It’s hard to know where to begin when trying to put these past 8 weeks into words. Gili Shark Conservation has been more than just a place on a map for me, it’s been a turning point, a chapter I know I’ll carry for the rest of my life.
When I first arrived, it wasn’t just the water or the calm rhythm of island life that struck me. It was the feeling of stepping into something unknown, into a world that demanded both courage and curiosity. I had never dived before coming here, and now, 8 weeks later, I leave as a rescue diver wholeheartedly committed to the ocean.
Diving has a way of teaching you things you don’t expect to learn. Beneath the surface, everything slows down. Breaths are measured, movements deliberate. You begin to notice the small things; a nudibranch inching along coral, the flicker of light on a turtle’s shell, the quiet companionship of a buddy beside you. It’s humbling, this reminder that the ocean does not bend to you; instead, you learn to move with it, to respect its depth and its silence.
But it wasn’t just about diving. It was about people. The connections. About finding myself among some of the most like-minded individuals I’ve ever met dreamers, conservationists, storytellers. People who reminded me that passion doesn’t need to be loud to be powerful, that change is often built in quiet moments of commitment, in shared meals, in late-night conversations about the world we want to see. This place has showed me that human connection isn’t just something extra to life, its at the very centre of it. Without it victories mean less, and the hard days feel heavier. With it, everything feels that little bit sweeter.
This island taught me that the only way to really live is to throw yourself into things with your whole heart, even when you’re scared, even when you don’t know how it will end. Eight weeks ago I had no clue what I was walking into. And yet, here I am, proud of every scraped knee, every early morning, every moment of doubt I chose to keep going through. Because I know I lived it fully, without holding back.
And maybe that’s the biggest lesson I’ll carry with me: that anything worth doing is worth risking failure for. That if you only give half of yourself, you’re left with regrets. But if you go all in, even if you fall short, you walk away with something real. Memories. Lessons. Stories etched into who you are.
So I leave this place with more than certifications or checked boxes. I leave with friendships I hope will last far longer than the tides, with a deeper love for conservation, and with the knowledge that stepping into the unknown is always, always worth it.
Because when you give yourself fully, two feet in, no hesitations you’ll be suprised at what you can accomplish.
As Rainer Maria Rilke once wrote: “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves… live the questions now” then live the answers and you’ll find that ever elusive personal style that we’re looking for in ourselves. That’s what this place was for me: an answer I didn’t know I was looking for, found in the act of simply living the questions first.
