Showing posts with label college life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label college life. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Along the Highway It Comes

Posted by Unknown at 5:08 AM 0 comments







Bertahun-tahun lalu, sebelum tragedy Lumpur Lapindo, saya paling suka melintasi jalan tol dalam perjalanan Malang – Surabaya dan sebaliknya. Nggak ada sebab yang khusus. Hanya saja saya suka banget melihat pemandangan yang saya lewati selama perjalanan. Saya bisa lihat Gn. Arjuno yang menjulang gagah berdampingan dengan Gn. Penanggungan di sisi kiri jalan dan Gn. Semeru di sisi jalan yang lain. Itu belum termasuk hamparan sawah dan padang rumput hijau yang luas. Bikin ketagihan deh pokoknya. Apalagi kalo kita perginya waktu pagi atau senja hari, makin keren pemandangannya.
            Untuk urusan menjelajahi jalan tol ini, saya punya seorang temen yang punya selera sama kayak saya. Malah lebih parah. Kalo dia lagi bete, dia biasanya langsung cabut ke terminal bus trus kabur ke Surabaya. Sesampainya di sana, dia langsung naik bus lagi balik ke Malang. Cuma untuk lihat pemandangan di sepanjang jalan tol itu. Hehehe, ada ya orang kayak gitu.
            Ada satu pengalaman paling berkesan yang muncul waktu kami sedang dalam perjalanan Surabaya-Malang via tol suatu hari. Awalnya saya ketemu dia di kampus pagi-pagi. Dia lagi nongkrong di depan secretariat Pecinta Alam lengkap dengan jins belel kebanggaannya.
            “Kamu udah sarapan, Luk?” dia negur saya.
            “Boro-boro. Tadi aja telat bangun,” jawab saya asal.
            “Sarapan yuk?”
            “Dimana?” saya balik nanya.
            “Surabaya lewat jalan tol. Aku traktir nih,” dia nyengir.
            Dan saya bukanlah tipe orang yang terbiasa menolak traktiran. Jadilah kita pergi ke terminal bus saat itu juga. Cuaca sedang cerah waktu itu. Matahari bersinar, tapi nggak terasa panas (kok kayak lirik lagunya Slank?). Pokoknya cuaca yang bagus untuk kelayapan.
            Di bus kami nggak banyak bicara. Saya lebih sibuk dengan Wrigley Spear Mint di mulut saya. Sementara temen saya (yang kayaknya lagi bete itu) tenggelam dalam lamunan sambil mengoyak karcis busnya menjadi serpihan-serpihan kecil. Setiap lima menit dia melemparkan secuil serpihan itu ke rambut keriting penumpang yang duduk di depannya. Saya baru menyadari ketika penumpang itu turun, rambutnya udah penuh serpihan karcis bus.
            Waktu saya tegur, temen saya itu cuma ketawa sambil ngomong,”Lah, orang dianya ikhlas kok kamu sewot.”
            Dasar!
            Kami kemudian makan di salah satu fast food di Plaza Tunjungan. Masih tanpa pembicaraan berarti. Rupanya temen saya bener-bener bete. Tapi yang saya nggak abis pikir, kok dia malah ngajak saya jalan-jalan? Temen yang aneh …
            Seusai makan, rute berbalik kembali ke terminal bus. Cuaca mulai sedikit mendung. Ketika bus yang kami tumpangi mulai  bergerak, gerimis mulai turun satu-satu meninggalkan titik-titik basah di kaca jendela. Saya larut menikmati pemandangan di luar jendela.
            “Luk, hal apa yang bikin kamu sedih?” temen saya tiba-tiba buka suara.
            Saya menggigit bibir sebentar lalu menjawab, “Ya macem-macem sebab sih. Nggak tentu. Tapi paling sedih waktu ibuku meninggal.”
            Temen saya mengangguk.
            “Hebat. Kamu bisa melewati saat-saat berat itu sendirian. Gimana sih biar bisa kayak gitu?”
            Bus mulai memasuki kawasan tol. Gerimis sudah berhenti. Di luar jendela, padang rumput hijau terbentang menyejukkan mata siapa saja. Tapi kali ini saya lebih tertarik menatap ke langit.
            “Tuh liat,” saya nempelin telunjuk ke kaca jendela. “Bagian sisi awan mendung ada garis-garis peraknya. Liat nggak?”
            Temen saya mencondongkan tubuh mendekati jendela.
            “So what?”
            “Itu artinya setiap permasalahan selalu ada sisi baiknya. Awan mendung itu ibarat masalah yang kita hadapi dan garis-garis perak itu mewakili segala kemungkinan bagi kita untuk menjadi lebih baik. Coba bayangin, apa yang terjadi pada garis-garis perak itu kalo mendungnya tertiup angin?”
            Temen saya diam sejenak.
            “Yang terjadi adalah … langit jadi cerah, atau … ada pelangi.”
            “Bagus mana, mendung atau pelangi?”
            “Ya bagus pelangi-lah! Jauuuhh.”
            “Kalo gitu, ngapain sekarang kamu bete? Apa pun masalahmu, di balik itu ada pilihan yang lebih baik. Paham?”
            Dia tersenyum.
            “Iya bener. Aku baru tau kamu pinter bikin kata-kata bagus kayak gitu, Luk. Nggak sia-sia kamu jadi anak Sastra.”
            “Pinter apaan? Wong itu tadi aku adaptasi dari ungkapan bahasa Inggris jaman SMA, every cloud has silver lining.” giliran saya ketawa.
            Anyway, sesampainya di Malang, temen saya itu udah nggak bete lagi. Entah karena pemandangan indah di sepanjang jalan tol atau malah gara-gara ungkapan ‘every cloud has silver lining’ itu.
            Sebelum kami berpisah di kampus, dia berujar, “Thanks nasehatnya ya? Pasti aku inget deh.”
            “Oke, tapi plis deh, kalo bete jangan ngajak aku jalan-jalan lagi. Garing abis tau nggak?”
            Lagi-lagi dia ketawa.
            “Nggak. Aku nggak bakal ngajak kamu lagi. Kalo bete aku bakal ngeliat langit and I know everything’s fine. There’s no need to worry.”
            Saya berbalik sambil mengangkat bahu sekilas, “Well, I hope so.”






