The moment I dived beneath the surface, my ears were flooded with water instantly, sealing me into a sudden and profound silence. In an instant, I was cut off from the noisy, bustling world above. Now everything beneath the water became clear and peaceful, as though all sound had been vacuumed away. Suspended among fishes, I kept kicking my legs rhythmically back and forth. The water embraced me, cool and soothing, sending a gentle shiver across my skin. It felt like blending into the surrounding creatures, the water and the nature, with vibrant corals carpeted across the ocean floor, as if an underwater garden; groups of yellowish fish with black stripes drifted with the current, while a sea turtle glided slowly and peacefully along with the flow.

Everywhere I dived, the ocean breathed with life, color and serenity. Yet surrounded by this scenery, as I dived deeper and closer to the corals, I noticed patches of bleached white corals where there should have been vibrant-colored corals, realizing all this magificence around me was fragile and temporary. Both the ocean and the lives beneath the water are suffering from global warming, acidification and are frequently contaminated from plastics and wastes. Coral reefs, home to countless marine species, are being destroyed and vanishing at an alarming rate.

In the eyes of many people, diving is just a leisure sport, but for me, it is a secret school for cultivating soft skills. There is a wonderful connection between neutral buoyancy control and emotional management. Maintaining neutral buoyancy requires precise breathing control-slow deep inhalation, stable exhalation. Any shortness of breath caused by tension or anxiety can disrupt balance and cause a person to suddenly rise or sink. This made me realize that when facing exam pressure or daily anxiety, breathing is the anchor point for emotional management. By transferring underwater breathing techniques to the exam room, I learned to face challenges with calmness and focus. The cultivation of interdisciplinary thinking has also enabled me to more freely integrate environmental awareness into my cognitive framework: every stable suspension is a small practice of balancing myself with nature.

Diving, therefore, is far from a sport for me. It is the cultivation of emotions, the awakening of responsibility, and more importantly, a continuous interdisciplinary practice-under the tranquil deep blue, I have learned to balance myself and am willing to contribute to balancing the world.