Two Saturdays ago, Matt and I left early to fetch Shep at the airport! It was soooo nice to finally see him again. We caught a bus to Sambo Creek to meet up with the others, Bobby, Faye, Kristina, Phillip, Thomas and Rose.
We got to the hotel that night and immediately jumped into the warm Caribbean Sea, grabbed a few beers and watched the sunset. Afterwards, we went to dinner at a place called Paradise Found, run by an interesting couple originally from Ohio! (The lady lived a few doors down from one of Matt's family members, small world.)
The next day we took the ferry from La Ceiba to Utila. Arriving in Utila was like stepping into paradise. The water was as clear as could be and the Caribbean feel was phenomenal. We walked to our home for the week, Underwater Vision and were immediately welcomed by our dive instructor for the week, Els.
The Bucks were playing and I, instead of thinking to turn on the tv next to me at the bar, sat by myself trying to stream the audio for the game with weak wifi. It got down to the last minute when everyone came back and Shep turned on the tv just to see the winning three to get us into the Sweet 16.
This began one of the best weeks of my life. I had some of my favorite people around me, enjoying the weather and the beautiful water. The next day we started our PADI Open Water Diving course.
I swallowed my fears of the ocean and the animals living in it and suited up. A couple days and an underwater O-H-I-O that will probably never be seen later, I was comfortable underwater and certified to dive on my own (with my buddy, Shepard of course.)
It was so nice to get away and spend time with everyone outside of school and our town and especially for everyone to meet Shep :-). I never planned on going further into the ocean than right off the boat to snorkel. I am so grateful that Shep came for this week and pushed me to face a fear I never even considered facing.
My parents came into town yesterday and I surprised them at the airport! We got to hang out and have dinner together last night and we have some fun things planned for them while they're here!
“The most often repeated commandment in the Bible is 'Do not fear.' It's in there over two hundred times. That means a couple of things, if you think about it. It means we are going to be afraid, and it means we shouldn't let fear boss us around. Before I realized we were supposed to fight fear, I thought of fear as a subtle suggestion in our subconscious designed to keep us safe, or more important, keep us from getting humiliated. And I guess it serves that purpose. But fear isn't only a guide to keep us safe; it's also a manipulative emotion that can trick us into living a boring life.”
― Donald Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
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