Learn to Dive in Nine Steps, More or Less

Abstract

On my first dive in 2007, the year I moved to Davao, divemaster Mudji Mamora promised me this: “Diving will give your writing more depth.” He knew exactly what to say to convince me to let go of my old fears of the deep; I wished it would be prophetic. Maybe being a divemaster and holding a PhD in biology teaches one truths that are not available to ordinary mortals. He also assured me that he will do all the work, that I should simply enjoy myself. That should have been reassuring, but I was thirty-seven, and by then, I had learned how promises like that usually go.