The story I tell myself

We were writing a recap about our years in Australia with my partner and were thinking about our latest trip to the Great Barrier Reef; a trip of our lives, respectfully. 

Our first dive was inside a magnificent reef gorge and as I swam between the cliffs, a big tree shaped coral glimmered in the perfect light and I watched in awe as a majestic reef shark emerged behind it. I was absolutely overwhelmed with gratitude and I thought to myself that I wouldn’t mind if the trip had to be cancelled after this, I already got everything I ever wanted. I wouldn’t have minded if it was a great white and it would have been the last thing that I ever saw. I was ready to die. Everything was gorgeous. Every 5 dives were perfect. I sighed dreamingly and asked my partner if he had anything to add.

“Well, we were quite sea sick in the beginning, if you want to mention something less glorious.”

And so, I remembered…

We were supposed to go a weekend before but we had to reschedule the whole trip because my partner had a flu and would not have been allowed to dive at all. It was very stressful as the trip was very expensive, there was no cancellation policy and we had no insurance. I was writing emails at work every time I got a chance, while it felt like it took forever for the company to answer whether we’d be allowed to change the dates.

When we got to the boat and embarked on the journey, we both got motion sickness and my partner had to throw up several times during the 2-hour journey to the first reef. When we arrived, no one felt like diving and the instructor was trying to explain how it would be perfectly safe to throw up to the regulator even under water. Yikes!

After the first dive on the second day we retired to our cabin for a nap so we wouldn’t get motion sickness during the journey and meanwhile all the other guests had seen dolphins. 

And yet, I never think about any of it. It doesn’t even cross my mind as I think about the trip. The second story is as much true as the first one, but I never talk about it.

And I think that might be a little secret to a happy life.

I could focus to the second story and I’d be telling as accurate story about my life as I am when I tell the first one. But how would it make me feel? 

The fact is, we didn’t miss the journey or lose the money. The 2-hour sea sickness was nothing compared to the 72 hours we spend off shore and 4,5 hours we spent under water. And the dolphins? Well, we’ve seen dolphins before and were very happy to hear that the other guests had been so lucky to see them that day! Also, we had a really nice nap!

I am the story I tell myself.

xx