Critical

We live, work we do.
We go out, risks we take.
In this life game critical situations eventually threaten our senses.
How do we react? Who do we trust?

There have been very few Shocking moments in my life.
This story is about one I experienced with something thousands of people are afraid of: water.
Let me tell you what happened.

When I entered the nature’s paradise all I could think of and was ready for was adventure.
While walking through the Mayan-style entrance I saw several signs portraying (or better put, screaming) fabulous activities like Sea-trek, Snuba (not Scuba), Swim with dolphins, and Feed a shark, among others. Being as promising as they were, how could I not go crazy and do one of them?
So, I said to Mia, alias myself:
“Why don’t we feed a lovely shark? That would be wild.”
“Let’s better try snuba, which offers us a safer and more diverse way of exploring the open sea”.
“Mmm, that’s a good point, ‘cause we would pay to be restrained by a metal cell whose job I cannot complain about. At least snuba looks wilder than the dolphin thing.”
My partner of adventures shared the sexy idea and we both enrolled in the midday program.
It was going to be great, right? All it took was sailing to the reef two-hundred meters away from the shore, getting used to breathe with the oxygen device trapped in the mouth, and diving as deep as seven meters into the ocean. It sounded easy, very easy.

We entertained ourselves with some underground river-swimming and a tropical cocktail until the precious time arrived.

We found a not too-good-looking young instructor putting on a Tight wetsuit and getting ready for the show. I felt the urge to request an explanation for why they didn’t give us wetsuits as well, but then Mia accurately answered my question.
“Yeah, I know it’s almost January, but this is the Caribbean! Warm and fun all year long“.

The instructor decided to break the small talk. “As you have surely noticed, you, the explorer crew, are a complete mix of age, physical appearance and culture; from the little boy whose parents are worried about letting him go (don’t worry, he’ll be safe), to the Mexican girl with the Korean guy as a boyfriend”.
“He’s Japanese! Oh these Mexican pals, unable to tell apart between Asiatic people”.

Regardless of whether we were expert divers or totally unskilled in the art of underwater exploration, everyone had to take the mandatory training before jumping into the boat. Of course, I belonged to the second group. During the training I was presented to the basic diving equipment and to useful manoeuvres. Special attention deserves an item formed by several weights which should act as an aid in the sinking process; without knowing the reason, I found it the most interesting of all. We were taught how to regain clear vision whenever some water would leak through the mask, and finally, I practiced the famous mouth breathing technique with a piece-of-cake confidence. ‘Til that moment, excitement was a great disguise for the fear and nervousness I should had been feeling. I didn’t really know what I was getting into.

When the cool breeze brought by the speed became present, we had to make sure all equipment was in the right place and working properly. Suddenly, the boat was moved only by the surrounding waves. It was time to jump off!
Looking as gracious as I did with the froggy fins I gathered with my 4-person mini group and listened to the last instructions.
“You are all set. Now get into the water and keep an eye on the path I lead. We’ll be gradually gaining depth”.
I did as he said and immersed my whole body. All I had time to do before going back to the surface was looking at my loved one enjoy the process.
I totally freaked out. The confident condition was replaced by an I’m-gonna-die feeling which made me outperform the swimming movements of a dog.
“I do not have enough oxygen! I can’t breathe with my mouth! How can everyone else be so relaxed?”
I tried a second time but it still didn’t work. My anxiousness got to the highest level.
The instructor noticed my difficulties and came to talk to me. “Hi, are you okay? What happened?”
“I can’t do it. I’ll stay here and wait”.
“Oh I know you can do it like the rest of your team. All you have to do is breathe as deeply as you’re able to and I’ll help you go down slowly. Your nose abilities are a bit blocked right now, but there’s more than enough air in that tank to let you enjoy the experience.”
“But I’ve tried, and as soon as my head’s under I get as nervous as I’ve ever been.”
“Trust me. Now, take my hands. We’ll try once more”
My consciousness was dying to trust him, but my instinct told me not. It was too hard to resist.
I took his hands and immersed myself once again.
Keeping eye contact all the time I started to feel panic giving up and easiness taking its place.
One, two, three meters under and there were no air issues.
“Oh my god, I did it!”
And from there, I reached as deep and far as the program let us go.