My name is Ben and I’m a sophomore in the Professional Diving program at the New York Harbor School. I’ve recently acquired my PADI open water diver certification after four months of hard work. The thing about the trials you have to take to get your certification is, it doesn’t feel like work at all. Learning to breathe underwater makes you feel like an astronaut on an unknown world with critters spiraling around you. Diving is the scariest, most exciting thing I have ever done. Knowing that you are surrounded by hundreds of thousands of gallons of water and so many things can go wrong is thrilling. Or maybe it’s seeing what most people won’t ever see in real life and dealing with problems in real time. On the other hand, I feel calmer, after learning how not to panic while diving. Diving feels like an art, everyone has their own opinion on the most effective way to do something and their own style of diving.
I couldn’t have ever gotten this far without two people. Their support and patience shows how devoted they are to teaching and passing on their wisdom. These two people are Lenny Speregen and Zoe Greenberg. I’m so grateful that I’m being taught by them and they have easily earned my respect for exposing me to such a vast underwater world. I might even get a career in diving now that I know there is so much I haven’t seen and that I could see, through this program. My class is working towards getting Advanced Open Water certifications and we might even be able to take a trip to the Bahamas next month where I can rack up more dives. Ending my post, I didn’t come to Harbor School for diving, but as soon as I saw what Lenny and Zoe had to offer, I knew what I wanted to do for the next three years. 
Professional Diving 