Living in a country
where more than half of it is still untouched by human hands may be great
reason for me to write this essay. People may expect something big. And it is
disappointing to say that I won’t write anything big. My whole life, I’ve been
surrounded by jumble of wires packed into steel. They call it technology. I
call it obstacle and challenge at the same time. My parents complain that my
childhood was not as harsh as theirs are because I didn’t spend mine planting
rice plant in filthy mud or climbing trees with friends. Every time they tell
me that, I want to scream ‘Why can’t I have the same experience you had? Don’t
you ever think that I want that, too? Why was I surrounded by camera lenses
instead of sunrays? Where was nature for me?’ I live in the city, one of the
biggest in our country. Wild forests and sea are far from here. My social
studies teacher said that half the land of Indonesia is forest. And so I keep
wondering, where are those trees?
Kids my ages are all
fools. We don’t see nature, we only see our parents’ camera lenses. We don’t
know what rice grain looks like, we only know the sight of a bowl of porridge
our maid made. We don’t see the beauty in a tree, we only memorize the latin
name of it in social studies class. And yet adults are throwing their rage at
us. We don’t appreciate nature anymore, they say. We ungrateful kids only know
how to turn on our parents’ phone and play games, they say. Little did they
know that we miss nature. Isn’t it magical, to miss something you don’t quite
know?
I’ve been staying
unacquainted with nature too long, and this is my wish. Ten years from now, I don’t picture myself
being a doctor or a pilot. Instead, I will live near both forest and sea. I
will live in a cabin made from woods. I don’t want telephone wires to block the
sunlight from my face. I want to ride my bike to the beach when the sun sets. I
want to be woken by chirps of birds instead of alarm’s roar. I want to have a
pet, a cat with thick fur if the heaven allow. I want to write on piece of
paper and draw on the other side of it. I want to get rid of my mobile phone,
even if it means cutting contact with my old classmates. I want to make fire
and camp in the forest one night, with a nice book to keep me company. I want
to play outside all day, and come home in the evening to my warm cabin where I
will cook dinner. This is my utopia. But it won’t be my reality.
When I grow up, I want
to prevent the new generation from feeling the way I did. I want them to be
familiar with nature, so when they see caterpillar they won’t scream but gently
set it on a tree instead. I don’t want to make them memorizing the name of the
biggest forest in the country, I want them to feel love for it so they can
protect it from harm. I want them to feel that nature is everywhere, and
artificial world is not in power yet. Nature is our mother, and it’s only
natural for us to know her.