Hi! My name is Dawn Rubick and I am very excited to have been invited to be an Ambassador for Gogh Jewelry Design. As a long time fan and customer of Szilvia Gogh, I'd love to share my story and what Szilvia's jewelry has meant in my life.
I call myself a Titanium Mermaid and I think that fits pretty well. Growing up in the mountains of Colorado, I somehow had a terrible fear of the water. This is a landlocked state and my family was not the adventuring type so I'm not sure where that came from but it stuck with me.
Throughout college and graduate school I'd go on trips with friends but couldn't get in a pool much less go near the ocean.
Life went on, I earned many degrees, worked all the time, and stayed away from the water. In my thirties I met my husband. He did not know about my water phobia.
I thought about it and decided that I did not want to carry the burden of that fear with me any longer. Standing up tall I proclaimed that I would be victorious! How hard could it really be? Victories sometimes come in very tiny pieces.
Mine took 7 years and started with being able to get into a pool. Getting to snorkeling, IN THE OCEAN, was a huge accomplishment! Finally, after a lot of time, courage, tears, encouragement, and a whole lot of remembering to breathe, I got to scuba diving. As a birthday gift my husband bought me PADI diving lessons and a trip to Cozumel for our open water certification tests and a vacation. This was IT! I DID IT!
It was scary and amazing. I cried in my mask in the pool. This was ME. I did this! No doubt the most difficult thing I'd ever done. I practiced hard and was well prepared for my open water test. We packed for the trip, nervous and excited. I had slayed the monster.
This was my victory moment! The first real memories I have were looking at my legs and wondering why I was wearing my husband's scrubs (he is a doctor.) Looking around at the hospital room I was confused and I noticed the bruises on my arms and an IV line.
My husband and another doctor were there. I was at the hyperbaric chamber in Cozumel, just regaining consciousness after being in the chamber for 6 hours. I'd repeat that treatment again over the next several days. My diagnosis: Type II DCS.
That means something went very wrong diving. I was okay in the water but was found hours later paralyzed on one side, speaking nonsense and quickly became unconscious.
They called it an "undeserved hit" which means I really didn't do anything wrong, it just happened. Quick recap: worked hard to overcome water phobia, victory dive trip, near death experience from being in the water. There was a whole lot of medical stuff involved (get DAN insurance divers!!) but I made a full recovery.
A year to the week later I went back to that exact same place in Cozumel and went back in the water. I got back on the seahorse. It was terrifying but I'd worked for so many years for that and I was getting my moment!! I said I could so I did.
I earned my mermaid card. That is how I met Szilvia Gogh. Jewelry is meaningful to me and I wanted something special to commemorate my accomplishment. I started looking at women divers online and found Szilvia.
I reached out in an email and asked if she might consider making something special for me. She said yes! Those first two necklaces, Never Give Up and a Dive pendant with a blue crystal, have been around the world with me many times.
Now I am an adventurer and spend a lot of my time diving some of the coolest places on earth, climbing high mountains, and generally making up for lost time.
2 years ago I had a total hip replacement and my husband became a cancer survivor. I faced those challenges with the same mermaid heart I learned I had.
Now I have many beautiful pieces of Gogh Jewelry Design. All for something meaningful to me. You will usually find me wearing my Miss Scuba Mermaid necklace.
But if I'm doing something epic, you will always see the original Never Give Up necklace around my neck. It is just part of my titanium mermaid soul.
Dawn's Favorite Jewelry: