JR. DIVE MASTER BECOMES A STAFF INSTRUCTOR!
BECOMING A PADI PRO
If there’s one thing everyone can agree on, 2020 and 2021 were different years. COVID was rough on us all. Had I been writing this story in 2019, it would not have been a shock to most that I was sitting on an airplane, in flight, with my face mask on, typing away on my laptop about my dive vacation in St. Lucia. In 2020, most people would have glared at me with shock as I took a significant risk that summer, wandering from my Bermuda home to St Lucia to partake in yet another Kids Sea Camp (KSC) dive vacation at Anse Chastanet. My KSC life journey started with Curacao in 2006, at four years old. From then on, I spent each year gallivanting with my diving family around the KSC world, exploring the ocean; I had no grasp then of what I wanted to do when I grew up.
By 2010, my family and I had followed KSC around most of the Caribbean, fueling my parent’s love for scuba diving. This kept my brother and me curious about the different destinations and cultures we were experiencing. I had always wanted to be a dentist, doctor, or veterinarian, and I actually had very little interest in scuba diving as a career path. Dominica, Cayman Islands, Roatan, Bonaire, St. Vincent, and back again to Palau. It was in meeting so many inspiring KSC dive professionals that my mindset began to change. I had a new perspective on what I wanted to do growing up. 2017 was the year I developed a stronger bond with my KSC family, Margo and Tom Peyton (owners of KSC). I was a 15-year-old Master Scuba diver with 300+ dives. My family had our yearly KSC trip
planned to the Galápagos, where we dove on a liveaboard with sharks, sea lions, manta, dolphins, and marine iguanas. One night at dinner, my parents asked me if I was interested in doing yet another KSC trip. I responded as any kid would and said yes! I hadn’t gathered that they meant they would send me by myself. As a shy kid, overshadowed by my extroverted brother, this concept of traveling without my family was an enormous reach for me. I’m now so glad they gave me that opportunity and had the foresight to know how life- changing it would be. Arriving in St. Lucia, I was full of fear and worst-case scenarios going through my head, but when I saw Margo, that feeling subsided immediately. She told me that night I would be part of her
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