Isthier Chaudhury - Take a Deep Breath

 

My wife really wanted to go scuba diving at the Great Barrier Reef for our honeymoon. She had actually gotten certified in diving. I literally could not swim [audience laughter] to save my life. But it was going to be okay, I had nine months before this trip to learn how to swim. So, I procrastinated for the first eight months. [audience laughter] And the month before the trip, I had the brilliant idea. I was going to learn how to swim from YouTube. [audience laughter] I was on a business trip at the time too, so I really needed a teacher that could travel with me. I got back to my hotel room one night, I watched hours of videos on how to breathe, how to float, how to time your strokes with the breathing. I had my theory down. 

 

So the next morning at 06:00 AM, I went up to that rooftop pool. I got in the water. I made eye contact with the lifeguards, [audience laughter] and the lifeguards were a team of five pigeons sitting on the side of the pool. [audience laughter] I took a deep breath, I let go of my fear and I descended under the water. [audience laughter] I exhaled and I came back up. Breathe in, go down, breathe out, come up. I practiced my breathing for a couple days. I progressed onto floating. By the end of two weeks, believe it or not, I was swimming. I could swim half the length of the Marriott pool. [audience laughter] I was so ready for this scuba diving trip. [audience laughter]

 

So, we get on the boat, we get out there for our trip. We start easy, we're going to start with snorkeling first, right? I put on the gear, I jump off the boat, so proud of myself. I learned how to swim for this trip. I swim 10 feet from that boat and my brain finally clicks and says, “You are going to die. [audience laughter] This is how it all ends.” And I panic. I scramble. I get back on that boat, I climb up, I take everything off. I tell the crew, I tell my wife, I tell everyone else on the boat like, "I'm good. I'm going to stay on this boat. I'm going to read my book for the next two days. We're here for my wife, she's happy, she's going to dive, I'm happy that she's happy. Let's do this." And the crew sits me down and really tries to convince me that scuba diving is actually better than snorkeling and I am going to love it. And I tell them, "You're crazy." [audience laughter]

 

And somehow, 30 minutes later, I'm standing on the edge of the boat again in a wetsuit with my scuba diving gear. I take a deep breath, let go of my fear and let myself be pushed off the side of the boat. I plunge into the Coral Sea and I open my eyes, even myself out, and I'm okay. It's a miracle. I can do whatever I want. I'm in this protective, self-contained underwater breathing apparatus. [audience laughter] The rest of the people come down, we descend. And the guide is so kind, he's dragging me around to look at the different things, [audience laughter] Because let's be honest, I can't swim. [audience laughter] Sometimes he'll leave me to go guide the others, and I'm just floating there, slowly turning upside down. [audience laughter]

 

I'm like an underwater astronaut, [audience laughter] enchanted by the underwater marine life, the colors, the sound of peace under the ocean. I go on another dive that afternoon. I hand over my money for the night dive. We go down and brush the sand, and I see the little glowy, glowy things, like the movies. And if I hadn't taken that leap of faith, I would have missed out on an entire new world of wonder, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. But I think back to that experience and ask myself what I was really afraid of as I was trying to learn how to swim, something that everyone around me seemed to have done when they were a child. How could I overcome that embarrassment and go and learn something? 

 

I decided and convinced myself my time to properly learn how to swim had just passed. And so, I waited for eight months and then went to YouTube and talked to the pigeons. [audience laughter] I figured out it wasn't the danger that I was afraid of. The pigeons were watching over me. I was fine. [audience laughter] So, I got home from that trip, I took one more breath, and I finally let go of my truest fear and I signed up for adult swim lessons at the local Y.