What comes to your mind when you hear „go places, meet people, do things“? Possibly, this slogan used by PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) left diving students all over the world way more confused than inspired to continue their diving education. Or is it just our imagination running wild when imagining to „do things“ …
Anyway, if you continue the diving path, possibly all the way to the professional level no matter which organisation you choose, that’s what to expect: Go places, meet people, do things.
What to do?
„Go places, meet people, do things“ strangely enough fitted the beginning of my diving adventure very well. After all, I went to Alona Beach where I met Yoeri and we were definitely doing things (Endlich richtig abtauchen). On top of that diving turned out to be my thing too. In the end, we all go places, meet people, do things constantly. In some cases, the things shall not be named. Most likely that is the full power of the slogan, everybody can project their wildest dreams as well as their daily life into the phrase.
Since early 2020 „go places, meet people, do things“ isn’t the same anymore. For those (non-)divers longing for their lives abroad, it sounds rather cynical, and for others possibly even dangerous. No place for nobody. Even in our own four walls, we weren’t allowed to meet people, no matter the thing we were planning to do. It was never so easy to be illegal, especially as rules and regulations, e.g. how many people were allowed to come together, kept changing constantly – at least in Germany and the Netherlands.
Go places
That’s still the case with regard to travelling. While many countries in the EU opened up, other parts of the world stay completely out of reach. We are more than happy we have (almost) everything prepared and organised to go not just to any place but the beautiful island St. Eustatius (Go Statia! Why visit this Dutch Caribbean island). Another winter landlocked would most definitely have been too much, even if we’d get ice and snow guaranteed (Dutch wintry landscape: Ice-capades).
Sint Eustatius is a special municipality in the Netherlands. Nevertheless, there is separate travel advice regarding overseas territories. Weirdly enough, Statia was put on code green already a while ago but only opens up for diving and other „things“ in August. The Statian government puts together up-to-date travel advice on Covid-19. Just now they got their first confirmed case of corona on the island. All this time Statians could meet and do things without all the social distancing rules. We are looking forward to diving right into this island life.
Travel regulations are more strict than a year ago, at least for us coming from Bali (Heimkehr: Rück- und Ausblicke über den Maskenrand). We just had our PCR test done today and as soon as the results are in we have to register online (Electronic Health Autorization System) – not only for Sint Eustatius, but also Sint Maarten as we are travelling through there. If you are not vaccinated yet, you have to go through 10 days of quarantine. Unlike some other airlines, KLM just announced they will continue to offer flights also to people who aren’t vaccinated.
Meet people
In any case, we are looking forward to stepping out of the digital cocoon and into real life again. The question is will it be easier to meet people now because we are all longing for social contact so much? Are we more empathic and understand the challenges others have been through? Or will people keep avoiding each other? After all, anybody (even your loved ones) could be a potential health risk. The choice is ours.
With regards to Statia, we have high hopes and shall simply meet and greet all our islanders, knowing that the answer of some will simply be „ja, man“. But it comes with a smile. We are looking forward to the wonderful company as we are going to work in a dive centre again, and connect with the ocean once more (Unter Schutz stellen).
Actually, meeting people is a big part of diving and keeps our surface intervals interesting (Miteinander, ob gleichgesinnt oder andersartig). With Statia, we finally have a home base again where fellow divers (and non-divers) can come and join us in doing things.
Do things
Diving, diving, diving. Yes, we have other things on our minds too, but diving is ranking very high as our all-time favourite (Warum ich tauchen liebe). We dive to feel alive, to connect and protect. We dive to evolve and grow – from skills and knowledge to respect and love. We dive because we have lost our hearts to the ocean, only to find new levels of depth in our souls. Diving nurtures us and even wires our minds in new ways. We can’t imagine a fulfilling life without the ocean.
As we will work in a dive centre, we should be sorted with fuelling our passion. It would be our pleasure to introduce you to our world. With diving deluxe, we invite you to join us in our aquatic world (Diving deluxe: With love and devotion). Our philosophy – in diving or in life – is to do everything with love and devotion. When diving, we experience nature all around us and peace within us. The ocean makes us feel at home and whole. Our diving deluxe is sensual as well as educational.
Personally, I am looking very much forward to driving boats too. Finally, I will be captain. In July, we passed the theoretical and practical exams in Germany and got our skipper’s licence (Sportbootführerschein See und Binnen). Now the ocean is truly ours. After all, this adds a whole new dimension to „go places“.
Where do you want to go? Who do you want to meet? And what are the things to do in 2021 and beyond?
Not sure yet? Just „Take a Minute to Relax“ (or multiple)
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