A middle-school English teacher gave me a reading assignment about a young woman who was a deep-sea diver. In the story, she has an equipment malfunction and nearly drowns. She comes back to the surface, and her supervisor, after fixing the issue, sends her back down as soon as possible.

As part of the assignment, I had to answer whether or not I agreed with this decision. I vehemently disagreed and told my teacher as much. At the age of thirteen, I thought it was mean of him to send her back down so soon after a scary experience. I simply did not have the maturity or wisdom necessary to see that it was for her own good, that she needed to overcome her fear as quickly as possible by going back down. That young woman had worked hard to get where she was. It takes a lot of hours to become a deep-sea diver and experience all the amazing things that come with it. The supervisor knew that she would be jeopardizing all of that if she listened to fear instead of wisdom.