Diving vs. Career and Home Choices

[FloridaRanger]

For those of you lucky enough to dive for a career, this is hardly relevant ... .

Today my wife and I visited the location of a potential career advancement opportunity. Problem is, it is a couple of hours farther away from dive opportunities.

Now, if it was a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious career opprtunity, I suppose I would just take it and do the driving. But it is actually a so-so opportunity, and every mitigating factor counts.

So, my question to you is: How much of a role does scuba play in your job choices? How much of a role does it play in your choice of where to live?

 

[Garrobo]

None though it would be nice to stay in the Upper Keys during the worst of the winter if my wallet could stand the impact.

 

[vladimir]

How much of a role does scuba play in your job choices? How much of a role does it play in your choice of where to live?

Ten years ago I moved from Singapore to Chicago for work, so the answer would appear to be: not at all. Personally, as much as I love diving, my career takes priority, as do my personal relationships and family. Having said that, when my current company offered me a range of possible positions, part of the reason I chose Hong Kong was to be closer to Southeast Asian diving.

 

[OldNSalty]

2 hours does not sound like a big deal. Maybe instead of after work dives you now have to wait for a weekend get away dive. I agree with vladimir -work,family, etc comes first.

I moved from the coast to Atlanta-didn't do a lot of diving those years but the Atlanta job lead to a great opportunity right back on the coast so now I have a big city income in a vacation town which equals more diving.

 

[Zieg]

It's a major deal for me. I grew up on the water and chose an Oceanographic career on the water. Personally I would never live anywhere away from the water. Lakes, quarries, and rivers don't cut it for me, but that's me. The Great Lakes, tooooooo cold, don't want to live there. I was stuck on the Mississippi Gulf Coast for too many years. You had great rig diving and you could easily drive to Florida. But it didn't quite scratch that itch. I'm now in Panama City, still a bit of an itch. Next move, S. Florida, house with a canal, boat in the back yard. Gotta get closer to the water, not away from it. But Hey, that's just me.

 

[scarefaceDM]

It would be great to live near water.Have the best of all worlds.... I am an hours drive from good wreck diving. it is cold water diving but it is diving. I wait for the weekend or the day off...but Family takes priority on those days...I will squeeze in the diving if I can. Family out weight the sports, unless your family is into diving aswell...I look at life like this. Family, Career and then the toys...

 

[emoreira]

Remember that you need money to dive. Money comes from work.
Anyway, a person spends more time working and sleeping than in any other activity, so, work is an important part of your life. Your work should be a pleasant one with challenges and a friendly enviroment, the place, the job, the colleagues and the bosses.
Happiness comes from everywhere, not only from diving. If for diving you have to work in a bad work and being far from your relatives and family, it's pretty bad.

 

[jmasin]

It doesn't play a role. I had my career long before I started diving. I will continue to dive regardless of where my career may take me, it may mean I have to try harder to dive, but so be it!

There are many things I enjoy in life in addition to diving, and work pays for them all...

 

[samaka]

I would never ever make changes in my life that interfere with my diving in a negative way.

.......a.......

 

[Ana]

This subject has the tendency to be an automatic decision on both extremes; it is only for the middle of the road type of people that some deliberation comes in play.

There is the group that will follow the work (or the spouse) without ever considering diving for an instant.
...and
There is the group that would never know what kind of opportunities they may be missing because there is no way they'll move away from the water.

I belong to the 2nd group. While I was young struggling financially, I decided it was easier to deal with the hardships if I could listen to the ocean; fortunately freediving is free when you live close to the ocean. As the finances improved so did the opportunities of diving. Or was it the other way around?
We decide what to do with our life, sometimes we decide without 100% conviction but WE decide. The definition of success usually guides most of our decisions. My decisions had me living in 3 different continents, but never farther than ~1 hour to a decent beach. I did settle for the Gulf of Mexico this past decade but I learned my lesson, my move back to the ocean is already planned.