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One of the things I love about the freediving community is the fact that it made me wanna be a better person. I surrounded myself with better people, and therefore everything around me just became better. My home life, my family life, and my relationships with people. And that's something really cool to see. When you're surrounding yourself with other athletes and people who are motivated, it motivates you. That's a really important aspect of the community.
A lot of freedivers live a very nomadic life and you don't know when you're gonna see this person again. Maybe you'll see them at the next competition or somewhere else in the world training. And it's when you meet somebody that you connect with, it's natural to want to open up to that connection. But also knowing that the time is limited, I think people are afraid to become vulnerable to that. That's definitely something that I've struggled with as well. And I know that a lot of the time things aren't permanent, but it doesn't matter.
I've definitely developed some really deep friendships from traveling and through the sport. And I think, especially in the freediving community, a lot of people have somewhat similar ideals, so you can kind of relate and resonate with each other. And then you have some people who are trying to figure it out and almost opening up to that, that vulnerability or toying with the idea in their mind and trying to understand. And it's interesting, having all these emotions, being able to feel them, kind of be aware of what you're feeling. And then also you can step outside of that and kind of look at it from a different perspective, objectively. Then I think that can be applied to basically anything in life and, even with freediving, in terms of not letting certain emotions overcome you, it's like realizing that they're there. Saying, "okay, I feel sad, I feel angry, I feel happy, but also not". Or, especially if you're feeling angry or sad about something, it's okay to feel sad and cry if you need to.
And then step outside of yourself and kind of think, okay, why am I feeling this emotion? What's the point of feeling this emotion? And feel it and just kind of like, let it go. And I think it helps to overcome a lot of things and kind of separate, not detach, but separate those kinds of things. And then you can think in a more logical way, but also emotionally, you know?