Adventures a world away

Andi Minter, a sophomore at Memorial High School, was hesitant to try scuba diving at first, but found she loves the adventure.

Ever since I was a little girl, my dad has encouraged me to try new things and step out of my comfort zone. Whether in the form of edible crickets or a tandem bungee swing off a 300-foot bridge at Victoria Falls, life with him is an adventure. When he first suggested scuba diving I was hesitant. But, my dad’s been diving since his early 20s and was determined to share his passion with the rest of our family.

In the summer of 2011, my family traveled to Hawaii for a two-week vacation – one week on the Big Island and one week in Kauai, the “garden island.” My dad, still persistent in his efforts to get me underwater, signed me up for a resort dive within hours of our arrival. Before the first dive, I had to take a required safety course in which they covered everything from tank setup to numerous hand signals required for underwater communication, to clearing the mask and learning how to safely ascend.

All of the equipment and safety precautions did a pretty good job of shaking my already rattled nerves, but my fears melted away when I stepped in the water on our first dive. It honestly feels like I am in a completely different world when surrounded by the breathtaking variety of exotic fish and coral. However, the best part, by far, is the pure tranquility of just being underwater. The beauty and serenity is addicting. That dive is, to this day, one of the most incredible I’ve ever experienced. We saw moray eels, lobsters, an octopus (which we got to hold) and a blacktip shark (which we did not hold).

Since that first experience, I have gotten fully certified and have been on quite a few subsequent dive trips including Aruba and Grand Cayman. Diving has had a profound impact on me. I have learned to seek out and truly appreciate the beauty in the world around me, because one never knows what adventures could be waiting just beneath the surface.

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