Things I Learned This Year of Being Alive

It has been a very good year, and that makes this a rather long piece. Every year, after my birthday, I reflect and try to write about what I learned. My life lessons lists seem to be getting longer. What a fabulous trend! A lot of what I learned this year is centered around being in the water... and for a good reason: Tim and I completed the PADI Divemaster training as well as the Instructor training and are now working in Borneo as Scuba Diving Instructors. DREAM JOB!  I lived on six different islands in Asia this year!

 

I worked closely with people from 17 different countries, and had to cater my teaching style around different languages, learning styles and religions. For example, I met two wonderful Muslim people whom I was not allowed to touch. Try teaching someone how to scuba dive without being able to touch to aid, correct, assist or demonstrate the elements of a skill. It is possible, just very different.

There were months in a row where I was only dry for 10% of the day.

I drove a scooter on the wrong side of the road because that’s the custom in Thailand. I rode an elephant up to visit remote hill tribes in the jungle.

I stayed out past midnight with my father. Walking in the moonlight around an ancient Buddhist temple.

 

I went surfing in Bali. Dug my shoe out from an Indonesian mudslide during an epic storm. Had lunch in Vietnam with my best friend.

I gave up my phone and car and managed to somehow appreciate my friends and family even more than I did when they were reachable by phone or car.

 

I learned a lot about what I don’t need and what I really do need. I don’t need a cell phone, a car, a couch, an oven or a mirror. I do need my passport, clothes with pockets, swim suit bottoms that fit, friends and family, quality coffee and good shoes.


I lost 3 pairs of sunglasses, 22 pounds, and 2 water bottles. I gained treasured memories, unique experiences, a new last name, and a beautiful array of friends around the world and connections on almost every continent.

Things I learned this year of being alive…in no apparent order…

Shrimp love to clean. If you put your hands out by them and hold very still, they will hop on and move around your fingernails picking off any dead skin or debris. Shrimp manicure!

The male Frog fish is significantly smaller than the female. When he meets the right girl, he attaches himself to her back and in time, grows in. A flap of skin grows over him and he spends the rest of his life inside her, communicating with her chemically. When she feels it is that special time, she releases a hormone into her bloodstream and he in turn releases sperm to fertilize her eggs. I have met guys that really grow on you, but frog fish take it to a whole new level. 

I learned how to swim - and actually get somewhere! Like another island off the coast. And back. Without stopping.

How to tie a bowline, a double half hitch and the sheet bend knots. With my eyes closed. Underwater. And then later, how to teach students to tie them.

That when you go several years without eating something you disliked, if you try it again you may love it. Like Watermelon.

That hydro flasks loose their thermal quality when you drop them repeatedly.

That a teacher-student relationship is just that: a relationship. An unhealthy relationship (with your instructor) can make you doubt yourself and begin to minimize your self esteem. Through this, I learned how I want to show up as a teacher. And later, from my students, I received feedback and learned that I show up as patient, enthusiastic instructor, and have earned the nickname “Super Safe Sara.” I like that.

I learned when to tell my students to give themselves permission to give up. Sometimes something just isn’t for you, no matter how your boyfriend, parents, friends or fellow students think it is. Put your energy where you really want to - and don’t waste time giving yourself a guilt trip over it. It’s okay to give up and walk away from things. 
 
The skill that I found hardest when I was learning to dive 6 years ago was removing and replacing my mask. Water used to sting my eyes. It still does, it just isn’t dehabilitating now. I learned how to become so comfortable with my mask off that I can make it look easy swimming without it underwater and replacing it.

That the best thing I can do when in transition is trust. And keep moving forward.

That if I want a birthday to be special, or epic, or enjoyable, I actually have to plan it to be that way and act on that plan. I suppose life is like that too. If you are disappointed with how things are, plan something different. Ask for what you want. Make it happen yourself. No one else, no other outside circumstances are going to make it epic. Just you. So stop waiting and plan something amazing!

I have known there are sacred beautiful things in the world, things I seek out, longing to be near or just to glimpse and this year I learned there are people who are overjoyed to destroy them. And I have opened my mind to see their side and understand why.

 

I have learned that yes, you can tell your friends everything... but you may regret it. So think it through first! Ask - does this need to be said? Does this need to be said by me? Does this need to be said by me right now?

I saw my first epileptic fit this year, and learned seizures can last for hours straight. And I was reminded afterwards, after the hospital releases them, that all those people want is to be treated normally, like it never happened. Not as fragile or weak or as victims. Treat them like normal people and find them a turtle and you make their day.

