No Pain, No Gain

I recently discovered that BYU-Idaho has diving night on Mondays and Thursdays from 9-10 p.m. and I have started going so I can learn how to dive. It is so fun and exciting! I love the feel of a good dive. Even though you can't see yourself, you know it was good because it just felt right. I like to think that I look graceful in the process as well. :)
Tonight I went again with some good friends. The discouraging thing was that I think my first few dives were the best. As the night wore on, I got progressively tired and it showed in my diving. I was trying to master a pike dive tonight, but had a difficult time. There's one problem . . . I haven't quite learned how to tuck my head yet. The result: my face smacks the water a dozen-plus times within the space of an hour. And it hurts. But, for better or for worse, I keep doing it. Practice makes perfect right?
One time as I came up out of the water my eyesight was blurry, light spots were flashing before my eyes. I suddenly had a flashback to one of my favorite childhood movies - Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken. Thoughts of it motivated within me the desire to have my eyes checked, just to make sure there's no permanent damage.
After enough facial torture for one night, I retired to the bathroom and took a good look in the mirror. I cleaned off the remaining makeup to reveal the true damage: my right eyelid is tender, red, splotchy, and slightly swollen. My left is not so bad, but also a little pink. I have a lovely new bruise on my elbow too. Is diving supposed to be this damaging? My fear is that I will wake up and my eye will be completely swollen shut, or that I'll show up for my date tomorrow night with a black and blue face. I wonder if I should continue this painful pleasure over the course of the next few weeks. Do I want to risk having a beat up face for my graduation pictures? Maybe I should just learn how to tuck my head and all my problems would be solved. :)
It saddens me to think that I am discovering new and exciting things about BYU-Idaho just as I am about to leave. Time goes by so quickly. After my diving adventures, I came home and slipped into my new, cozy BYU-Idaho sweat pants (courtesy of my dear friend Bekah, and another thing checked off of my Christmas wish list!) and sat down to write this blog post. Oh how I am going to miss this place!

Officially the nastiest picture of me ever, but it illustrates my point.