“You have to anchor your life. And you have to be ready to pick up that anchor and choose another direction. Many people get stuck…”

Give Annie Crawley thirty minutes and she’ll change your life. At first glance, Annie is a bubbly blonde with endless energy. She speaks with passion and purpose. But it’s the meaning in her words and the earnest way she talks about her incredible career as an ocean photographer/videographer/educator and enthusiast that sets this gutsy gal apart.

Growing up in Chicago, Annie couldn’t have been farther away from the ocean. Though a talented swimmer, the closest she came to exploring the great deep was dips in Lake Michigan and trips to the Shedd Aquarium. But Annie was blessed with a mother who encouraged her to dream big and a grandmother who “planted the seed that I was going to travel.” With a world map that hung in her grandmother’s kitchen as her guide, Annie laid out plans in her imagination to begin her own great adventure.

After college Annie worked for one year to make enough money for a plane ticket and set a departure date. She turned her dreams into reality through goal setting. Leaving for Australia changed her forever because Annie fell in love…with the ocean. A chance opportunity to try scuba diving brought her up close and personal with a whole new world. “When I breathed underwater for the first time, I felt like I was home,” Annie said. “And once I found

the ocean, I couldn’t let her go.”

Over the next four years, Annie traveled the world as a dive instructor and journalist throughout the South Pacific. When she returned home to the Midwest for a couple years, the ocean called her back and she moved to California. Soon Annie put her broadcast journalism degree to good use and began photographing and taking video under the sea. With sponsorship from Save Our Seas Foundation, Annie produced an award winning line of entertaining and educational children’s books and DVDs and founded, Dive Into Your Imagination, a company changing the way a new generation views the Ocean. Her work is breathtaking. “Nature can be so entertaining and taught me the lessons of life.” This past summer, she went on an expedition funded by Project Kaisei with Scripps institution to document, The North Pacific Gyre, more commonly known as The Garbage Patch.

Annie found her life’s purpose: to inspire both children and adults to love, respect, and protect the world’s oceans. Annie now travels the country speaking at schools, corporations and conferences about not only the ocean, but also what it means to live life with integrity and strength of character. “I always tell the kids, ‘the ocean is my passion but I didn’t discover it until after college. Dream big." These are certainly words to live by for not only kids but those of us who find ourselves looking for that one thing that moves us to greatness. “We’re here for such a short period of time,” Annie said. “What are you going to do with your moment in time?”

Good question. And perhaps that’s the genius that is Annie Crawley. Though she uses the ocean as her platform to reach people, the true message hidden in her delightful oceanic metaphors is about self-exploration and discovery. “Life isn’t about finding yourself, it’s about creating yourself,” she says. “Go out and do what makes you come alive.”

To learn more about Annie or to purchase her products, visit DiveintoYourImagination.com.