I promise ...

I booked for two hiking trips 30 days away from each other. Yes, I was a little overconfident and too daring to go for two trips in a row and now I am feeling scared. So, I decided to join the training sessions religiously. This week we started a 3-hr walk from Bukit Panjang. It rained yesterday and now going to rain again. I haven't found waterproof hiking shoes yet thus I am still wearing walking shoes. One of my hiking partners suggested me to wrap the shoes with shopping bags to prevent getting my legs wet. I found it odd to walk in the wrapped shoes. However, I decided to try it. And I am glad for my decision as I have been enjoying it throughout the journey.



We had passed the grass field without getting my toes wet. It started to rain when we entered the forest. The cool weather allowed us to walk faster. All I can hear was the heavy rain drops hitting on the leaves and the frequent heavy foot steps from my hiking partners. That was what exactly I had hoped for. The quietness provided a moment of solitude for me. After operating myself for the whole week at the speed driven by my workload, I need some time to reflect.

I am not the neat-and-tidy type of person. I am unorganized in a few aspects of my life. I hate preparing timetable for study during my school years. I dislike pushing myself to meet the timelines at work. I am bad in thinking through the process and taking precautions. Just like this morning, I would never thought of wrapping my feet to prevent from my shoes getting dirty and my toes getting wet. For me, the shoes are meant to be dirty when the roads are muddy. The feet are bound to be wet when we walk in the rain. Without my friend's suggestion, I would have just walked into the rain.

You may want to ask me "what is so good about that?" Yes, nothing great. It was an incident which highlights the benefits of preparation. We have another training session tomorrow. If my shoes are dirty or soaking wet, I may not be able to go for the session tomorrow. Even worse, if my feet were wet and I caught cold, it would take at least a few days to get it cured. If I didn't train well, I may turn out to be the burden for my hiking partners. I may not reach the summit; I may not enjoy the whole trip. Then, what is the point of going for such trips.

Those details are not so important in normal day-to-day life. But while preparing for two tough trips (yes, they seem to be tough for me) the details play important part. When you are climbing up to the summit, or while you are going through critical stage of life, a single carelessness could cause domino affect which lead us to the failure.

With some preparation, i hope I should be able to minimize the time I spend searching for the required information and hopefully I miss less deadlines. In the highlight of this little experience, I promise myself to spend some time in tidying up my room, my desk and my wardrobe. I promise myself to take some time in making a to-do list, reviewing it and canceling the completed tasks. I promise to keep this promise for some time.