Photo courtesy http://wallpapersus.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Blue-Sky-Clouds-Grass.jpg

Monday, May 20, 2013

The Story of a Green Old Carabiner

Posted by Unknown at 5:52 PM 0 comments

Climbing was a part of my life when I was at university. Unfortunately, on my parents’ mind, climbing was the most ridiculous thing I had ever done. My (late) Mom always said, “Stop it or I’ll ask the university to send you back home. You make me get heart attack soon!”
            And Dad said, “Please do something more useful than leaving your lecture every Saturday!” (umm, I often escaped from the class on Saturday to climb ;-p).
            For the first time of my life, I thanked God that I was a black sheep of the family. Simply I didn’t pay any attention to what my parents said. Lucky for me, I lived thousands miles away from my parents so they couldn’t do anything more than giving me their words on the phone. And I did the same. A minute before I went for climbing session, I always called them saying, “Mom, Dad, I’m on my way to climb. Wish me luck, okay? I love you.” Before they could reply, I ended my call.
            It was really hard times for me. At one side I enjoyed my life but on the other side I felt sorry for my parents. One day, when I was climbing the rock wall of Lembah Kera, I remembered my Mom. It happened suddenly and made me miss her so much. On my mind I saw her sitting in our living room. In her hands were photographs of my last climbing I sent to her. She smiled but her tears rolling down on her face.
            I slipped a chox hurriedly to the crack, set the safety rope and stopped climbing.  Slowly I started to cry. I didn’t know how long I hung up there crying. All I can remember was my belayer friend shouted below asking me if I was okay. One of my climber friends then climbed to me.
            “It’s okay. Come on, let’s go down,” said he.
            As we reached the ground, I sat quiet wiping remain tears away from my face. None of my friends tried to speak. They already knew exactly what happened to me. After ten minutes passed in silence, Didi, my closest climber friend came to me. He sat next to me and softly handed me a green old carabiner.
            “What is it?” I gazed at him.
            “It’s my lucky carabiner. I don’t know if it will work on you but I want you to keep it.” He replied.
            I smiled saying, “Hey, I am a muslim. I shouldn’t believe in that superstitious thing.”
            He shrugged his wide shoulders.
            “Alright, I see. Then, would you keep it to remind you of this day? I mean, to remind you of the day you were crying up there?”
            I couldn’t help myself from laughing. I whacked his arm using my black bandanna. “What do you mean?”
            “It’s simple. Just want you to know that there’s no one can stop you unless you permit them to do it. Do you see what I mean?”
            He left me alone with his old green carabiner in my hands. I understood what he said. Two months later, something wonderful happened to me. The same as always, I called my parents a moment before I went for climbing. Before I ended the call, I heard my Mom said, “Please promise us you’ll be careful there, Kid. We always pray for you everywhere you go. So, take care of yourself for us, okay?”
            That was the day I found my freedom. I knew what I want and no one can stop me. But, please don’t think that it happened because of Didi’s green old carabiner. Nope. I thought it was because my parents got bored of what I said on the phone repeatedly. They needed to say something at last.
            Nowadays, that old green carabiner is hanging on my bedroom’s door. Everytime I miss Didi, I just look at my door and … voila!! I find him again inside my mind ^_^
 

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