Location: Andrixtol, Mallorca
Some days, we wake up with a destiny. A calling bestowed upon us from some greater power demanding our immediate attention. Today, my destiny was to get twenty-six, 17-21 year-olds to appreciate the song “Turn My Swag On,” and that higher power was Mr. Soulja Boy himself. Now, you may be thinking that a melodic masterpiece does all the heavy lifting itself. Surely there’s not a soul out there who wouldn’t appreciate Mr. Boy’s timeless lyrical musings. Normally I would agree. However, on this fine morning, it was my choice for the 7 am wake-up song to blast throughout the cabins to wake up all of the students. When I noticed they weren’t heeding Soulja’s call to action to hop up out of their beds and turn their swag on. I couldn’t even delude myself into thinking they’d ever make it to the point where they would be looking in the mirror to say wassup wassup wassup, I knew I had to take more drastic measures. Taking a page from John Mulaney’s playbook, I queued up Tom Jones’s “What’s New Pussycat” to play five times in a row before offering them brief respite in another round of “Turn My Swag On” and then continuing to play “What’s New Pussycat” until breakfast. Suddenly, everyone was desperate to hear Turn My Swag On again, and my journey was complete.
The day then began with Sam’s frittatatatatata for breakfast, and suddenly, the students were off on a day of diving! I had the pleasure of providing surface support for each of the dive groups today, with half diving before lunch and the other half afterthose who are already certified divers completed their Emergency First Response practical course today as well. While not diving, the students had much-appreciated study time to prepare for upcoming essays and exams in Marine Biology and Oceanography. Skylar and Rachel checked off another task in their Divemaster course today by completing their 400m swim test. Prior to the test, they asked me who I thought they should ask to proctor the swim test, noting that the person would have to be adequately motivating in order for them to finish quickly and score highly as a result. I pointed them in Matt’s direction, and when I returned to the boat, they told me that halfway through the test, he jumped in after them to chase them to make them go faster (Safe to say the right person was appointed to the task).
Today’s dives were no ordinary dives. The students completed Open Water Dives 3 and 4, which after much time in the water and an incredible effort by all involved, the students are now PADI-certified Open Water divers!! I felt especially lucky to sit surface today as I was able to hear the cheers of celebration from each group as they learned they had been certified. From their first breaths underwater to completing many underwater and surface skills, growing in confidence and skill with each attempt, I can see in so many of their faces and retellings of their underwater adventures that they have gained a newfound passion and appreciation for the underwater world. Now they get to join Rachel, Skylar, Emy, Joel, Sophie, Eli, Jac, Isabel W, and the staff in the world of certified divers, with many fun dives to come as a reward for their great effort.
Getting certified was a huge milestone to reach today, but I am a firm believer that life is about the small moments. If we waited to celebrate until we reached our next great milestone, we’d spend much of our life waiting (which sounds pretty bleak). Lucky for us, no one’s stopping us from celebrating the ordinary or quotidian, as the extraordinary tends to take care of itself. Without further ado, here are my arguably non-highlight reel-worthy highlights of the day:
– Owen doing his best impromptu Irish Jig to earn back his confiscated laptop, with Max H providing backing vocals
– Making someone call “Skipper On Deck” every time I went on deck today a la the Jeff Bridges’ classic, White Squall
– Jimmy cheering on Alison’s attempts to backflip, cheering just as loudly for her bellyflops as her successes
– Matt’s dive group experiencing a laughing fit on the surface
– Sam’s delicious pigs without blankets but with vegetables
– Joel slipping into his troll/old man combo voice, seemingly without noticing
– Tonight’s squeeze-and-squeeze ending (If I do say so myself)
Tonight I asked everyone at squeeze to share the compliment that they would most like to receive and then to give that compliment to someone onboard. Compliments ranged from wanting to be told that they were inspiring to others, to being complimented on their humor or smile, to wanting to be told they make those around them feel safe and comfortable, to being leaders worth following. I think everyone left a little lighter and warmer. To end squeeze, we pointed to the person we thought would be most successful working at Carlo’s Bakery, aka best at constructing cake out of Rice Krispies and PVC pipes (Jimmy won).
You may be wondering, what is the title about? That, my friends, is the literary device of suspense. All will be revealed in due time.