Second chance at life(Sachini Bandaranayake) “Oh, I cannot wait to go in! How much longer Hannah?” I was excited to go scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef. It was my very first time doing something extreme like this. Looking back now, I realise how excited I was to Scuba dive in the wide, blue glistening ocean.

“Okay! Betty, Sandra and Ben make sure you all stick with me and don’t swim away from me... we all jump in the count of three...” Hannah was instructing us as she was zipping up her black spandex swim suit and the other three swimmers were putting on all the head gear. I had my water-proof camera ready to use. I remember taking a wide shot of the beautiful water with the sun rays radiating down on the clear blue water. “Okay get ready 1,2,3…” Hannah yelled. The feeling of having the cold water around you and breathing out bubbles made the adrenaline kick in.

The rainbow coloured fish, in all shapes and sizes, were swimming all around me. Betty and Sandra swam past me, they were both extremely amazed as they were pointing in every direction towards the different animals under the sea. My body was warming up quickly and I could feel the spandex suit sucking onto my skin as the sun rays were shooting down through the clear blue water. I was able to take close ups of the huge sting rays and turtles. The turtles were hovering next to me, I put my hand out to feel the shell. The beautiful mix of brown and olive green scattered across in swirls all over the shell, it was just mesmerising.

As I look back now, I realise that I had never had the opportunity to do anything like this before, in the last eighteen years.

Growing up in a family of 3, my mother, father and myself, I was never given the freedom to do what I had liked. My parents were very strict on me, so strict that I wasn’t even allowed to have my own phone! As I got to year 7, the start of high school, everything changed in my life. I was diagnosed with a skin cancer on the left side of my chest.

My parents were shocked, they did everything they could to support me. Briefly I can remember all the hospital visits, beeping machines, the horrible hospital food and the smell of antiseptic lotion everywhere. Eventually in year nine after all the surgeries, I was told I had defeated the cancer. I had won. My parents were over the moon and very relieved. After the battle they gave me the freedom I wanted, the phone I never had and the choice to do what I liked as they believed I was given a second chance at life.

As I feel the nudge from Hannah to come out of my day dream, I see a huge black spot coming closer and closer in the distance. My eyes went wide open in shock. As I try to swim away from the huge black spot, I realise that my oxygen tank is falling off my back. The adrenaline kicks in and I try as quick as I can to put it on my back. The oxygen tank is too heavy to lift. As I glimpsed upwards, I see a group of sharks racing towards me. I kick and flap my arms all over the place to put the oxygen tank on quickly. Hannah swims over instead of saving herself and hauls the tank onto my back again. I swim as fast as lightning over to Betty and Sandra who watched the incident in shock.

As the shark swims by as he notices that we aren’t prey for him to eat, Hannah points up towards the boat to notify us that it’s time to go. All three of us swim close to each other in case another shark comes blasting at us. As I hop back into the boat I am still shaking from the experience. Never would I have thought that I would be in danger again. Looking back at the scuba diving experience I comprehend that even though it was my most exciting, adventurous but terrible experience, I have learnt a lot about life and taking risks.

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