Never Stop Learning

Life goes on. Every second of it is priceless. Every moment of it paint a colour in our memory. It is really a choice how you wanna paint it. Just like my theme. It is a drawing book. You can paint any colour any picture you want. However, life is also about responsibility. The point is, can you be responsible for the picture or colour you draw?

Over the weekend I was a student in a photography class run by Komunitas Film Jeruk Purut. During those days, I was so lucky… learning all the important aspects and responsibilities of Director of Photography. Got to taste how it was like holding a 35mm film camera. Something I usually do not directly interact. Coz most of the time in a shooting set, I have to be with my Director or trying to convince clients that everything runs smoothly.

It sent my memory back to my golden and young era. I was standing on Scarborough beach trying to read the current and swell in front of me, before going in with my board. It was winter in Australia. But I felt in love so much with the ocean. Riding the waves, surrounded by heavy clouds – just like in Coldplay music clip “Yellow”. Be friend with the nature, not trying to defeat it.

Then a native surfer came up to me. This guy was a hard charger. I’d seen him a few times slicing the big waves in the local beach. When he was up on his feet, everyone of us who were in the set would give him the wave. Because we all knew he would treat the wave with much better style and power than us. He was a local legend. Later I found his name was Mark.

Mark; ‘Where ya come from buddy?’
Sakti; ‘Well, Im a student from Indonesia… I live here though’
Mark; ‘Yeah, I thought so ‘ay. Hey, can you do me a favor? I got this letter from a little boy I met in Nias a few moths ago. But he wrote the letter in Bahasa ‘ay…’
Sakti; ‘Sure, show it to me, I’ll translate it’
Mark; ‘I didn’t bring it with me ‘ay. U coming tomorrow?’
Sakti; ‘Maybe, if I don’t get any waves today’
Mark; ‘OK mate, so how long u been surfin?’
Sakti; ‘Im still learning. This is my second year’
Mark; ‘Mate, you will never stop learning’

I don’t know why. But that line…”YOU WILL NEVER STOP LEARNING” has been stuck in my mind until now. At that time my perception was only.. Fuck, this champion says that! He himself thinks that there’s a lot of things he needs to learn more in surfing. But now I see it differently… Life is not about trial and error. Life is about learning if you want to progress. Everyday we learn…. To be a better man.