On Diving; or, The Scariest Thing I’ve Ever Done

The hardest things I’ve ever done in my life—writing my thesis, giving my best friend’s eulogy, moving to Indonesia for 9 months—have generally happened slowly, gradually, almost inevitably. They were certainly the most difficult tasks and decisions I’ve ever undertaken but at no point did I stop and truly think I could not continue. I have now done something that breaks that pattern and I think that diving is idiosyncratically the hardest thing I’ve ever done.