Even the things that scare us the most can be exceptionally beautiful when we take the time to really figure them out.
I found this out over the passed few days while having the opportunity to swim, snorkel, and scuba with sharks and other marine life.
Our first snorkel took place in hol chan, which is apart of the marine reserve in Belize. Belize is the second largest barrier reef in the world behind the Great Barrier in Australia, I have been lucky enough to experience both.
We took a boat to a place called Shark Ray Alley, what you see here is exactly what it's called. Lots of sharks and lots of rays. And when I say lots of sharks I'm talking a lot. Multiples. 10, 20, 30 sharks surround the boat and you are expected to jump in. When we visited this site as a group to snorkel I flipped. In the water and out of the water I was not comfortable at all. I hardly swam with them because I was afraid. I couldn't control my heart rate, it was pumping as fast as ever. Every single person seamed to be fine with the fact that sharks the size of smart cars and bigger were rubbing against us. Was I the only one who was crazy? Or was I the normal one? I couldn't figure it out. They were big, ugly, and non approachable for me. I had no desire to swim, touch, or even really look at them. Every story I had heard with a shark always ended in disaster.
The next snorkel trip we took was at night. Back to hol chan. We had seen sharks here before so I was nervous about what we would see at night. We were given flash lights and waited until the sun went down before we explored. I have never seen something at night more beautiful then what I saw out there on the reefs. Lobster, octopus, eels, sharks, turtles, and all of the oceans beautiful creatures came out that night and it was mesmerizing.
The next morning Ms. Prissy and I, a doctorate student set out for a two tank dive just passed the reefs. The first dive was at tackle box reef. I knew there were going to be sharks but I was planning on doing my best to avoid them. Before we jumped in I noticed our dive master filling up his canister with dead fish so that all the others would follow and feed off of it during our dive. This terrified me! I wanted to see what was down there but I didn't want to be touching any sharks. As soon as we made our way down 2 nurse sharks starting following our group. I hesitated. But then I noticed how gentile the sharks were being with everyone in our group, they just rode along with us and didn't bother anyone. As I got closer I started laughing and smiling underwater. There were many times when I had to remind my self to breathe because I had forgotten that I was under water with a limited air supply.
The sharks were absolutely beautiful. I had never given them any attention or stopped to give them a chance. They were a beautiful disaster.
On this trip I learned to face my fears and to also take advantage of what is right in front of you, because everything else in life is uncertain.
There is beauty in everything, just not everyone can see it, and when you stop looking at the flaws you can see the beauty in everything.
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