Sometimes I sit back and still can’t really believe my life now.
I live on a little tropical island in the Caribbean.
I have absolutely no obligation to do anything I don’t want to do until at least December.
I spend my days diving the most amazing reef in the world and then I either party at night or stay home and relax and watch the sun set over the ocean.
And now… I’m a certified PADI Divemaster!
I’ve come a long, long way.
Last week I finally finished my divemaster training. It all ended up getting squished into the last week but thanks to my wonderful mentor it got finished! Good thing too, because the instructor course started the very next day. So I am now three days into my instructor training. So surreal… when I was living in Vancouver before I came to Roatan the first time in February I definitely did not picture my life taking this direction. I didn’t think anything like this would happen. I was definitely in a funk. This last year has been one of the toughest ones of my life and it all started falling apart last summer. I spent over a month backpacking in Peru with my long-term boyfriend and we had made plans to move back to Vancouver when we got home (we had relocated for 6 months for him to go to school). The day after we returned he blindsided me by breaking up with me – after I had spent all my money on the trip and we had no apartment (we were living with his parents to get settled again), no job, nothing. I ended up living in my car for a week while trying to find friends to couchsurf with, and it was a really serious low point for me. I think back to that often, and how at the time I thought nothing in my life was ever going to be good again (drama queen…what can I say). I had a hard time finding a job and bouncing around between friends couches was not a highlight in my life. I’m usually kind of awesome about facing a shitty situation head on and tearing it down until I get everything sorted out again, but this was a tough one for me. I did manage to get a good job, and a nice apartment, and started building a life that I liked, but something was definitely missing. I now realize that none of this would have happened without that setting the wheels in motion, and I can appreciate it…in hindsight, of course (and thankfully, everything blew over and the ex and I are still close friends – yay!). Had I stayed in Vancouver with him I would have never taken a solo vacation to Roatan. I would have never ever considered taking off and moving to a foreign country. I would have probably just sat in that goddamned cubicle every day and hated it but done it anyway. It’s been a really long road, but I’m happy to be at the other end of it now. If you’re feeling like I did, just remember that you never know what’s coming next…