I once went scuba diving against my better judgment. I once had a boyfriend who didn't listen to me. Why I took him to Lanai, Hawaii for his 59 birthday is beyond me. I am just a great girlfriend. We arrived by little plane to an almost deserted island that was owned by the Dole Family. There were two hotels the Manele Bay and the Lodge at Keyhole. Keyhole for golf and Manele Bay for water sport. We went on a 4 by 4 package deal where you got 4 nights at one of the hotels and one activity a day for the four days. The first day went well-we got dinner as our special day event. Valrona chocolate was all the rage and we had a dinner that was terrific and chocolate desserts to die for. Day two we rented a jeep and toured the island. Day three dinner with relaxation and swimming in the pool. I was enjoying day 3 and was reading a wonderful book poolside. My then boyfriend also was enjoying the pool and ocean. I was happy. It was a perfect girlfriend gift for an imperfect boyfriend. Again why was I doing this. As I was sitting there thinking a good looking stud comes up to me and asks if I am Madge. I haltingly said yes. He introduced himself as Dennis the scuba instructor. I said not an auspicious start as my ex-husband was named Dennis. He explains that my boyfriend signed me up for scuba diving so I could go on a dive the next morning. Let me backtrack. I am an excellent swimmer but had absolutely no desire to scuba dive. I had a fear of the mask leaking, my air running out, choking and whipping my mask off to breathe and scrambling to the surface where I get the bends on the way up and die. I had expressly told my boyfriend no scuba diving for me here or anywhere. He could use that as his adventure while I spent some time in the spa or at the pool or just being by myself relaxing for my special day. I explained to the instructor why I was not going to do this and the conversation went something like this. Let's just try it in the pool where you feel safe and get use to the equipment and then see how you feel. No I said nicely. Not for me. He continued going over each and every one of my fears. Choking and throwing up was a bonus because if you cleared your mask the fish would actually chum on your throw-up. Great I said another reason to just love this sport. Next thing I know he says you know there are no refunds so you might as well try it and have fun. Meanwhile the non hearing boyfriend is encouraging me and trying to explain how much fun it will be, something we can do together as he was a licensed scuba instructor. Finally after every fear was resoundingly shot down I went into the pool. As I said I am a very strong swimmer and the instructor said that was the main failure for most people so check on strong swimming for me. We practiced taking off the mask to clear, practiced coughing to see how I could maintain my composure and clear the mask again. I learned about the air and the regulator (this will come in at the end of the story), we talked about buddy breathing and practiced. I was ready Dennis said after an hour. Ready are you fucking kidding me. I thanked him and said I was not going in the morning but thanks for the lesson. All night long my boyfriend worked on me until just to shut him up I said okay I would go on the boat and not scuba dive. The next morning I woke up nervous and anxious. I was on vacation and this was turning into a nightmare. Got on the boat and was ready for my journey- I was told I could snorkel instead. But the leader for the dive was on my case from the beginning to give it a try. I was in a weakened state, trapped on the boat and people were ALL diving. Under extreme pressure and nerves frayed I agreed to try. My boyfriend would be my diving buddy. Now I heard a voice shout out of me ABSOLUTELY NOT. I would only buddy dive with the chief diver and leader of the group. He was not given any choice if he wanted me to dive and he did. So everyone was taken down on a rope and went to the area in the ocean we were starting from. He took down each diver, came up and got the others. He left me down there hanging on to the rope and listening for every fucking breath in that air tank. I was not deep so I was okay and felt I could ascend at a moments notice until he got down there. He finally arrived and we had of course universal signals for help, going to the surface and diving deeper. I regulated my air and off we went. Within a few seconds I was in panic mode and of course started choking and signaled to surface. I am sure he was not happy. As we went up I actually cleared my mask in a test, stopped coughing and relaxed I could do this. I signaled to go back down and continued until the end of the dive. Can I tell you anything I saw-not. But I could tell you how many breaths I had taken, how many times I cleared my mask and how many times I thought about surfacing. I missed the beauty for the most part. After what seemed like hours but was only 45 minutes we were surfacing. I got out and was so happy I had done it but determined to never do it again. I of course regulated totally wrong somehow thinking that the regulator was on a different tank then the main one. What was I thinking. Fortunately for me we came up when we did because I was very close to running out of air. Jesus-what would I have done then. Thank goodness I was safe sound and gladly watched as the divers went on their second dive as I went snorkeling with one other person who was not thrilled either about the whole event. Needless to say he was not my boyfriend for very much longer. I am much stronger now and OLDER and would never do something that took that much convincing ever again. I have a voice and it is loud and clear.