My head was under water and I was not feeling good. My whole body was surrounded by the water and it was hard to take a normal breath. I was too afraid to open my eyes during the way down to 18m underwater. With the depth increased, the lightness started to disappear and temperature of water dropped. Holding the hand of my diving partner was not helpful to get rid of the terrified feelings.
“It’s OK,” I heard my partner saying, “Open your eyes, look how beautiful the scene around you” I trusted her and followed, opening my eyes slowly and couldn’t believe it was real. My knees lay on the soft sands of the bottom, the coral thickets were next to my feet and colorful fishes that I was unable to name past between my fingers when I lifted my hands up. Sunshine reflected on the water beside me, converging into small spots. I felt that the gate to a wonderful underwater world opened for me. The fear had gone and all the left was excitement and curiosity to begin a new adventure.
I still kept that clear memory of my first dive in the sea of Bali island. It was the first time I felt in the hug of the sea, not just on the surface but being embraced by seawater. One more time, I learned another skill from the sea. However, diving is not the first lesson I was taught by the life guide, sea. I first learned how to swim in the shallow seawater in Dalian, China at the age of six. My parents took me there to spend vacations, in which I spent most of the days with my two teachers before school: mum and sea. I was the so-called child who was born beside the sea and grew up in the sea. Mum taught me what swimming and building a sand castle was and sea helped me to learn them in the quickest way. Sea was a strict teacher with a soft heart just like my mum. Mum taught me how to calm down when problems came, in the meantime sea showed me what was calm when storms and winds came.
Every time I get close to sea or water recalls me a lesson when I was in the primary school, I read a Chinese saying about sea which led me to many answers to life obstacles even till now: All rivers run in sea, wide heart embraces all. Like trusting my partner during diving totally, I try my best to keep faith in people around me and treat them nicely. What sea taught me was kindness and forgiveness. Not like a tough and adamant stone, my heart is like flowing water that has self-healing power. Water will not be destroyed even if someone tried to hurt it. It will return to the same after the knife that stuck in left.
