When I was in high school, we used to go hiking to the mountain called Uludag in Bursa with my
best friends. The trip would take up to 7 hours and involve some climbing. We would explore
many places: small mountain villages, secret caves. We'd encounter all sorts of wildlife squirrels, birds, even turtles! We were never afraid of getting lost because every time we went
into a new pathway, we found a breathtaking scene of that beautiful mountain. There were lots
of pine trees with long needles, so it was always a green mystery for me to walk behind those
trees. It was a great adventure for me.
Sometimes we met strange elderlies climbing the hardest points by themselves. These folks,
climbing like mountain goats, were unreal. They'd share stories about the mountain, about life
lessons they learned. Sometimes we found types of berries I had never seen before. After
stuffing ourselves with those strange berries, we always made sure to double-check they
weren't poisonous first!, our eyes peeled for hidden waterfalls or maybe even a secret cave. It
was all about exploring new things. It's odd that I just realized now. I never got tired during these
trips. Finding new things must have given me a special energy, maybe the energy those
elderlies carried.
Those hikes totally changed the way I see nature now. It's this giant playground, full of surprises
and challenges to overcome. Uludag taught me that even when things get super hard, like those
climbs that made us want to give up, there's always a way to reach the top. And the view from
up there? Totally worth all the sweat. It's kinda like life, I guess. There will be ups and downs,
but if you keep pushing through, you will see some amazing stuff. I still have this sense of
adventure in my life and I believe everything is going to be fine in the end as it was in those
trips. So I'm trying to enjoy my life and explore new things.