Naturalist

 

'She' was born before me.

I started to take interest in nature since i can remember.

Im that girl my father would call out from the back lawn if im missing from the house.

I'm the daughter that insisted on sleeping outdoors until morning when the electricity went off.

Im always the most sulky when its not my turn for forest harvesting with my dad since i always volunteer.

I'm the animal lover discovered by my father after he set a test for me and my sister on whether we should kill the monitor lizard for our food or should we let it live.

Im that girl who at 10 years old took out my little 3 wheel bicycle into the swamps area with no human inhabitants just because it was a bright sunny day.

I'm that student who went into a hole in the ground to fetch the ball and furious my teacher fearing it's a snake's nest.

And im that girl who believe about the story told by my friend that the reason why the red ants sting so bad is because they actually hide a little sword in their belly and stab us with it when it felt threatened.

As soon as i turned 17 (i was born in december, i literally took my spm while still being 16 years old)i started to look for jobs and as i moves around town i spotted a girl just about my age wearing a white tshirt with a Wildlife Expedition tour company logo.

And i thought she must be working with the animals and nature. I strive to get such jobs.

But that idea swept by as my current reality leads me to a different direction of meaningless venture.

Something happened after that and the universe kind of nudged me to get into my desired life path.

I was depressed looking for a job and just contacting anybody to help me out.

Jobless, i replace my dad on doing runs to send my brother to school.

One day i arrived home and my father said someone had been calling you many times he took the number and i called back.

It was an open interview for a tour company

I still don't know which company until i arrive and it was Wildlife expedition. My acquaintance that's been calling me was worried that i missed her call and the interview and glad i made it to the interview session.

I impressed the interviewers with a good english speech and signed in on the spot.

That was 1999.

I worked as a tourist guide and lived my dream life.

Later in 2001 we had a course for a licensed tourist guide.

Again I impressed my superiors, colleagues and the panel to a point one of my colleagues called me a 'a naturalist'

Back then a part of me felt he's being sarcastic due to jealousy on all the attention i get.

A part of me...don't quite understand what a Naturalist is.

I would rather be called a star student, an expert, best tourist guide but a naturalist is...too humble, mundane and basic to me at that time.

I stopped guiding in 2006 due marriage but resume on freelance basis up till 2010, i quit the tourism industry once and for all and had a total makeover with my life beginning 2011 by joining the public sector.

I basically just leisure through nature and not look into being specific towards it until 2016 when i climb the mt.kinabalu for the second time.

From there i started doing trips of hiking,rafting, camping, paragliding many outdoors activity.

And now, i practice grounding therapy expansively and feel more connected with nature than ever before.

As per currently im reading a book that tells a story about Opal Whiteley and it struck me what a true Pollyanna and im curious about her and went on searching for her in the internet only to found out we had 2 days difference on our birthday.

Makes sense.

So i thought i was weird.

Being called a naturalist odds me.

Then i realized...'She' has been born before and it was Opal Whiteley.

This proves that we are all a collective being, connected with one another sans separation and time is just an illusion.

So remove the idea of us being the weirdos, freaks or left out.

We are all one.