I learned that at rest, a turtle can hold its breath for five hours, slowing its heartbeat to once every two minutes or more!

I learned that mango makes an excellent pizza topping when combined with chicken, red peppers and cheese.

When I was in college, I wanted to be an elementary school teacher. I used to think the hardest part about teaching children would be seeing the signs and aftermath emotionally/physically/mentally of abuse. It's part of why I chose not to teach children. This year I learned every student - no matter what age - has a young child inside them. And yes, that is the hardest thing I have encountered while teaching. My reminder to them was: You forgive someone for you. Not because they deserve it, but because you deserve peace.

I learned that who you are reflects in whatever you do. The qualities that made me a good barista also make me a good dive instructor. Being patient and kind with people, always doing my best, attention to detail, going above people’s expectations - I realized that I create an environment just by how I show up. See, a room is a room but you make it comfortable for others or awkward for others by what you bring to it. In essence, you are the room - you are the space and whatever career you choose to do has the same output effect because of who you are as a person. Different job, different work attire, different country, same self. 

After loosing 22 pounds in 7 months on the Dive Professional diet, I learned that if you loose a high percentage of your body fat, it actually alters your chemical makeup and hormonal balance. I learned peanut butter will help restore this chemical balance in the body.

Visualization is instant manifesting underwater: When you think “up,” you actually move up!   When my students see a turtle above them, they look up and watch it, unaware they are all rising. (If only that worked on land! It is true diving is as close to being able to fly as I have ever been.)

I have experienced what it is like to get a custom made silk dress created just for me. No surprise that it fits like a glove. Now that kind of shopping - getting measured and fitted with your best friend in a store where their first language is Vietnamese - selecting shades of silk and embroidery patterns - that kind of shopping is actually fun!

This year, I was publicly shamed for assisting a life less fortunate than mine. Without thinking first, I automatically showed kindness to a suffering being, and was looked down upon for it, was told to stop several times by others. I let this go, because really its not between them and me. Keep being kind even when you are told not to, keep being friendly even when you are shot down, keep being yourself even if it doesn’t culturally fit the mold. Being authentic is important, and kindness is one of the best things we do.

Surrender leads to peace. I had to surrender the things I could not control - like when the water would come back on in our apartment, or when the ferry was going to run again, when the bus was going to come, to accept I couldn’t change difficult cultural habits of littering and would just have to keep picking up plastics, walking through trash. Other things are important details that I should control - like making sure my new student connected their air hose before they roll backwards off the boat into the water.

I can’t control a lot of things, but I can control my disposition, my focus, and my attitude. Show up alert, paying attention, making eye contact, and warmly greet the same grumpy staff member morning after morning.

I learned that being with the right person is magic. And that things that are supposed to happen go smoothly, even big things, even at the last minute.

I have learned when to act. Knowing when to let people self-correct, and when to swim over to them and dump the air out of their buoyancy control device to stop their rapid ascent. Know when to give them more time to find their breathing apparatus that is dangling over their shoulder and when to give them my own alternate to breathe from. To see what is going to be a danger if left un-controlled, and what is just someone exercising their own power of choice. A sweet girl named Maggie thanked me several times for saving her life at 60 feet deep. I don’t know if it was life saving as much as it was knowing when to act.

This year I have had more teachers than ever before and I am grateful to them. I am grateful to all my instructors, my course directors and evaluators, and my students.



I started out as a student, learning from teachers, then became a teacher shadowing more experienced teachers. And then started teaching where every class made me reevaluate what I would do differently the next time, learning how I could have more prior proper planning to manage my time. And then, after many classes I ended the year being requested by students, showing I had become good enough at what I do that people choose me, ask for me. That is a great honor! What is that they call it in the dive industry? …ah yes, “zero to hero.” If you want it, ask for it, pursue it. Be yourself and do your best and you do become, in your own story (and sometimes others) the hero.

 

 

Reef Clean

 “Don’t you get exhausted, after doing this for two years? Don’t you feel overwhelmed, like the problem is just too big to do anything about?” Someone asked our group leader, Dave.

“I’m just more reasonable than I was two years ago,” Dave replied. “Instead of setting huge goals for others, I just focus on what change I can personally bring about.”

Today we are a group of seven individuals working where we can make a difference and I have to agree with Dave - there is so much out there that needs changing, there will always be duality, there is much suffering, and if you focus on it as a whole, it can lead to deep depression and feeling powerless. But if you focus on what is in front of you and know where you can affect change and just stick to that, it puts the problem into workable terms. Reminds me of that Serenity prayer: "God give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."

