First, let me share my experience when I went to dive for the first time.
Only on my second day of diving, I couldn’t equalize my ear pressure due to rhinitis. After several descending failures, I had to inflate my buoyancy control device and scented to the surface. That was disappointing but the real disaster was yet to come. By the moment I stuck my head out of the water, it was like two doors crushing my head and my nose felt like out of function. Oscar, my instructor from Spain, immediately took me to the dive shop and gave me a pillow and a can of gum which served as a temporary painkiller. I felt dizzy and was very much scared. It seemed the local taxi was blocked by the narrow street, so Oscar transported me with his little motorbike to the hospital. After several hours of observation, the doctor gave me some colorful bottles and warned me to rest for a few days. That night was a long night. The pain was killing me and since the inconvenience brought by rhinitis was inevitable, I was frustrated and wanted to give up. The next morning, Oscar came to visit me when the sun was about to rise. He wanted to check whether I was fine and worried that I would lose the interest. “You know, son, learning to dive is such a wonderful thing that I will never regret.” As the sun was rising from his back, he continued, “I hope you will get better and come back to the sea soon.” Then he gave me two days off and got on his little motorbike, leaving the warmth of morning sunshine to climb on my face. I recollected what I had seen under the sea. The corals with groups of unfamiliar fish, caves with clusters of sea hares inhabiting on the rocks, sea anemones with a family of clownfish (we call them Nemo because of the famous Disney movie: Finding Ne mo). All these gorgeous creatures gathered and established a world so different from the one on land. “You want to explore these magic territories.” A voice echoed in my head. Two days later, I went back to the dive shop where Oscar prepared a party to welcome my return. Then he elaborately selected four most impressive spots and four dives were done that day. We were exhausted yet we had a great time underwater. We witnessed tuna storm, turtle and groups of fish with teeth like human (later I found it’s termed Bolbometopon muricatum and listed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species). At last, I took a picture with Oscar and bought a shirt from his dive shop. Suddenly a sense of gratefulness overwhelming my mind, I realized how much I love diving and how much I want to explore the beauty of nature. I mustn’t stop, I must move on.