Location: Great Harbour Peter, British Virgin Islands
I’m back! And boy, do I have a lot I can tell this time. It was a pretty low-energy day today, but there were still a lot of things happening, and of course, we made our own additional excitement just like every other day.
I wanted to do something different and peaceful this morning. To wake people up how I would like to be woken up if I wasn’t such a heavy sleeper. I walked up to every single person and individually kindly said their name followed by a lighthearted good morning and a friendly smile.
So, only a few things actually happened. We were offered an optional dive today that only a few people ended up going on, which is a shame because I heard it was great! Michael, Peyton, and Evan ended up going to this wreck called The Fearless. I heard it was amazing, and Evan especially seemed to really enjoy it. The funny thing is that Michael told me was that they didn’t actually know the precise location of the wreck. Michael had a relative idea of where it was but wasn’t sure exactly, so they pretty much got really lucky and were able to find their way there! Eliza and Mariah also went diving today to finish part of their training, but other than those people, everyone else stayed relatively on the boat.
I know it sounds like we let it slip by us, but we really had to crack down on studying today. We were given a lot of study time, and the dive was optional, so many people took the opportunity to study and finish their research papers, which were due today. We had to have our papers done by dinner, and we had a quiz right after dinner. Also, we have our Nav Master Exam tomorrow, so there was a lot to go over.
When some of us were studying for our Nav Master Exam, it got really windy and blew the answer sheet off the boat. Sage was using it, and so she climbed over the edge and jumped in after it. It was pretty funny, considering it wasn’t usable since it’s paper.
Everyone was in study mode today until they ran out of brainpower for the time being. People used that recharge time to jump in the water. Somehow it eventually turned into a flipping session where people were trying their best to do a back or front flip off the boat and those who didn’t know how we were being taught. It was actually really fun, and it was a good way to take a mental break. Owen especially was trying his hardest to accomplish a full backflip from numerous positions. It was quite inspiring and hilarious to watch, considering it was very small progress each time. It went from not even rotating to just past halfway. Honestly, that was impressive progress to me since I can’t even come close.
The day ended out fairly well and kind of just like usual late dinner and right to class. I had a relatively good day, and I don’t know about everyone else, but I felt very productive today, and it felt great to have that research paper turned in finally.
We were given cards today. It was inspired by the story of a boy and his teacher who, when everyone was stressed, gave everyone cards and told everyone in the class the genuinely write what they liked about each person on their card. Everyone took it seriously, and they did it for the rest of their class. The boy and the teacher had the relationship of a meddling-but-sincere-child and a kind-and-well-meaning-adult. One day far in the future, the teacher remembered the boy when she got picked up from the airport on her way home. The teacher asked about the boy only to find out his life had been lost and that they wanted her to attend the funeral. At the funeral, she was confronted by the parents and thanked because the boy always talked about her and kept the letter his classmates had written for him close to his person at all times and that it meant a lot to him. Slowly but surely, his classmates started to come forward and say that they still have and look at their cards, each in a personal and accessible place.
I know I’m missing some details, but that was the general gist, and that’s where this idea for us to write cards came from. Essentially we have to write a card to each person on the boat and say what we liked about them and what we enjoyed about our time together. I am actually really looking forward to this because I feel as if I have a lot of things I’d like to say to everyone here. Everyone has been amazing, and it has been wonderful getting to know all of them. Of course, I have some special thank you’s I feel like I need to say to some people, and I hope they know that I really mean thank you when I say it.
Because of this, I decided for my squeeze question to be to say to someone or multiple people what you have appreciated that they have done. I know it’s not of the same magnitude as the letters, but I thought it would be nice to get everyone in that mindset for a second before we write our letters and I thought it would be nice to give people the chance to say thank you to someone for something that they have appreciated, but have never had the courage to say, until all of us got vulnerable, even if it was only for a few minutes of the squeeze.