The thought of my lungs exploding wastormenting me. I kept repeating, "Never stop breathing,never stop breathing." My classmates and I waitedanxiously in the boat until it was our time to dive. I watchedthe faces of my classmates. Jenna, my cousin, came up from herfirst dive and tumbled into the boat saying, "I freakedout, it was so scary. I couldn't clear my mask. I tried aboutfive times and I just couldn't do it. It was so scary!"Another classmate consoled her, "Don't worry, I couldn'tequalize and Sheila didn't even make it to the oceanfloor." These were not the words of encouragement I washoping to hear seconds before my first dive.

It was myturn. I had to remain calm and follow all of my instructor'sdirections. Fully clad in my thick, hot wet suit and scubagear, I reached for my pressure gauge and octopus. I held mymask to my face; there was no turning back. I took a deepbreath and stepped off the boat.

The cold Atlanticbubbled around me. I bobbed to the surface and held up theokay signal, showing everyone on the boat that I was fine. Iwaited anxiously for my diving buddy, Lauren. Together westayed at the surface, getting used to breathing through ourregulators, which was scary yet neat at the same time. Ialways thought I was going to breathe in water. Our trainertold us to go down to Eddie, our head instructor on the oceanfloor. I released air from my Bouyancy Control Device, whichallowed me to sink. I remembered I had to equalize my nose andears, meaning I would have to release all pressure in my noseand ears. Going down I controlled my thoughts and began toequalize. The closer I got to the ocean floor, the colder thewater got.

Finally, I saw Eddie. We signaled the okaysign with our hands. I established neutral bouyancy, whilewatching Lauren prepare for testing. We looked at one anotherand tried to resist laughing. We looked so funny.

Iwill never forget the thoughts that ran through my head whilewatching lobsters and crabs scuttle through the sand. I feltso relaxed and relieved that I made it to the bottom. I had topay close attention to my instructor, who was using code totell me the tasks I would be doing during the test. I justwanted to go off on my own and explore the wonderful newworld.

I continued my test. All the things we practicedin the classroom had to be done now, except this time therewas no room for mistakes. Taking off my mask and putting itback on, then clearing the water out, while still underwaterwas a little tricky. We also performed buddy breathing andcontrol emergency ascent. I finished my dive and testing andwas signaled to head back up to the boat so my otherclassmates could take their dive.

I will never forgetwhat it was like coming up from the ocean floor. At the bottomof the ocean it was dark and cold; closer to the surface thewater became warmer and a lot brighter. It felt like enteringHeaven or something because all of a sudden I saw rays oflights - it was beautiful. All I wanted to do was dive.

The rest of the day was all classwork, but thefollowing day we dove again. The second time was just asexciting as the first. After the second day of testing I was acertified PADI SCUBA DIVER. Diving is such a powerful and funadventure. I can't wait to dive again and discover more aboutthe underwater world and SCUBA DIVING.