Friday, February 21, 2014

I Only Do Selfie when I'm Underwater



Friday night, it's past my usual sleeping time but I can't sleep. I wanted to get drunk and feel good for the night but that will make me feel horrible the entire day after. I already did that last Tuesday. Once is not a crime. Twice is punishable by death.

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I got my PADI diving license today. It has been sitting in Liloan's post office for two months now. If I didn't drag myself there on my cousin's 24" mini-mountain bike, I would have had no idea I've had my licence for so long now. The postman does not seem to care whether people get their mail or not. I feel like singing a Karen Carpenter song right now but that won't make him deliver mails more promptly I guess.

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Falling off a bike is tragic. But nothing can ever prepare me for my own tragedy of being unable to swim. I have been trying to do swimming lessons. I can do everything perfectly when I'm underwater (like, not on the surface of the pool). But when I execute those kicks on the surface, my knees would bend all over. I can't do things right on the surface. I could be a mermaid.

PS: I know how to swim like swim swim. But I can't swim the way those water-ripping, body-propelling strokes that triathletes do.

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I am hoping to go to Panglao next weekend to do my advanced open water course. I cannot afford all the diving I do by myself so I am thankful to the good people who support me. I will repay them by growing gills so I won't have to rent a tank ever again.

At first, I hated diving and the only thing that kept me going through my open water course was self-conceit. When I panicked during the emergency ascent drill, my dive master gave me one very simple advice: man up.

I have manned up (man upped?? grammar help!) since then and now I love diving so much I plan to move underwater. I just don't know how aquatic real estate works though. One more thing, I only do selfie when I'm underwater.

2 comments:

Adrenaline Romance said...

Nice one, Bal! We should dive sometime.

Have you tried diving in Apo Island? The reefs are truly spectacular!

Bal Marsius said...

I was there a few months ago. I took a day's break during my rescue diver course because there was a boat headed to the Island and I hopped in. Which dive points did you go to?

Bal Marsius