Since 2012 I have found my home under the surface of the ocean.

Soundless water, cool water, soft water, as far as the eye can see.

And not only under the sea is there the calm and serenity, above the surface with fellow divers is the laughter and the sharing of stories and the bond of the love of scuba.

It sounds like

Crazy laughter

Parrotfish beaks scraping at coral

Purging air

Stories of what was seen

Disbelief of those stories

Chaperones snapping pictures or narrating a video they're taking

There's no place on earth I would rather spend my time at then in the Caribbean. It's the people, the atmosphere, the climate, the views, the ocean proximity. It's the perfect place for diving.

It looks like

Palm trees in the breeze

Salty leaves of mangroves

One thousand sea urchins on the rocky walk out

Green ocean over sand beds

Blue ocean over the reef

Swarms of damselfish and wrasses

Tiny shrimp if you look close enough

Crinoids curling back into the rocks when you shine a light on them at night

Sea fans swaying with the current

Stingrays buried in the sand

The dark endless span where the reef drops and the wall starts

Once we load up that gear and take the long swim out to where the reef starts, we can descend into the underwater world that I much prefer to dry land. Diving makes me remember that the world is bigger than I keep thinking it is, and my problems are smaller than I think they are. Diving almost always means a good hour of happiness. It's being fascinated and in love with fish and creatures other people don't even know the names of.

It feels like

Cold currents rising up from under you

The silky softness of sea fans brushing against your skin

The burn and blister of fire coral

The discomfort of sunburn that you get no matter how much sunscreen you use

The weight of a forty pound tank and all your dive gear

Ask any diver and they'll tell you stories of their best dives, their worst dives, the funniest things that happened during dives. My log is full of rants and memories and jokes more than it's full of important information.

It smells like

Fresh and clean when a breeze rolls off the ocean

The cloying greenness of algae on the rocks as we walk to where the waves break

Last minute sunscreen applications

Detangler after everyone manages to remove masks from the rat nests their hair has become

Toothpaste as its passed around to defog masks

Neoprene of wet suits

Sand baking in the sun

Chlorine that forever lingers on swimsuits

A good day is a day with a few dives in it. We get the shirts to say we were at the dive site, that we were on the dive cruise. We take pictures to remember the trips we took, where we were and who we were with and what we did. We come home and tell people about the sea creatures we saw, what so-and-so did that you won't believe, and "look at these coral scrapes I got did you know blood looks green underwater".

It tastes like

Salt salt salt salt

Candy to cancel out the taste of saltwater once you get out

Watermelon and potato chips and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches we made for lunch

Warm water that we guzzle after a dive

And salt again

I love you, Caribbean summers. I love you, ocean. I love you, scuba diving.