I Died and Went to Heaven: Dolphin Dive in Curacao!

Heaven. When I come close to dolphins this is how I envision heaven to be. Always smiling, free-spirited, flying through the ocean, a feeling of weightlessness, keeping their family close by and not a care in the world.

I became obsessed with these serene mammals when I was nine years old. My late father had taken my sister and I to Key Largo to swim with dolphins. I was totally mesmerized with these gentle giants before we even dipped a toe in the water! My sister on the other hand totally freaked out and thought that Jaws was in the lagoon. She had watched too many Jaws movies and ended her swim early. As for me, that half hour plus swim was the start of my undying love for the ocean and all of its creatures. That swim was also one of the fondest memories I have of my father, John who lost his battle with depression. My dad took his life two days after my birthday on December 29th 2012. The last time I had spoken to him was on the phone on the December 27th. Two days later he was gone-just like that, a bullet to the abdomen with his service gun.

As I write this, I remember my nine year old self in the lagoon looking up at my father and the trainer trying to get me out of the water! I was mesmerized by “Nicky” the dolphin and she was also captivated by little old me. Nicky wouldn’t let me exit the water! She kept pushing me all around the lagoon with her nose for what felt like an hour. The trainer told me to roll onto my back and ignore Nicky. Eventually the trainer fished me out of the water with a pole. Damn! I was secretly hoping I would never have to leave Nicky behind. I wanted to stay in the lagoon with Nicky forever…. I knew what waited for me when I got home to NY. I lived with my mother and knew that this short escape from reality wouldn’t last forever. Living with my mother was horrendous. No human being or even animal should have to endure what I went through as a child growing up with a pill-popping, drug addicted mother and sister. I’ll write more on that another time.

As a way to honor my father, and his love for the ocean; and all that he did to ensure I went to college and took the right path in life, I became scuba certified in October in 2014. My scuba certification opened up a world only the few and curious get to experience. I jumped right in, 109 feet under (my deepest dive) and successfully accumulated 51 dives under my wetsuit, otherwise I wouldn’t be here writing this. I can’t wait for my next dive adventure with my scuba buddy, Steph in May 2018. We plan (fingers crossed!) to go Cabo, Mexico and find the mysterious whale sharks.

Here is a video of my recent swim, I mean dive (!), with dolphins in Curacao this past November 2017. I believe my dad was with me on this day laughing from up above that this time I wouldn’t need to be rescued from the water by some human.  This time, the dolphins rescued me.