It just depends on how deep you want to go, really.

There is something to be said for the easy wade, the splash around the ankles without any fear of being submerged. Sure, now and then you hear stories of sharks in the shallows but for the most part it’s safe.

But the real stories happen once we’re in, over our heads, even if it’s just a little bit. Letting go of that notion that what is seen on the surface is what’s real . There are worlds unimagined below that facade.

There are things we can’t imagine that are just out of reach, things that might seem completely normal if only we’d ever been exposed to them. Being that I am 163 cm, I exist in a world that has no knowledge of the what the top of the fridge, or the higher shelf in my kitchen cabinets looks like, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think it exists.

From the bottom of the marianas trench, the world of the surface can seem unfathomable, so to speak, and so it goes with places I’ve never imagined I could visit, heights I never considered I could achieve. It can be difficult to be patient, to move steady through the process required to level up in a way that benefits in the long term, though the scenery might not change quickly enough to feel as though there is any sort of progression. Having never been scuba diving, I have no idea how uncomfortable it feels when one moves up faster than one can breathe, but the analogy feels like a good one.