Each summer morning, when I was 8 years old in a southern Minnesota farming community, I would eat breakfast and roll up my swimsuit and towel, strap it onto the handlebar of my 24 inch red coaster bicycle, and ride the gravel farm roads 8 miles into town to take swimming lessons at Tourtellotte Pool.
I still have vivid memories of the cold air on my face riding those empty roads in the early morning hours past corn and soybean fields, thinking about how cold the water would be, but how I loved the 8 AM swimming lessons.
As my swimming ability progressed over the summer, I advanced into deeper water, eventually reaching the 12 foot deep end, where we were introduced to the heavy black rubber covered brick weights to be retrieved from the bottom of the pool.
The black rubber brick weighed no more than 5 pounds, but I was a skinny little kid with no buoyancy, and try as I might, I could not swim up with the brick.
Every morning as I rode my bike into town, I had visions of successfully bringing the brick up and as I rode home each day, I carried my failure back home with me.
I failed the last advanced swimming class that Summer and each Summer until I was 11, when I had grown some muscle and was more buoyant; but I never gave up or became disillusioned in my dream to retrieve the brick.
This past year, while progressing through the PADI Divemaster course, I broke several toe bones in my left foot.... it was painful to walk, to stand, to wear shoes or fins, and to propel myself through the water; but I remembered the cold wind on my face riding my bike into certain failure each morning and not giving up.
I pushed through the pain and achieved my Divemaster certification last November in Bonaire.
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This will be my Second SD trip, following a St Kitts trip. I'll be on for both weeks and will enjoy seeing the top and bottom of Maldives dive circuits.
I'll be spending 2 days at the Hotel attacking my jet lag and look forward to meeting you then.
Personal regards, Nick
Edited by TwoWheelGuy, 08 January 2017 - 09:47 AM.