Love & Life

She Quit Full-time School to Scuba Dive

Seventeen-year-old Oorja Gonepavaram didn't think twice before quitting full-time school in favour of an unusual career. (And her city, Pune, doesn't even have a coastline.)

By Oorja Gonepavaram, 17, Pune

My south Indian dad and north Indian mom met while in college. Dad was an officer in the Indian Navy, but that has nothing to do with my love of the sea.

We lived till 2006 in Delhi and then moved to Pune. Till last year, my brother and I studied at Pune’s Orchid School. I had a very high score in my 10th boards and was brainwashed into thinking science would be best for me.

But by the end of class 11, I realised it was a terrible idea. I wasn’t allowed to change my subjects, so I left school and joined the Drivechange Learning and Resource Centre, where I now study business studies, history, thinking skills, psychology and English. This suits me much better since I know exactly what I am going to do next: scuba dive.

I got my junior license in 2013, and am now an advanced open-water scuba-diving license holder. I had to crack the advanced theory and dive tests in 2015 in Phuket, Thailand. After completing my 12th, I plan to graduate in business studies with a scholarship to a foreign university and then join my mother’s travel company and start a scuba-diving holidays vertical along with her.

It’s sorted.

FB_IMG_1497465357634.jpgFirst published in the July 2017 issue of eShe. Buy the copy here.

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