A couple of signatures and evaluations to be signed off, and I can officially call myself a PADI Divemaster.
It was not easy at all to reach this point. It was an uphill trek, with so many obstacles in the way, but I
persevered. Not without my fair share of blood sweat, and metaphorical tears... MEN dont cry.. Can I call myself a man yet? Man-child it is I guess.
Looking back at the debriefs, ear chewings, I can say they were completely necessary. We go through life making mistakes and people tend to just brush it off , and maybe let you know in the nicest way possible, but I am beginning to understand the methodology of it all.
When you make a mistake, and someone like Pete, or Melissa make it abundantly clear that you should be beyond making errors of that caliber, it stings like a hot iron. This iron leaves that mental scar, and you are about 98 percent less likely to make that mistake again, unless you are "thick" as it is known amongst some circles :)
The blunt harshness of it all, in the end , produces long lasting competent workers, who will hopefully carry this work ethic into their future careers.
I really am grateful to Pete, Melissa, Alice, and Will for their bluntness. At first I was a little taken aback by
it, but then I began to adapt , and realize this is life, its not a game, time to grow up and just pay attention.
Of course there is time for fun and games, theres a time and place for everything, and at the end of the day work is work, and must be treated with the utmost attention to detail, meticulous, and thorough, no stone unturned.
One dive stuck with me on week 7 and it was the dive I led at Poco Naufragio. This has nothing to do with the fact that I led the dive, yes that was cool, but I saw a Remora (live shark sucker). It is honestly a
truly beautiful fish. The coolest part about seeing a solitary remora is that it was just swimming around trying to find a host to attach itself too.
It kept swimming around us the divers probably in hopes of just attaching itself to one of us. Apparently it was quite fond of one intern in particular's ( will aka Nemo).
The truly magnificent part of the sighting was when we were about 2 minutes from resurfacing, impeccable timing a massive round sting ray shows up, and like it was planned the remora attached itself to the ray, and they swam off together. To witness the actual symbiotic relationship forming is truly and experience I never thought I would behold. The relationship in the commensalism category ( the host gains nothing or very little) is something that benefits the remora, and does nothing much for the ray.
Its just something I am curious to know the origins of. The Remora, gains a free ride, and shelter, but at what point did this fish develop this innate trait? The sucker the fish develops is specifically to attach itself, so tracking the lineage and origins of this disc is something I am going to have to check out.
Well I am almost a DM! time to get the sweet T-shirt hopefully , all is swell in my universe.
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