Full circle -- my first night as a DM in training

[ae3753]

Lynne,

Rock on! I'm excited for you and for your students!

-Don

 

[surfsidedav]

Congrats. Seeing someone float back to the surface after their first giant stride into the pool, grinning ear to ear, is why I enjoy classes. They get that "hey, it worked just like he told me it would" look. From there it just gets better. Seeing it for the first time all over again is the perfect way to describe it.

 

[ClayJar]

It was an amazing, fantastic experience, both to see how far I have come (and I think it had even more impact because these were the exact same classroom and pool where I did my OW class four years ago), and to see a little of how much power I now have to help other people discover this great sport.

It was a wonderful night.

Welcome to yet another addiction. :biggrin:

If there's one thing that divers (and enthusiasts in general) seem to all have in common, it's a love of sharing what they love with other people. A person asking a diver about their trip to Bonaire is quite likely to end up hearing far more about it than they had expected to ever know. It's just human nature to enjoy talking about something you enjoy.

Now, take that and toss in students. Suddenly, you're not just telling stories to interested friends and coworkers who are unlikely to ever discover for themselves the wonders you've seen. The people you're telling the stories to are now listening with rapt attention, their as yet ungrounded imaginations weaving the words into worlds of wonder waiting to be explored.

Your enthusiasm for diving and your obvious enjoyment thereof reaches in past their hidden fears and nagging uncertainties and gives them a hold to help them pull through the rough water they may encounter at the beginning. Your patience calms their worries as you lead them through solving their first problems -- the same now-trivial issues that you may remember looking up at like sheer cliffs to be scaled. Your knowledge and understanding anchors their experience, assuring that even while it is unquestionably *fun*, it is also unequivocally educational as a foundation for their underwater future (for both fun and learning are *vital* to building divers).

When you see new student divers come up *beaming* from something as elementary as simply breathing on a reg, you can't help but feel great. When you see them progressing from trying brand new skills, past struggling with some, and on to handling them all with aplomb, you get just as powerful a feeling that you are helping them build the skills that you know they'll use for the rest of their diving days. (And of course, when you start seeing some of them come back to learn more, it *really* warms your heart.)

You've been where they are, but you've continued along. You have perspective they need and skills they'll want to emulate. I don't think any of us will ever arrive at the end of our learning (there's far too much out there already, with more all the time), but those of us with a bit of teacher in ourselves seem to eventually toss a line out and start helping others down the path we're still walking.

I for one can think of few things I enjoy more than working with new divers. It's quite often hard work, at times relaxing and enjoyable, at times fun and enthusiastic, at times terrifying and exciting (someone *always* finds a way to "surprise" you), but *always* rewarding.

I'm quite sure from reading your many stories and informative posts over my time on ScubaBoard that you will make an *excellent* leader and assistant. Any hard work or difficulties you encounter on the way are but a few more bumps in the road. Just as your initial diving classes opened the door to the wonderful world of water, so will this open new doors to wonders still to come (against which the difficulties will surely pale in comparison).

Congratulations, and have a *great* time!

 

[redgym]

I have to disagree here,well just a bit.

Most student reactions I heard where, I'll go to the dive MASTER
He/she must be more important,cause you're JUST an instructor and he/she is a MASTER.

Happend multiple times.

I never went to the DM over the Instructor (except when the DM came up and scolded me for bolting to the surface and then technically he came to me), but I was one of those students that thought the DM was superior to the Instructor because he was a dive MASTER.

 

[Gombessa]

LOL. It's a good thing I wasn't aware of the "Master Scuba Diver" designation during my OW class. That guy must order everyone around!

 

[Centexbear]

LOL. It's a good thing I wasn't aware of the "Master Scuba Diver" designation during my OW class. That guy must order everyone around!

Yeah he hangs out with Master Yoda!

 

[Pearldiver07]

I have to disagree here,well just a bit.

Most student reactions I heard where, I'll go to the dive MASTER
He/she must be more important,cause you're JUST an instructor and he/she is a MASTER.

Happend multiple times.

Well, then I guess that they'd be going to Lynne because she's the expert!

Yeah, I admit that I've seen that too.