What Scuba Diving Taught Me

Everyone needs a diving buddy.

When you first go scuba diving, the most critical thing to you when you’re buried under 10m of water is not your fins, goggles, respirator, or oxygen tank but your Diving Buddy.

Every new diver is required to go diving with a buddy, and this is a person who is responsible for your well-being, and you’re responsible for theirs.

The buddy system is the ultimate contingency for diving.

We understand that our watches may stop working or oxygen tanks may break, but we have this intrinsic trust in our fellow human beings that even when all the tools we’ve created to save us inevitably fail, we still have each other.

This philosophy should be applied to life in general.

We are thrust into this huge ocean of life with new experiences and obstacles at every turn. Ideally, our parents give us the tools to “dive” into life, but not everyone’s tools are equal or even up to PADI standards ( The Professional Association of Diving Instructors).

We are supposed to figure out how to swim and navigate this ocean by ourselves, with 10m of ocean surrounding us.

Of course, we don’t want to do this alone, and we’re not even designed to be alone. We should be surrounded by communities of people who help us navigate life. Instead, our innovation and pursuit of individualism have stripped away all of those intrinsic instinctual safeguards from life—the last remaining contingency against the depths of the ocean.

Diving is more than just having a friend. Diving buddies have an intrinsic understanding of what we are doing. Though it may be fun and exciting, there is danger, and anything can go wrong.

We must have diving buddies in the form of people we choose and have an agreed-upon understanding.

“ I got you, and you got me.”

Navigating this ocean of life can be beautiful, but it can also take so much of you.

As your diving buddy, I’m here to help you “clear your mask” when the water fills up.

When your “respirator” stops working, you can use mine. Then, we’ll float back to the top until we can dive again.

With diving buddies, there’s an understanding that I’m here for you, and you’re here for me to help you progress in this journey.

We have shared values and shared goals.

We are both trying to get from this dive spot to this as an assent point, together.

Find people, or at least one person in your tribe, to swim with in pursuit of deeper dives.