Before coming to Bohol Island, I knew very little about scuba diving and felt both excited and afraid. I was worried about water depth, currents, and various diving-related illnesses. To prepare for potential dangerous situations, I watched numerous diving safety videos and interviews before the trip. After understanding my concerns, the instructor gave me one piece of advice:

"Stay calm, think, then act."

This journey wasn't my first diving experience, but during one deep dive, I encountered an up-current for the first time. I instinctively kicked hard against the current, which consumed a lot of oxygen and energy, causing my breathing to become increasingly unstable. When a coughing fit hit, I worried my regulator would fall out of my mouth. At that moment, I remembered the instructor's words. I immediately tried to calm myself and suppress the cough. Sure enough, after calming down, I realized my earlier panic was just fear stemming from inexperience. I reminded myself that underwater, no matter what happens, maintaining oxygen supply is the most important thing.

I realized that staying calm means maintaining a stable mindset when accidents occur, allowing yourself to think rationally. Thinking means using existing knowledge to find the most suitable solution for the current situation. And action is the most straightforward - letting your body execute the instructions from the first two steps. Remember, as long as you can breathe, there's nothing to fear.

Of course, maintaining a calm mindset and adequate safety awareness are both essential. Safety awareness can be built through continuous diving experience, gathering information online or from books, or studying other diving safety cases. It's like when learning to drive, we repeatedly watch dashcam footage to understand road conditions and potential dangerous driving behaviors. Continuous exposure to relevant safety knowledge and experience allows our brains to become familiar with potential crises and establish basic response plans.

In diving activities, panic situations are extremely serious. A panic attack, by dictionary definition, is a sudden intense fear response when there is no actual danger. This might stem from certain physical sensations that cause the brain to misinterpret the situation as dangerous or life-threatening. Therefore, panicking divers might exhibit a series of abnormal behaviors, such as discarding breathing equipment and masks, or even attacking their diving buddies. These behaviors can be seen as instinctive responses to protect life. However, the problem is that the human brain is primarily adapted to land environments, and instinctive responses underwater often don't align with the underwater environment.

Unfortunately, panic attacks are hard to predict. Even when you feel fully prepared, fear can still find its way to you. Panic doesn't only happen to novice divers; even battle-hardened, experienced divers can find themselves breathing irregularly, panicking, or becoming disoriented when encountering unexpected situations.

There was an experienced cave diving expert who, after thorough preparation, descended to a 280-meter deep underwater cave for salvage work. When checking his diving camera afterward, it was found that his initial descent went smoothly. However, during the salvage work, he encountered an accident where his flashlight became entangled in marking rope, causing the light to fail. He began to panic, his breathing becoming increasingly rapid. Suddenly inhaling large amounts of air ultimately led to him losing consciousness. In the end, the salvage mission ended in tragedy.

Of course, diving at 280 meters with low visibility is an extreme example. In regular recreational diving, the most common reaction from panicking divers is refusing to use breathing equipment and rushing straight to the surface. Within the prescribed 40-meter depth range, even rapid ascent from the deepest point, while potentially causing decompression sickness, usually won't result in fatal danger. Therefore, within known safe limits, our task is to use our knowledge to overcome inner fears.

--Franklin Roosevelt

I deeply understand that fear comes from the unknown. When we accumulate enough knowledge and experience, things that once seemed frightening become insignificant. During my last dive, I broke my personal depth record. When first learning Open Water, I thought 15 meters was an intimidating depth. However, as I accumulated experience and improved my skills, I gradually adapted to deeper waters. This dive, I successfully descended to 35 meters, experiencing unprecedented serenity and beauty.

Looking back on the entire Bohol Island diving journey, I not only overcame my fears but also learned how to stay calm when facing challenges. This experience not only boosted my confidence but also gave me a deeper reverence for the ocean world. I firmly believe these valuable experiences and lessons apply not just to diving but will play an important role in my future life journey.

Finally, I want to quote a line I love from the movie "Dune". What distinguishes humans from other animals is our ability to endure fear according to circumstances. Some military training methods place soldiers in dangerous environments for extended periods, training them to become accustomed to fear through various crisis scenarios. Soldiers need to face their fears calmly in crises, focusing on solving the problems at hand. Through establishing goals, self-encouragement, controlling physical responses, and visualization training, they gradually become fearless.

I hope I can continue to possess the courage to overcome fear.

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."--Dune