13 February 2013
I’m
officially jobless today. For the next 15 (or more) days, I will be a useless
citizen of this country in addition to those thousands of less fortunate creatures out there. While
this sounds depressing, I’d rather like to look at the brighter side. This means
that I have a lot of spare time to fix a few broken things, have a good
breath of fresh air, have a luxurious time to exercise this art called blah-ging, and probably, for the first
time in an incredibly long time, have a long good sleep as I don’t have to worry
about waking up early the next day.
Meanwhile,
irony struck me as I ran out of something to write about, now that I have all the
time on earth to waste. So I’m taking a few steps back in time, to that day I had the most problematic but one of the most memorable ones so far. Based on my current circumstance, guess this warrants some life introspections perhaps.
Small dreams stir no man’s
heart.
I used to be playing in the safe zone, mostly focusing on hills I already climbed. Until
I risked things, tried some meaningful & life-changing ways. Including climbing
mountains, which is totally foreign & unfamiliar territory to me. This year, with some friends, I
started to go beyond my self-set bounds. I started climbing real mountains. I used to have a terrible fear of heights back then (and until now),
but after a couple of hikes, I’m near to convincing myself that I have somehow overcome
this fear a little at least.
Benefit of the Doubt. That day, the heavy rains crashed our initially planned overnight quest to Mt. Batulao. Surprisingly, this plan B came out spontaneously. Our goal was to find an alternate, easier climb, just nearby as it was raining hard the previous nights. The rain isn't exactly the right friend we need during a climb so I was partly hesitant pushing through the laid-out plan. Some say when in doubt just drop it but some would also say just do it. Glad I stick to the latter. Despite the unpleasant weather, we wholeheartedly
pushed with the hike, which was truly worth it after.
Not until we’re lost do we
begin to understand ourselves. The fallback slash rebound climb was this mountain on the
outskirts of San Pablo and Nagcarlan called Mt Mabilog. Read again. Like any other peak, (even at 428 MASL), this mountain should never be underestimated.
As we chose the hard way (Sta. Catalina jump-off) to reach the peak, the hard way did we get. In the midst of the
trail, we got lost. The supposed two-hour hike was doubled. There were parts of the climb where the trail was literally not visible. In the
midst of vastness and nothingness, we relied on our guts and went on. Turning
away is simply just not an option. As with life, we just need to keep moving forward.
If the mountain were smooth,
you couldn’t climb it.
Sure enough, the climb went hard as the trails were smooth. We were racing with
gravity with mud all over the place. We spent the day trailing behind each
other up slopes lush with dark browny dumps scrabbling over loose
grass. Most of us slipped and slid as we scrambled
our way up the mountain. Indeed, a smooth road requires a smooth walk.
Good thing, the weather still worked in our favor; it didn't rain hard for the rest of the climb.
After nearly four hours of wandering on uncertainties, we’re convinced we’ve reached our goal. We
were triumphant to conquer yet another mountain on our continuously growing list. We had a few more moments cherishing the view up there, a few minutes to capture the success through flashing lenses. Then
we had our lunch before planning to descend on a much easier other trail.
