My 2018 - This is my Hobby: Go Deep Into The Nature

Hi guys, after so long, I finally decided to participate in the contest. It could be said that this is the first writing contest I follow. And it is an interesting thing to remember that what I write here is about my own hobby.
Furthermore, I want to thank @blocktrades and @anomadsoul for hosting this contest. I think this is a wonderful opportunity.

Ok, let's to the point.

Speaking about hobbies, I can proudly said that my interest is the nature; adventure into the wild. Is it sounds cool? Maybe that's what makes many young people love it, because it looks cool. But actually exploring nature is not as easy as it seems from the outside, we need a high dedication to keep do it.

Loving the nature is not just about the photos you take and upload into the social media, then everyone will praise and admire you. It is not that guys, not at all about that.
Loving the nature is about the extent to which you prove your love to the nature, the extent to which you can understand it, and the extent to which you can understand the language of the nature. Would you?

Nature often sends messages to us, but our intuition and sensitivity are too dull to understand them. In fact the proving of our love for this universe is not as simple as how they are shown by the photographs.

Then why am I still in love with it?

My friends, that's what love is. You do not need a definite reason for that. Love is something that can make you comfortable and peaceful. Just like my love of the serenity of this nature. I was fascinated by them, there was no right word about how I should describe this, but as far as I can tell is this hobby can give me serenity and peace. The tranquility of nature can be directly through my body and mind. What more can I say? Isn’t calm and peace are things that humans always looking for? And I find them here, Don’t you think that I am very lucky and blessed by God?

How the first time I fell in love with this Hobby?

Mmm, actually I started to realize about my love for nature since junior high school. I remember that my father who worked for the State Electric Company was assigned to one of the mountain areas in my district. But our family did not move there. My mother, my siblings, and I still live our life in town as usual. Only my father went home almost every week in the weekend, except there was an urgent thing that held him in the mountains.

Once Dad came home and showed me photos of his workplace in the mountain. I was so excited to hear it and thought that I was really want to come with him over there. But, because of my school activities at that time, I had not the opportunity to go with him there.

Sometimes, some of his workers came to visit us at the weekend. My mom would cook and I and my brother would listen carefully to the story about their work experience in the forest. My curiosity became bigger. Once I mentioned my Dad about my desire to come with him to work, but he refused and said that I should focus on my school, because at that time I was in the final year of junior high school. I was so impatient for the final exam to pass.

Finally at the senior high school, I had the opportunity to go there. I was very happy. Upon my arrival there, my dad's workers, who had generally known me, enthusiastically invited me around during their break. They know I've long wanted to go there. They even invited me to camp and enjoy the night with a wild fire in the woods. It was a night I never forgot. My love for this nature was getting bigger and bigger. The peace in the middle of the forest made me an opiate.

How long do I do this?

If counted since that high school, it means that I have already 14 years wrestled in it. But at high school I was not too routine in doing it, just when I was off of school. But ever since I was in the university and I joined a nature-loving organization, I have done it more and more. At that time, firstly we had to do basic education about the nature; we do learn about what we need to know when we are in the forest and also do physical exercises for a full week, before the seniors finally took us to the nature. We started to climb the mountains in Aceh.

There was so much I can learn during the climb, the traits of the participants gradually begin to appear. Some start being emotions, sensitive, angry, and some were choosing to be silent and did not really care of each other. But still also many of us did it as the instructions. All the traits that become characters of the members begin to appear. This is triggered due to tired circumstances during the trip. But, the seniors can guide us to stay loyal and unified no matter what.

And, you believe it or not, but many forests or mountains in Aceh have a mystical element, the human realm that we live in is not the only one in this universe. We must have a clean and sincere heart when we want to explore these forests, if we are no, we can be getting lost. This often happens to novice climbers who heed the local rules. In that forest I also learn about how we should have respect and love the nature as it should be.

Why did I do this?

Ah, a simple answer to this question is; I love it because this hobby provides the peace and calm for me. If I do not do it, I will miss it very much, as if the mountains are calling for me to visit.

Is this sound excessive? Of course not, you have to experience it in order to know what it feels like.
Isn’t the experience is the best teacher ever? That experience will teach and plaster you to be tough and sensitive to nature at the same time.

When I do this hobby?

In college, we did it very often; it can be monthly if circumstances are possible and there were not any test or final assignments from college. But now, since working as the officer, I have to steal the time to do it.
There is no special time btw, when there are free times and national holidays, I will take the chance to go to see my "love".

When climbing, I normally will invite or ask one or two friends who also has experience with the nature, I prefer to go with a really minim friend/s. It's easier to organize and equate our perceptions.

What do I think when doing it?

Like I said before, this hobby gives me serenity and peace. Even when the climbing trips itself, I was very happy. I enjoyed every second of it. The desire to get to the top of the mountain is very exciting. I wanted immediate feelings of satisfaction and peace when I take the breathed of fresh air on the top of the mountain.

Is this hobby is my priority?

Well, I really like this activity. This hobby is something I will miss when I cannot do it for a while. However, if I had to choose between spending time with my family and living this hobby, I would vote with my family. Since I cannot take them with me to climb, I'll have my family.

However, the reality here is that I am very lucky to have a family that always supports the positive activities that I do. So as long as my schedule to climb the mountain does not coincide with family activities, they will support me completely. They will pray for me to be safe during the trip.

Is my hobby expensive?

Hahaha ..
How much money do we spend in the mountains? Of course it is very little. I just need to provide money for food supplies for two or three days on the mountain. This is a cheap hobby. I just need to spend a lot of money when I bought the camping equipment, and this equipment can be used for years.

The only expensive thing about this hobby is the beauty and the peace that nature gives me. That is something that money cannot buy.

Am I an amateur or expert?

Mmm, I cannot say I'm an expert btw, but I'm not an amateur either. Exploring the forests and mountains is not the same as doing hobbies such as painting or singing or dancing. Because besides the skill and courage, climbing or exploring the forest requires more sensitivity to the nature. I may be an expert for the mountainous areas in Aceh, but I am not an expert for the areas I have never explored before. The physical strength and endurance required for each ascent and exploration are of course different, depending on the terrain we will explore.

For example, if I were asked to climb a mountain which is filled with snow, of course I had to prepare for a physical or mental training that I had never done before. In this case, I'm not an expert.

Am I lucky enough that this hobby is part of my job?
Well, this hobby is not a part of my job, but I still feel lucky and grateful because until now I still can do it well in accordance with my wishes.

Support from the people around me, I think, is enough to make me feel very lucky. Even after marriage, I can still do my hobby well, my wife even hopes she can come with me sometime if I climb.

If I have to explain to Alien about this hobby, how should I do it?

Btw this question is quite strange enough to me, but because I believe that there is life other than man, then I think I will say to those Aliens,

"Hey, did you come to the Earth to see how our Earth look like? Or maybe you wanna know what is going on here? Then you cannot miss the best part of our place, you must come and be united with our nature. Just come and see the most amazing part of our home. We have a wonderful natural peace here. "