Well well well, who’d have thought I’d be sitting on a flight heading back to my second home, Utila?! Probably a lot of you actually…
After a life-changing 4 years on Utila, I moved to Canada last year with the intention to work in cold water diving on Vancouver Island and wrote about it in a blog here! After a little hiccup otherwise known as the global pandemic, it happened to be the worst time to seek employment in the scuba industry; so naturally I moved to The Rockies.
Up until three weeks ago my vague plan was to buy a van and live in it for three months with my partner Asa, finally travelling over to Vancouver Island then down to Seattle, through California and hopefully ending up across in Florida; basically one huge dive trip! We drove hours away to look at vans, we spent time drawing up a road map, we contacted friends who lived along the way and started to get very excited about seeing one another. And with our work visas coming to an end we informed our landlady that we would be ending our lease as we continued planning for this once-in-a-lifetime road trip.
Then, just how life seems to keep repeating itself, COVID-19 ruined it all. The USA announced that they would be keeping their land borders closed to Canada as cases continued to rise, just as the country’s vaccination percentage did not. Great.
To say I was beside myself with stress is the understatement of the year. And when I’m stressed, I cry. Luckily for me, Asa is an absolute rock and manages to keep me sane, whilst appearing to not be repelled by my crying. In just a few weeks we wouldn’t have a job or a place to live. So we researched into any options which were available to us for extending our visas in Canada, but other than applying for PR, there weren’t any. Then we started to research dive jobs in the UK, contacting shops from Scotland all the way down to Cornwall. It was no surprise that nowhere was hiring a couple or needed help from September onwards. I started to panic.
Summer in Banff had been crazy. Asa was working six days a week and long hours, and I was juggling two jobs. During this time our days off weren’t lining up and I felt as though we were passing ships in the night. No time to cultivate a plan or weigh up our options. Then days were ticking by and I felt pressure to relax and enjoy my beautiful surroundings, but instead I spent my weekend researching and planning.
This was when I received a message from one of my closest friends and former colleague at The College of Diving. Nick informed me that the ultimate boss babe and Director of WSORC was leaving to chase her dreams and be an ultimate boss babe elsewhere. He asked if there was any way I would consider coming back for a few months to help out and shape the new WSORC team.
My first reaction was… “hmm, unlikely”.
Utila will forever be my island home and the place where I first fell in love with diving, but I left for a reason: to broaden my scuba resume, to figure out what future career I wanted and to explore other incredible diving spots around the world. But there was no denying that the universe was offering me a huge opportunity. I couldn’t believe how perfect the timing was!
Asa and I walked and talked. It was obvious to him that I was trying to suppress the overwhelming temptation and excitement. To be back diving in a place so familiar was something we both craved badly, and for me to be back working in marine conservation is the dream. But getting to Utila in just 20 days seemed like an almighty challenge. Even in regular times getting to Utila felt like travelling to another world, now we had to consider travelling with all our winter clothes, snowboarding gear and the added stress of booking COVID-tests for our transit through The States.
Even so, after just a few days of deliberating and logistics, our flights were booked.
This is probably the most spontaneous life decision we’ve made, but it feels right. For the next three months I’ll be running the Marine Conservation Internship Program at WSORC and Asa will be helping teach any Tec courses and staffing IDC’s. It’s safe to say that we’ll both be back in our elements!
You can keep up with my scuba adventures on Instagram @TheScubaDiaries and I'll update you all soon in another blog. Wish me luck!
Safe diving & happy dreaming,
A.
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