Caleb Perample sat anxiously in the boat, listening to the waves crash around him. The boat stopped, and suddenly the water around him calmed. He got ready, put his fear behind him, and dove. From the moment he entered the water, he knew that this was it. This was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.

Perample graduated from Pioneer High School in 2017. After his graduation, he thought long and hard about what the next step of his life was going to be. In the summer after graduation, Perample started looking for internships and gap programs in the field of scuba diving. “Scuba diving just seemed like a good fit for me,” Perample said.

Perample spent a while looking for a gap program that looked good for him. After a few months of researching, he found it; he was going to the Bahamas.

After a week of basic training on San Andros, a small island in the Bahamas, Perample was ready to dive. “I went out on my first dive and I just fell in love with it,” Perample said. “it’s just stepping into a whole different world. I mean, you’re just weightless and you’re in uncharted ground. And you just have all this adrenaline and excitement and curiosity being fulfilled. It’s an amazing experience. It’s almost like being on a drug.”

This is not a new drug for Perample. He has been chasing this high for a long time. “Ever since I can remember I’ve loved roller coasters,” Perample said. “I’d say there is pretty much nothing I wouldn’t do. I would skydive, BASE jump, bungee jump. Pretty much anything.”

This drug, like most others, comes with its risks and Perample is not immune to those risks. “When you’re diving, you wear a weight belt that helps with your buoyancy underwater, “ Perample said. “And actually, one dive, my weight belt slipped off and I could feel myself shooting up towards the surface which is really dangerous, if you ascend too quickly. But instead of panicking and losing my shit, I quickly emptied my CD, I turned myself right side down, and I swam straight down to the bottom. But it took a little bit of effort. I swam to the seafloor and I put my weight belt back on which immediately grounded me.”

While dangerous experiences like this would turn away many divers, Perample does not let them stop him from living his dream. “If you let worries hold you back, then you’re not going to go anywhere,” Perample said.

After his time in the Bahamas learning the basics, Perample kept pursuing his dream. He immediately started to look for other internships in the field of scuba diving. After a few months of careful research, Perample found the next step to reaching his goal of becoming a scuba instructor.

The Rainbow Reef Dive Center is in Key Largo, Fla. Their competitive internship accepts about ten people out of their hundreds of applicants to work on their dock and train to become a dive instructor over a period of eight months. This was Perample’s dream.

“The application process took months,” Perample said. “And in terms of finding it, it took me hours on the internet researching.” But after those months Perample got the call. He got the internship and he was overjoyed. “I had a lot of relief. And definitely joy,” Perample said. ”You know, it was kind of hard choosing not to go to school or college right after I graduated high school and I definitely had my doubts you know about my choice that I made and in myself but when I received that phone call it just was all lifted off my shoulders and it was a great feeling.”

This internship is a dream-come-true for Perample, but it will not be a walk in the park. Perample will work 16 hours a day, six days per week. He will be working diving, working in the dive shop and filling oxygen tanks on the dock.

Compensation for these rigorous hours is something that Perample will not be granted. But, while this may upset some people, Perample’s dream of becoming a scuba instructor is not based on making money. “Scuba diving, you know, is not a top paid profession,” Perample said. “But that doesn’t matter to me because that’s not my end goal. I’d rather, you know, be doing the stuff I love and meeting new people. I don’t want to jeopardize that just to make money. I’d rather have the wealth come later and if it doesn’t, oh well.”

“You know with this job, I can go wherever I want as long as there’s coastline, so as long as there’s water to explore and people who want to learn, I can go there. And I do plan on going all over the world. I mean, that’s another reason I’m so fascinated by scuba diving is because I truly would love to see the world and to see different parts and to meet new people. Hopefully I’ll live a long, happy, fun-filled life.”