During beach cleans and reef cleans, we work on reducing the trash problem in our home ocean: the Celebes Sea off the coast of Borneo, Malaysia. I know somewhere out there is a documented island of garbage floating in the Pacific Ocean - a huge mass of plastic and rubbish the size of Texas. But here, in Semporna, there is just everyday litter - just people who do not understand that some things like plastic lids and straws and styrofoam containers will not degrade in their lifetime. Plastic bags float down the street as I cross it to come to work at the dive shop. I step over sewage as I carry our dive gear to the boat. I hold my breath as I pass the rotten food and damp clothing and piles of wet plastic shopping bags on the side of the jetty. I try not to look at what is floating in the water as I warn our customers to watch their step and try to guide them around piles of human waste where our boats pull up. It took weeks to get used to this, and now I still don’t like it, but Semporna is my home and it just melds somehow.

Last week I chipped in with two hundred local Malaysians to clean up their city. The guest speaker gave a very inspirational speech about how with our efforts, we could “save Semporna!” People cheered, and readily accepted plastic bags and pulled gardening gloves out of their plastic wrappers and dropped the wrappers on the ground. As I watched the plastic pile up around our feet, I realized that these people really have no idea what litter is. Sure enough, as we made our way into the separate zones of the city to collect litter and clean the city, the team of people I had been placed with cheerily collected sticks and swept leaves into piles and bagged them - ignoring the cans, fishing line, cigarette packs and straws on the ground. I did my part to gently explain what we really were hoping to collect.  After seeing me wading in to collect handfuls of Pepsi bottles from the sea, my cleaning companions started to understand.  Four hours and a lot of hot labor later, the city did indeed look better. And, well, that was last week. 

 

 

 This week, the city has returned to its normal state and I ask myself, 'are you exhausted, do you feel overwhelmed, like the problem is too big to do anything about?'

No. Because after walking the customers around land mines to the jetty and fitting them in life jackets, the boat leaves Semporna and crosses a strait of hope, past five different islands, some large enough to have three trees only, others wild with jungle. The ocean we dive in here is alive and well. The creatures are thriving and beautiful and teaching diving is my dream job. Sure, our boats have to stop every half an hour to untangle plastic bags from the motors, but then we are off again on our way to the island of Mabul. And today, our team of seven are not guiding trips or teaching classes. We are devoting our day and three dives to making a difference doing Reef Cleans and Beach Cleans.

Reef clean involves the same burlap sacks that bulk beans and rice come in, one neoprene glove, and an hour diving underwater. We drop in at Pan Lima, on the tip of Mabul where the currents converge and bring floating garbage from both sides of the island and where the Semporna drift empties out.
 

 

 

It is awkward at first - trying to swim with a huge white bag acting as a sail on one side of me - trying to grab water bottles and beer cans without touching the reef around them and struggling to open the bag to put in my collections as the current pushes it closed. But then, after a few minutes, I adjust and find a stystem using my metal rod to pull up coffee packets and plastic bags and point them into the bag.

 

After it fills halfway, I set my heavy bag it on a patch of sand where it will not be crushing any delicate aquatic life and make trips back and forth. We work in buddy teams, picking up diapers, coke bottles, lids, straws, books, clothes, right shoes and Styrofoam. We gently untangle fishing lines and cut them away from the coral. Turtles cast us sideways looks. Tiny fish who have made their home in a diaper argue with me but move on. Our rule is to do more good than harm and if anything has become a part of the reef, we leave it. Anything that is growing and supporting life can stay.

 The hour goes by quickly, and following our plan, our team of divers moves to a depth of fifteen feet on a sandy strait to stack our bags and shoot up a signal marker buoy for our boat and do a group ascent.


My bag is bulky and heavy and the ascent is slow, but I am proud of that. The captain smiles and helps us lift the bags out of the water and we back away as they drain over the side to reduce weight.
 Then after lunch we go out for another round. By the end of our second dive, the site truly is looking better - more natural without shiny reflective satchets or bags clinging to it.

 

 

This is Reef clean and I absolutely love it. I adore this ocean so much and yearn to caretake it. I see it as the treasure the local people haven’t yet learned to. So that makes me the obvious candidate for conservation. I love working for a company whose values match up to mine - Scuba Junkie does reef clean projects and beach cleans every single week. They are the only resort on Mabul that transports trash off the island, and pay close to 70,000 dollars a year to transport collected rubbish to recycling centers and landfills. I am proud to be a part of an organization that finds the environment worthy of time and attention. So, sure, somewhere out there is a huge floating island of trash the size of Texas, but on my boat we have seven bags full and we are going back for more.