“I don’t know when
I don’t know how
But I know something’s starting right now
Watch and you’ll see
Some day I’ll be
Part of your world”
Familiar with this song lyrics? I bet most of you are familiar with it. It’s part of the lyrics for the classic Disney’s ‘The Little Mermaid’ movie’s original soundtrack. I grew up watching The Little Mermaid repeatedly. It’s one of the childhood movies that actually cultivates my love and fascination for the ocean. Growing up, my love for the ocean grows more and more. When I became a mother; I even named my son Adrian, after the beautiful Adriatic sea. In some ways, it’s because of this movie that I became a certified scuba diver, a real life mermaid, and hopefully soon, a certified freediver as well. I used to wish I could explore the sea like Ariel, and my wish did come true, to some extent.
But I’m not talking about my sea adventures and misadventures in this post. That will be in my next postings. What I’d like to share with you today is my mermaid school’s excursion to the cinema to watch the new live action version of ‘The Little Mermaid’
The movie outing was jointly organized by Onshore Mermaid and Mermaid Queen Swimming&Scuba Club at GSC Premier Hall in The Starling Mall, Petaling Jaya. Onshore Mermaid and Mermaid Queen Swimming and Scuba Club are both SSI certified mermaid centres and they offers mermaid and ecology courses of all levels to those who are interested in taking up mermaiding seriously.
So, what’s so special about this movie outing? It’s just another movie night out, right? Wrong. It’s a movie night out for us real life merfolks. Yep. We wore our pretty tails while watching Disney’s ‘The Little Mermaid’.
The media will have you believe that we’re just another group of crazy cosplayers or The Little Mermaid’s fanboys and fangirls who’s insane enough to watch the movies with our legs confined in a mermaid tail, but no, darling. We’re not just another typical ‘The Little Mermaid’s’ cosplaying fan. We’re real life mermaids. We swim and dive in the pools and in the ocean in our monofins and tails. We’re the real deal, darling.
As mermaids and merman, we are ocean ambassadors. Most of us mermaids and mermen works closely with organizations that are doing marine conservation works. Mermaiding is not just something we do to pass time. Some of us are serious volunteers in underwater clean up works while some others work closely with young children to cultivate awareness on how important it is to not pollute our oceans in a fun way.
Yours truly, for example is an ocean ambassador. She does regular underwater clean up and participates in plenty of ghost net removals programs, in line with SSI’s Blue Oceans initiative. SSI Blue Oceans movement supports the conservation and sustainable use of aquatic environments, including oceans, season, coasts, and waterways and their magnificent diversity of plants and animal species.
In organizing the movie night, both SSI mermaid centres hoped not only to offer a night of fun and special bonding moments for their students, but also to spread awareness on how important it is to keep our ocean safe and clean for a better and a more sustainable future.
For more information on the SSI Blue Oceans movement, head over to http://divessi.com or create a free user profile at MySSI app and get immediate access to SSI free trial programs. You may download the MySSI apps HERE.
Together, we can protect our oceans.