The life lessons I’ve learned as I’ve traveled to French Polynesia have been so powerful. I never set out to be transformed by this beautiful place, but indeed it has had this effect on me and I believe I am better for it.
As a child growing up when the “Jaws” films were popular, I developed a pretty outrageous and somewhat irrational fear of the ocean and sharks in particular. I was so scared of sharks, I would not swim in the pool alone because I was convinced one would swim up the pool drain and attack me!
After traveling to Tahiti a few times and getting comfortable swimming in the warm, transparent, beautiful lagoons, I decided to learn how to scuba-dive. I felt I was probably missing something by not learning how to dive. I began to get pretty curious, although some of that may have been motivated by a gorgeous French dive instructor that I had a crush on. The French dive instructor subject would make for another really good story, but for now, let’s just say a shark attack may have held a slight advantage.
The minute I got under the water on my first dive, a whole new world opened up to me. It was nothing like I had imagined. These sharks were so peaceful and lovely to watch. They had no interest in me and they seemed to be pretty big buddies with the majority of fish they were swimming with. Definitely not the monsters that I imagined them to be. I had been told this many times, but I had to see it for myself.
After that very first dive, I remember coming to the surface and being amazed that I had been so wrong about what I thought life was like under the surface. It was nothing like I thought it would be. It was sublime, peaceful, and bursting with color. The sea life seemed to be living in beautiful unison. This experience made me realize that life holds endless possibilities for us to discover, to learn anew, and to see both the mundane and the extraordinary in a fresh new light. What other areas in life had I assumed were one way and in fact are the very opposite? People, places, and subjects that I may need to look at with a new lens, with more curiosity and without bias.