The Immaculate Easter Break (; Part I ;)

Easter break is usually a period of time where a lot of people wait for. It is the only gap in spring semester, well, I am speaking on students’ behalf anyway. 

So, this is my story during the break!

I didn’t go to France or Prague. Not really my current passion, at least. I went Into The Woods.

Technically, the first place we went was not a wood at all. It was a hill, Mam Tor Hill. I said we, who is another person?

Kak Najwa.
She was my housemate/roommate for since I got in Sheffield.

It was just another day, trying to convince ourselves to get out of bed, as usual. It is a real struggle anyway with that below 10  ̊C temperature. So, we departed from home at almost noon by train. We had to walk from a nearby town to the place of interest for about half an hour but we did not feel fatigue since it was our first time to go to such place. Surprisingly, the town itself was so peaceful that we decided to hang around for a while. How can it not be? The Castleton town has a river, lots of acres of farms, the hills look as green as a mint leaf.

Mam Tor is a very excellent place for beginners to hike. You can wear a pair of jeans without thinking of getting it dirty even a bit. Just prepare yourself to beat the stormy wind. It can make you sick. I did, for a week. Only 3 hours of steady hiking though, good for building stamina if you are preparing yourself for a marathon, breathing exercise and simply because it is good for you to get out of your house and do something different occasionally. Again, I am talking on students’ behalf. We tend to get stressed because of stacks of assignments, tonnes of presentations, tutorials and societies’ responsibilities so why don’t give yourself a break and see the nature. The view was greenly pleasant, I can tell you that.

As a matter of fact, green is the colour of Heaven. So, you bet how peaceful you can be after seeing it for yourself.

We then got so tempted to see another part of Sheffield after seeing such a view at Mam Tor and so decided to go to Bamford Edge a week after that. This time, we got more companies.

From left to right; Atiqah, Kak Najwa, Nadia, me and Amira.

They are all in the same scholarship programme as me, different courses by the way except Amira, she is chem-buddy. 

Bamford Edge was a new level of hiking. The hiking trail is a bit steeper than our previous one but fun. We ate lunch at the peak, literally at the edge of Edge. I am afraid of heights, not to be standing near the edge is my fear to be specific. Anyways, we took nice photos on our way up and whilst at the peak plus got lost on our way down. We got home after dark. 

Nonetheless, getting lost in the nature really means something to each of us. Different lessons yet useful for the future. As for mine, I learned that humans’ plans aren’t really the best because Allah is The Best Planner. I am sure that everyone knows this but can we all really instil it inside our hearts when things go ‘wrong’?  I know I am still in the process. This is just a quick self-reminder. 

Lucky for us, another sort of nature reserve was very close to The Edge. It’s named as Ladybower Reservoir. Some people come here for fishing, another some come here for eye pleasure and another some come here for a family day out. Apart from being scared of heights, I am also scared of water. Anything deeper than a bath tub like photo below scares me because I don’t know how to swim. It is not something that I am proud of but it is the fact and facing life facts can be difficult to some people nowadays maybe including me. Lots of ups and downs that we all have faced in our lives yet sometimes we still wondering or questioning ‘what if…’ questions. Not really a good thing but this is another life fact that we gotta face, aye?

This particular experience; standing near to this huge engineering machine taught me something. Time moves even faster than this and we all chasing it like crazy just to achieve dreams or goals in life. It makes all sense but I learned that we just need to go with the flow and adapt and do our best in timely manner, in present. We don’t have to chase anything, all good things will come to us if we manage to do all three above because that is exactly what Allah has mentioned in The Qur’an. We cannot be so attached to this temporary world, it is solely just a test platform for us to prepare for Hereafter.

Another fascinating lesson that I’ve learned was that when we get so worldly attached to something/someone, we will get hurt eventually. If we prepare for an exam like a robot just to get good grades and after that good university then a decent job for the rest of our lives and all for what? What is really the meaning beyond all those decent and good stuff we get from robotic manner of preparing ourselves in an exam?  I believe this apply to all situations in life, not only examinations.

Moving on to the next part…