I WANT TO BECOME A DIVER!
My name is Valeria and I have a significant disability. Often the people I meet see my dystonic spastic tetra-paresis as a unique attribute of my life.
But I can guarantee you that this is not the case. So I try to change the paradigm and start again.
My name is Valeria and I am an important person!
Yes, as important as anyone else who reads this story, with all the personal difficulties to face, problems to manage, but also ambitions, desires, dreams. And I had one in particular among my dreams, unattainable according to many.
BECOME A SCUBA DIVER!
I’m aware, don’t smile… not yet at least.
The word “easy” is not one of the criteria that generally guide my choices. Disability is a condition that never forgets me. She is always there, ready to add effort to my paths. But believe me, I have always been strong and I have never lacked motivation.
The problem to be solved was rather to find someone who believed in it. Someone who was animated by a triple passion: for the sea, for people, for teaching diving.
The word “easy” is not one of the criteria that generally guide my choices. Disability is a condition that never forgets me. She is always there, ready to add effort to my paths. But believe me, I have always been strong and I have never lacked motivation.
The problem to be solved was rather to find someone who believed in it. Someone who was animated by a triple passion: for the sea, for people, for teaching diving.
In a nutshell, it was necessary to find professionals willing to share my goal, with the necessary willingness and ability to study with me a training program of approach, which could reconcile me with the dream without haste.
It all started a bit by chance, like almost every beautiful thing. To mark the beginning was the participation in the open day “A day as a diver”, an event organized by the students of the Politecnico di Milano, in collaboration with a group of divers in a swimming pool in Monza. It was a day of free diving trials, dedicated to people with all types of disabilities, assisted by qualified instructors, to guarantee safety
I remember well the mix of curiosity, concern and emotion (in truth it was more mom Marta who was worried) felt approaching the edge of the pool for the first test. So many people around: people busy to cancel the difficulties of the many attendees, each with their own peculiarities and with different disabilities. Children with Down syndrome, autistic, blind, paraplegic, amputees. My turn came, it was my turn. An exchange of information and explanations to establish rules of behavior and communication and almost without realizing it I found myself underwater.
I watched my instructors look for my eyes to maintain contact with me, the bubbles coming out of my classmates’ regulators. and from my mask. We were together under the surface and.. we were breathing! Suddenly everything became calm around, moments of slowed down time to enjoy a new condition. And I realized, I was with the right people to really try.
After the necessary checks for medical clearance and a few subsequent meetings with the instructors necessary to create a relationship of proper confidence, my course finally began, together with people capable of rejoicing for every small goal achieved, in a path where haste has no place.
A journey, between friendships and new experiences, in which I got to know the embrace of a warm and welcoming sea that allowed me to take the opportunity to look at life under the mirror of its surface. Fish, corals, colors seen before only in a few photos or in some television documentary. And instead this time I was there!
For these emotions, but above all for believing in me, I thank in order: mother Marta and all the diving boys who still swim by my side today,
As I said at the beginning, my name is Valeria, I am a person and I love life.
And that’s what makes me important.
