I’ve started walking to school (about 1.5km away) every morning since the first day of this semester. A lot of people have asked me why. Here’s a bunch of reasons why.

Primarily, I walked to school everyday to train and get myself used to walking a distance with a load on my back (the first day I walked to school, my backpack weighed 20kg). I intend to do some serious hiking and trekking in the future, and it doesn’t matter where. There’s a pretty good chance I’ll be going to New Zealand for my undergraduate studies, and I heard hiking and trekking there are pretty terrific :) .

And yeah, of course there’s other benefits of walking (though they’re not really the reason why I decided to walk to school). I gain health benefit and do not have to worry or feel bad for my fitness and health while still have my evenings free to watch Scrubs or Stargate or even sleep. I woke up at around 6.10AM everyday, so there’s my early Subuh prayer. And then I don’t need coffee in the morning any more. Walking briskly is enough to charge up my body and prepare me for the day. And I notice I’m now capable of doing maths questions which I doubt I was capable of before. And my thoughts are sharper too, and my focus and attention span are lengthened. Not only that, I got to buy nasi lemak from the stall along the way and have a good glass of teh tarik from cafeteria everyday. It’s a great start for a day, really.

And I helped reduce carbon emission from the van too. And sometimes I play music on my phone and sing along with it (while holding it as if it’s a microphone).

But then some people ask me, don’t you feel uncomfortable in class after you’ve sweated from the walk? Nah, I don’t really sweat that much from the walk, and any perspire is quickly dried away under the cafeteria fan. Now that it’s already two weeks of walking, my body is getting used to it and I barely sweat any more.

(And I try to make it that once a week I jog to school.)

So yeah, there’s a whole bunch of good reasons to walk to school. I’ve been walking to school for two weeks now, and so I extend this invitation to all my good friends.

This is an open invitation. Come walk with me.