, task failed? I assure myself that I can do this and that I have been doing this for the past five weeks. I am the best at this, I never screwed up during all the practices I had just for this. Suddenly without thinking, I lift the mask off my head and everything goes black just like the green abyss but worse. I’m fine, I am over it, over my fear, over my anxiety, and over the thought of failure. I feel like I am floating in space without its stars, a dark calm place that isn’t scary but isn’t inviting either. Counting down from ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. I quickly put my mask on and clear it, the first thing I see is a double thumbs-up, the sign that means, CONGRATULATIONS YOU DID IT!

I had passed with flying colors and even in the bone freezing cold, I was burning with the pride of my accomplishment. After the test my teacher took us on a long tour of the quarry, I went through a sunken helicopter, a school bus, a commercial plane, and rode a motorcycle. Another thing that I found fun was all the fish, the majority of the fish were bigger than my head and they all had super big and bulgy eyes that made me laugh whenever I saw them. 

When we finished the tour I surfaced at the dock and took off the back-breaking gear that I had learned so much about in all the boring lessons I had. I was officially a scuba diver, one of the explorers of the colorful ocean. The lesson I learned from this experience is that I can do anything if I put my mind to it and keep calm.