Monday, February 20, 2017

Mother Nature: The Mother We Don’t Know

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.

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