Moving On

This blog post is going to be a little bit different in comparison to the ones I've done before. There won't be any lists, just me chattering away about how life has been in the last few months, why I haven't been blogging too much and my new goals and ambitions. It's been a perspective changing few months and I've had a really hard time readjusting back to normal life. This is partially why I haven't been blogging too much in the last few weeks either, I don't want to let go of the happiness I felt when I was over in Gran Canaria, I found the lifestyle for me, I found the career path for me and I didn't want to have to face the fact it's over. But this is where that famous quote comes in - "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it's happened." And I'm trying my best to keep smiling because it's happened but it's hard. I've tried to write the blog posts summarising the last few weeks that I was out there but I can never finish them. This will probably be quite a short blog post due to the fact that I just want to complete one and get it out there following such a long hiatus.

So I'm going to try now. Yes, I'm now a PADI certified Dive Master, I finally completed the stress test without killing off Ryan, or completely emptying the tank, I could conduct introductory dives for customers on my own and although there were a few teething errors in the beginning in, I was getting better and better every time. I als achieved something that I thought I never would whilst I was out there. I'm now also a Discover Scuba Diving leader.This means I can conduct the PADI Discover Scuba Diving session by myself now. In order to get this certification I had to conduct 4 DSDs under the supervision of a PADI instructor (Big applause for Sam who saw me through these!) I conducted one in the middle of the 8 weeks, although this was a apart of my Dive master internship to see if I would be interested in being a DSD leader.

To cut a long story short, my next DSD would be to the most difficult customer I would ever face and that was my own Dad (I would also like to add after I had taught my Dad on his DSD, we had the amazing opportunity to see how to teach 5 DSDs at once, thank you to Ryan and Sam for letting me part of that, it's certainly taught me a lot about logistics!). During my last week out in GC I had one hell of surprise when my parents facetime me and then pan the camera round to show me a beautiful picture of Anfi beach behind them. After crying considerably and regaining some composure I ran from patalavaca to Anfi. It was an absolutely amazing experience and I'm truly blessed to have parents as understanding as them - To such an extent they were fully prepared for me to turn around at the end of that week and say I wouldn't be going back with them,

This leads me on nicely to both my short term and long term goals. As much as it was immensely tempting to stay in Gran Canaria and become an instructor, university has to come first and it always will. So my main goal right now is to absolute smash my degree and come out with a first, then at the end of the next two years, I will be ready to go back to Scuba Sur and begin my IDC. However, there are some things I'm ding in the middle now that will keep me ticking over. I'm now a member of the Above and Below dive team here in Hull and I will soon begin assisting them with pool sessions and hopefully out on some dives too! Through them my goal by the end of this academic year and before I go back to gran Canaria for a holiday next year is to become an Assistant Instructor and hopefully get my EFR instructor done too, they're effectively the pre-requisites for becoming a PADI instructor, so I'm doing this in stages, and I really can't wait to see what the next chapter of my life brings. All I know is I've found my calling in life and I will chase it, and nobody will stop me.

My time as a DMT and in the latter stages of the 8 weeks as a DM has been the most educational and thrilling experience of my life, I cannot thank my Scuba Sur family enough for all the individual lessons you taught me. I'm going to end this blog post here for now but I'm settling back into uni life at the moment, waiting for lectures to start - I can't wait to get stuck in! Bring it all on. Until next time, dear reader, be good.