While you're sitting there, drinking coffee, and staring at your screen, I want you to do me a favor. Take just a few minutes, hold your breath, and look into the distance. Now imagine you're immersed in a bright blue open ocean; you're free diving, and looking 300 feet down into nothing but the abyss. Rays of light sparkling up to greet you. You're weightless, warm, and just below the edge of your fins, are 30+ sharks, 6-12 feet in length. While you watch, enraptured by this moment, a stark realization occurs: you have no fear, just the feeling of pure joy. Sounds like a dream, doesn't it? But today at 9 am, just three miles off the coast of Oahu, this was my reality: no fear, no anxiousness, just an overwhelming sense of awe at the raw beauty these animals possess; accompanied by an underlying feeling of graciousness, and humility. While many movies and television shows, (with such garish titles such as 'monsters of the deep' and 'jaws of death'), may tell you to feel differently, there is absolutely no substitute for experiencing the real thing.

For the past seven years, One Ocean Diving, a research and conservation based program open to the general public and owned by Juan Oliphant (aka Juan Sharks) and Ocean Ramsey, have been fighting to expose the truth about these animals. Truth that when powered by knowledge, not only can you be five feet away from a shark in the open ocean and feel content, but you can be surrounded by 30 sharks and have the same feeling.

My first thoughts after coming ashore were “what a bunch of professionals, WOW!” and, “I cannot tell enough people that they need to try this…” Now mind you, this is not my first rodeo, I've been to Palau and have been witness to hundreds of black tip sharks on one dive, but always on a reef. I realized today the biggest things I learned were the things I had to unlearn. For example, common misconception number one: for whatever reason, I was always told never look a shark in the eye. Our guides explained that you want to be the “big cat” in the water, seen as dominant to the animal but respectful.

I also learned that sharks are not attracted to human blood in the water. They can tell the difference between fish and human blood, amazing! Years of blatant misconceptions were completely debunked in just two hours with One Ocean Diving. The best teacher is experience, and instead of entering the water with fear, I felt prepared, cool, confident and so freaking excited.

I never thought I would be in open ocean, just meters away from 30 highly skilled predators, looking 300 feet down, and thinking about such trivial things as where to eat tuna-poke when we got back on land? It was so surreal, watching with wide eyes and yelling back to the boat 'oh God, they're so beautiful'. It makes me wonder why I waited so long to experience this in the first place? After all was said and done, our trip back was a sobering experience; we were informed about the insane number of threats these animals deal with on a daily basis.

Can you imagine if every day on your way to work, a whole barrage of people followed you with nets and knives, trying to stake their claim on you? This is what the life of a shark has become, a waiting game for their mortality. For example, did you know they manufacturer certain pet foods with shark meat? I heard this and said “you have to be kidding me” — but it's true. Between the shark obsessed media and the misconception around the number of actual shark attacks, these animals bear an immense pressure for just existing. Think of it this way, your car is more likely to kill you, and you most likely drive every day. My only wish is that everyone could drop what they're doing right now, go to Hawaii, and have this experience. In 20 years, sharks may become a rare creature in the sea, with an estimated 100 million sharks currently being killed each year. I can't even digest those numbers. When I returned to the mainland, the very next night everything hit home when my friend talked me into visiting the only Chinese restaurant open at 2am, (which is never a smart idea, by the way…). On the menu was shark fin soup, in four different varieties; these options were crossed out, but it was a stark reminder that at one time you could order this as easily as you could a wonton soup. When I ask people I meet if they've ever tried scuba diving, the first response I hear is “Well, I would love to, but sharks…” Now I am armed with facts, first-hand experience, and with an incredible love for these magnificent beauties of the ocean.

Next time someone tells me they are afraid of the unexpected, I can show them a photograph of the time I was 32 years old, surrounded by sharks, free from fear and having the time of my life.