The examiner said something during the debriefing of the I.E. that really stuck with me. He said “the I.E. is the easy part, the hard part is getting a referral after you have taught a course.” Meaning you did something, something that your student really liked that causes them to invite their friends or family back to you for more business. This was one of the most insightful things he could have said to us as we celebrated our completion of the I.E.
This chapter in our lives is just beginning. The training doesn’t end here. Now it is time to apply everything we know to teaching a new generation of scuba divers. Today is my first class. I am going to teach one of the DMT’s who has just arrived the EFR course. Of course I am nervous, afraid of messing up, but I know that I am trained and ready to teach. It is time to hone in on my own style and see what kind of teacher I can be. I have a lot of experience in customer service and sales but teaching is something very new to me. At the same time I am very excited to start. It is hard to describe the feeling of having to teach emergency first response because the skills may one day save a person’s life. I still can’t believe that I am finally an instructor.
I look forward to embarking on this journey of becoming a mentor and seeing the accomplishments of my students, knowing that I have influenced their lives directly. I hope one day to be as wise as my own mentor, my tropical marine biology college professor. His own passion for scuba diving motivated me to not only get certified, but to reach my ultimate goals. I remember the first day of class I told him I wanted to explore the underwater world and make a living scuba diving. He laughed and told me “Slow down, first things first, get Scuba certified and see how you like it.” It seems crazy now to think that I knew I wanted the lifestyle of a scuba diver without even trying it first. Since then all I have done is work on becoming the best scuba diver and teacher that I can be. I hope that I can transform my own students just as my mentor guided me through in my own transformation.