Guest Post – Follow Your Dreams, Not People’s Reservations

I recently decided to start including an ‘Inspirational Traveller Of The Month’ guest blog on Woman Seeks World, so I’m pleased to bring to you the first ever article in this series.

This maiden-guest post comes from the lovely Toni from Reclaiming My Future, a 20-something wanderluster suffering from a quarter-life crisis, determined to ditch a normal life and someday reach her goal of becoming a permanent nomad. Toni shares with us her experiences of going against the norm and brushing off her inhibitions on her first diving trip in Thailand. I hope you enjoy it! _________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sat at my desk, still a month until my adventure, and after spending over £1000 on a week long diving course around the Similan Islands in Thailand, I remembered that didn’t even know how to dive. My family and friends told me that I’d waste my money if hated it or didn’t pass my open water test but I’d always wanted to dive. I was going. There was a different world out there and I wanted to explore it – so off I went, determined to have the week of my life. Waiting to board the boat I realised that not only was I the only native English speaker, but also the only woman – to say I was nervous would have been an epic understatement!

We’d not long finished first dive when the captain honked his horn – he’d spotted three Mink whale calves in front of us, my first whale sighting ever! We chased them for a while, watching them play together before we looked to the side of our boat and saw mum – there she was just metres under the water’s surface, enlightening my world. Whilst we were busy travelling to our next dive spot I’d forgotten there was a whole world underneath our boat – living and evolving as we glided through the water – I felt so honoured to exist amongst it.

It was on our second dive of the week that I saw my first manta ray. To say I could find the words to describe my emotions at this point would be wrong. To hear my dive guide tap his tank for my attention and to see that elusive flick of white as she came into view from the ‘big blue’ was a euphoria I can’t explain. A five metre long graceful ‘alien’ gliding towards us with such little effort was an amazement to watch. My heart raced with excitement and yet I had never known such peace. To have her so close was a whole other worldly experience.

Over the week I was spoilt rotten as a beginner diver. We saw a leopard shark, white and black-tipped reef sharks, some angry looking moray eels, an octopus changing colour, green turtles (they always give you that ‘and what do you think you’re doing in my neighbourhood?’ kinda look), huge sea snakes and a pod of almost 100 false killer whales breaching and playing in front of our boat. We also spent a day on island number four where I got a touch ‘land-sick’. My favourite dive? The one where we spent an entire hour surrounded by five mantas – we were no longer signalling ‘okay’, we fist pumped Jersey Shore style!

Back on the boat we were so excited we didn’t do the evening dive – instead partying along to Bob Marley playing on repeat. Everyone on board was great and made me feel like ‘one of the guys’ with card games, drinks and bad humour to boot, and I also had the pleasure of meeting someone special during that week, although I’ll skip over that part for now! I will say, however, that the connection we made during that week made it that much more meaningful. I cried quiet tears of happiness on that boat and it will remain to be one of the best weeks of my life as long as I live.

So what’s the lesson in all this? Follow your heart and dreams instead of people’s worries and concerns, and you might just experience something life-affirming and altering like me. If I had one piece of advice for anyone thinking of travelling it would be to take the leap, because the landing is so worth it.

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