My (Greatest) Achievement in Life

My First Trip to Bukit Kaba

Achievemment comes in many ways and forms. Everyone has their own views regarding this particular matter. The way I see it, an achievement is something that one succeeded to reach after going through struggle and suffering in the process. It does not have to be a big thing; it could be a small thing in which we fight against the odds to accomplish it. Every achievements we have won is a reminder: that we have fought hard, bled, and survived the inevitable; that everything we have accomplished is a battle scar which we wear with proud and pride, and that we will never forget them. Not one bit.

I, too, have my own achievements, though I am just going to share one of them: an achievement I just recently accomplished. A big one. It was all started about one week ago, when a few of my fellow English students and I were planning to go somewhere for a vacation.  I thought “yeah, why the hell not?”. There were several options of destinations yet we still had not decided which one to visit, until one friend pointed out that we should go hiking and camping on Bukit Kaba. This idea thrilled me out: I have never climbed a single hill, let alone a mountain. At one point, I was so excited: who doesn’t? It is my first time anyway. On the other hand, it worried me: what if I could not make it to the top? But my firends assured me that I would get to the peak of the mountain, just like everyone else did. They also convinced me that I can take a rest whenever I feel too exhausted to continue and not to be ashamed of it because they will wait for me regardless. Good people, they are. And it settled: we will camp on Bukit Kaba.

The day finally came for us to execute our plan. We went to each other’s houses first to grab everything we need. Later,  we headed to a shop where we rented a tent and a small stove. I had to leave my identity card for insurrance. After we made our preparation, we went to a friend’s house. There, we took another tent and prepared ourselves one more time. We left our motorcycles in his house. Off we go!

We had to walk to the checkpoint post right below the mountain. It was quite a walk. It was pretty far up the road and it is safe to say that we have wasted some of our stamina doing this long walk. We could have gone with our motorcycles but we did not want to spend more money for the cost it takes to keep our vehicles there. After half an hour of tiring walk we eventually reached the post. There, we made sure our water supply is enough.

Before we climbed the mountain, we prayed first. Our oldest firend led the prayers. The first thing we encountered was a group of staircase-like path so steep all the way up. This alone had made me so exhausted that I had to ask them to stop and drank some water to restore my strength. We stopped so many times; mostly because I asked them to. They kept convincing me. Everytime we stopped, we told jokes and funny stories to each other so we would not feel so tired. And we kept encouraging ourselves. Not to mention photographs. We took plenty of them in our way up, in every chances we got.

We came across many climbers. One thing I learned here is that you will and have to be friendly. Because in a place in situation like this, you need everyone. You will need every help you can get. So, hospitality plays a vital role in this part. We ran across many people, mostly those in our ages. We took rests together, said hi to each other, and joking around to keep boosting our stamina.

About some time later we finally made it up to the top. I was really grateful that I could be here, surrounded by smiling faces and laughters. But we had to climb further one more time to find another spot for this one was full. It was a tough climb but it didn’t really matter because the views were so fascinating: we could see smoky craters below us and we also got to see the city far down there. And the wind was so refreshing as well.

We managed to get to our camp site. It was a great place with beautiful views: the cities on one side and Bukit Barisan mountain on the other. We set our tent up, took out our things off our bags and started preparing our meals. I enjoyed the cold, refreshing wind as well as the views. We were so grateful that in that day because the odds were in our favor: The sun was shining bright, the sky was crystal clear, and not even rain dared to poured itself to the ground; considering it had been raing for days before our journey. What a lucky day for us all.

At night, we gathered around campfire while singing songs and playing guitar, drinking our hot coffees and milks and telling stories. There was no signal here so no one was busy with their cellphones, at least not for video games and else. Instead we actively used our phones to take as many pictures as we could. We must photographed every moments. Everything was precious from the beginning to the end of our trip here. We slept so tight in our tents as if all of our burdens were lifted in an instant.

The next morning, after a simple, delicious meal we preapred ourselves to go home. We took our last pictures in this camp site. And we did not forget to make sure we did not leave a single trash there. Then we began our trip one more time. This time, we did not go through the woods where we came from; but instead we went whrough another safer but longer path: a very long ashpalt road through the forest. Everything we saw in our way was trees, noticably the bamboo ones. We also came across some kind of orange, edible fruit. This fruit was small. My friends called it “ceri hutan” or forest cherry, or something like that. It was more than enought to moistened our thirsty throats considering all of our water supplies were run out.

We finally reached the checkpoint post at mid day. We took a rest for a moment while two of our friends headed back home with a ride by his friend and then got back with their own motorcycles. There were two of them but enought to get us home. We first stopped at our friend’s house. There, I took a nap because I was so exhausted yet very satisfied. After that we enjoyed our meals. Later, we went to the shop to returned all of the stuff we rented and picked up my identity card as well. We all headed back home safely. That was the end of our Bukit Kaba trip.

It was one of my greatest achievements and definitely on of the most memorable one, too. I can’t believe that I had ever doubted myself. That was the proof that I am capable in doing such thing. So many memories and stories we got form this journey. It teached us about hospitality, cooperation, and unity. This is not a kind of moment you will always get easily. You will ahve to go through pain and struggle to achieve. Therefore, I value this experience so high. I can not wait for another trip!

Curup, April 14^th 2019

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