Hello and welcome back to my slow English podcast.
This story begins in Costa Rica and ends with me getting a tattoo in a car and flying to Thailand.
Have you ever done something so new and so scary that it completely changed your life?
Let me tell you the unforgettable story of my first scuba dive and how it changed the way.
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I met a couple of friends in Costa Rica about two years ago.
They were a French couple.
One of them is a tattoo artist, and she travels the world tattooing her art.
And the other one is a scuba dive instructor.
We got along really well, and I told them in Costa Rica, if you ever come to Mexico, let me know.
And about three months later, they let me know.
They were visiting Mexico, Cozumel, a breathtaking island in the south of Mexico.
So I didn't even hesitate.
I didn't think twice.
I booked my flight and they picked me up at the airport.
We saw the stunning lakes in Bacalar, the lagoon of the seven colors, with seven different shades of blue.
We went canoeing and snorkeling.
Bacalar was such a beautiful place.
And after a couple days there, we began our journey to Cozumel, a stunning island on the coast of Cancun.
My friends drove us all the way to Playa del Carmel, where we took the ferry to the island of Cozumel.
The first thing to do, of course, was to go snorkeling.
We got our snorkeling gear and we drove to the beaches of Cozumel.
I brought my mask. my snorkel and my fins.
Well, I didn't bring fins, but my friends lent me some extra fins that they had brought.
The corals and marine life were impressive to see.
I had never seen anything like that in my life.
It was my first time snorkeling, actually.
Imagine that.
I was about to go scuba diving.
And I hadn't even gone snorkeling yet.
So it was crazy that I got to see one of the most beautiful coral reefs in the whole world for my first time, snorkeling.
It was unforgettable.
I saw fish, corals, octopi, eels, and my personal favorite, sea cucumbers.
They're so cute and squishy.
The next day, we all got ready to go scuba diving.
We read all the precautions and instructions that we had to follow, some important things to know, things that you need to know in case of an emergency and I can't lie, it was nerve-wracking to read all of the dangers of scuba diving.
I was definitely nervous.
Nevertheless, we got on the boat and we drove to our diving spot.
When you get in the water, you start to sink immediately, and since I had weights on me, it made me sink even faster.
We began descending deeper and deeper into the ocean.
My ears started to pop. right away.
So immediately, I had to start unplugging my ears.
To unplug your ears, you cover your nose and blow and blow and blow.
If you stop blowing, Your ears will start hurting, feeling so much pressure.
That to me was the most intense part.
So I was blowing every two seconds while taking deep breaths, calm breaths, to save your energy and oxygen, but it was such a crazy feeling.
I felt weightless underwater, like I was gliding through the water.
Like I could go up and down and around like an airplane in the sky.
I felt like a fish.
It was crazy living like a fish.
Even for just a few moments, being able to really admire the corals, to scrutinize every little detail, I realized it's a whole other world.
It felt like I was visiting another planet with strange creatures, with strange homes.
The ocean is definitely filled with alien creatures.
It made me happy to follow the stingrays and watch an octopus go into his home.
The cuttlefish strolling along the seabed.
The boxfish were the cutest thing I have ever seen.
I got so excited whenever I would see one.
We saw a turtle swimming along the seabed, although it was a little sad.
Howdy howdy ho, and welcome to Fantasy Fan Fellas.
I'm Hayden, producer of the Fantasy Fangirls podcast and your resident lover of all things, Sanderson.
And I'm Steven, your bookish internet goofball, but you can call me the Smash Daddy.
And we are currently deep-diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic, Mistborn.
But here's the catch.
Steven here has not read Mistborn before.
That's right, hey hey.
So each week, you'll get my unfiltered, raw reactions to every single chapter.
And along the way we'll do character deep dives, magic explainers, and Steven will even try to guess what's next.
Spoiler alert, he'll be wrong.
Newsflash, I'm never wrong.
Episodes come out every Wednesday and you can find Fantasy Fan Fellows wherever you get your podcasts.
