Well, I'm not taking the Lifeguard class next week, for a number of reasons...

I can't find anyone to watch the kids, I'm not guaranteed a job at the end of the class (the instructor has a hand in the hiring and she knows I'm going to leave in August - while she's got some pull, she's not the final decison maker)..if I DID get the job I'd have to co-ordinate daycare with packing, scheduling household goods shipments, cleaning and all the rest of that jazz, then I'd have to FIND daycare..a feat in itself around here in the summertime.  Yeah, I hear you say, but you'd have the certification.  Well, true...but, there's no pool at our next base and my certification from here won't mean a thing in England.  I'll still have to re-test and pay to re-certify over there. 

Besides, I sat and thought about it, and I'd be doing it for the wrong reasons.  I'm not doing it as a career move or even for the job aspect of things.  I'm doing it so I can have a piece of paper that signifies to me and to others that I'm in better shape now than I ever have been in my entire life.  A certificate to say that Dharma came back from almost dying 6 months ago, that she did not let her injuries beat her into submission, that she adpated, overcame, and kicked some ass. 

I don't need a piece of paper to say that.  I know it.  I can see it.  Other people can see it. It's obvious, in the way I carry myself, the way I talk, walk, eat...that I am a new, a better, a changed person.

I don't need any certificate to hang on the wall for that.  I KNOW.