My name is Diandra Ramadhani Salindeho, currently a university student and still going strong. I might be the sort of person you might think as the “quiet girl” and you might be right, but once i start talking about things that interest me, i won’t stop until i exhaust all topics. But enough about me, it’s time for me to tell you guys about my reflections i had several years ago.

Life has a lot of hardship, whether it’s big or small, everyone has some form of difficulty in their lives regardless of where they are and their social status. Sometimes it comes in unexpected forms, and the hardships came in the form of climbing a mountain for me. It was nothing extreme, just a normal trek to the top of Ijen Mountain. You’d think that trekking up a mountain would be easy, but turns out it wasn’t all that easy.

It was around 3 or 4 AM, everyone’s expressions at the parking lot of the mountain was filled with curiosity, excitement, and the feeling of wonder what they’re gonna see up there on the land above the clouds. The first 30 minutes of trekking was filled with chatter between me, my brother and my dad, that we should take it slow and steady, so as to not tire ourselves. Halfway through the trek towards the first ranger post we started seeing a lot of people giving up halfway on their treks or seeing some of them tending to their tired companions.

Because of the constant breaks, seeing the defeated faces of other people giving up and the negative thoughts that I wouldn’t make it past the first post caused me to start tearing up. Seeing my pace has slowed down to a stop, my dad started urging me that going back down isn’t going to reward you with anything and you’re just gonna end up with disappointment. Maybe it’s because of the shame that I gave up so easily or the feeling of wanting to grab the once in a lifetime reward that’s just dangling there in front of me caused me to start walking again. One small break at the post and the trek towards the top became easier knowing that I’ve passed a huge hurdle of overcoming your own doubts’s. The beautiful view of the sunrise at the end was worth all the pain I went through.

Giving up something seem’s like the easiest thing to do, but the multitude of what ifs and disappointment that’s going to come is something that’s going to drag you under and cause you pain in the future. Remember that all of your effort and hardships is worth it, you’re doing great and the reward you’ll receive is worth everything.