Seeing her stroll along the lifeless path.
Actually, there were a lot of damaged corals.
I was told that it was a reef graveyard and it looked like a graveyard.
Where it was once vibrant with color and life, it was now colorless and dead.
We soared around the reef for about 30 minutes until it was time to return to the surface.
We reached the surface and I immediately couldn't shut up.
I was bursting with excitement for all of the fish that I saw and the turtle we saw, and the feeling of being underwater.
It was an eye opening moment.
The silence of being underwater, with no sounds other than the corals crackling and the fish swimming around their busy lives.
Just my breath. and nothing else.
No way to communicate other than with your hands.
It was so surreal.
It was a dream come true.
A dream that I didn't know I had.
After that day, I felt like a brand new person.
It felt like I had a new goal and dream to follow.
That day, I remember I couldn't stop being excited for my future.
It was a real turning point in my life.
I made so many significant changes.
In my life.
After that experience, I realized what I wanted to do with my life.
An experience that was nerve wracking in the beginning ended up opening my eyes to an amazing future for me.
The next day, I was feeling so inspired.
I asked my friend if she could tattoo me.
But we had to get back to the mainland in Playa del Carmen for our flight.
So we decided she could tattoo me in the car.
We set up the tattooing gear.
She sanitized everything.
And we set off to our drive to Cancun.
First, she drew my tattoo with a sharpie.
And then she tattooed it.
And all while we took the ferry to the mainland.
She wrapped my tattoo in plastic and They dropped me off at the airport.
I got on my flight to Mexico City and I was picked up by another friend at the airport.
That whole trip was such an eye-opening experience that two days later, when I got home with my parents, I told them that I always wanted to travel to Thailand and that I was going to buy a ticket in November.
Two days before my birthday, they were shocked and a little bit scared.
But they told me to stay safe and have fun.
And I did what I knew I always wanted to do.
Even though sometimes my fear would get the best of me.
That trip inspired me to conquer my fear.
I booked my flights and my hostel and I said goodbye to my friends and my family and I got on my 52 hour flight to Thailand.
Including layovers, of course.
One layover was in Los Angeles, where my cousin picked me up and took me to get donuts and Chinese food.
And then I got on my second flight to South Korea.
Finally, I took my last flight to Bangkok, Thailand.
And the first thing that I did when I arrived was sleep.
I slept so well that night.
And the next morning, I got a massage.
I have never needed a massage more than that day.
My shoulders and neck were killing me, especially after carrying my backpack around for 52 hours.
Anyways, I'll have to make another podcast about my trip to Thailand. in a future lesson.
But it just goes to show that one moment of stepping out of my comfort zone brought me a kind of joy that I didn't know was even possible.
It opened up a whole new world for me.
Now, I want to ask you, have you ever had a life changing or eye opening experience?
Howdy howdy ho, and welcome to Fantasy Fan Fellas.
I'm Hayden, producer of the Fantasy Fangirls podcast and your resident lover of all things, Sanderson.
And I'm Steven, your bookish internet goofball, but you can call me the Smash Daddy.
And we are currently deep-diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic, Mistborn.
But here's the catch.
Steven here has not read Mistborn before.
That's right, hey hey.
So each week, you'll get my unfiltered, raw reactions to every single chapter.
And along the way we'll do character deep dives, magic explainers, and Steven will even try to guess what's next.
Spoiler alert, he'll be wrong.
Newsflash, I'm never wrong.
Episodes come out every Wednesday and you can find Fantasy Fan Fellows wherever you get your podcasts.
A moment when you stepped out of your comfort zone?
If not, what is one dream or life goal that you want to try?
Something that scares you a little bit but excites you a lot.
This is one of my favorite topics.
Life goals are so inspiring to hear about and to talk about.
And I hope that I was able to inspire someone to step out of their comfort zone as well.
Have a wonderful day, and I will see you in the next Slow English Podcast.
