Cycling Across Taiwan?? What?!

In our school, every student has to cycle through Taiwan in 12 days during their sophomore year. I know it sounds fun, but yeah, no. I also thought it sounded fun at first, but wow, definitely not after I started learning how to ride a bike. Learning how to ride a bike is definitely not easy for a teenager who got traumatized by falling off the bike when she was six. However, somehow, after the loop of practicing and falling, I finally managed to learn how to ride the bike.

After all those practices around everywhere in Taipei city, the day has arrived. We are soon going on the trip we have all been waiting for for months. To be honest, the trip was absolutely exhausting. At first, all the precipitous mountains and trunks look endless to me, especially while one is dizzily riding a bike with broken biking skills. Yet, while we get to sit down and eat an apple (or whatever random fruit they give us), I started feeling extremely thankful for ALL these things around us.

Then, at some point, I started to notice things while cycling, not only the views of coastline and blue skies, the taste of the salty air (not knowing if it's from the beach or just my sweat), and the forest we rode by, but also groves of cut-down trunks, fishing nets stuck on the shores, and the smashed birds in the middle of random highways. I can still recollect the flabbergasted, twisted, heartbroken emotions, and I believe they will linger in my heart forever and always.

I never expected myself to be influenced by things like this, but it obviously did. After the trip, I started focusing on things I used to overlook. The pollution produced by motorcycles and cars is no longer just choking smells that ruin my perfume, and I realized questions like "Have you ever seen articles talking about how future generations might not be able to see and know what trees and animals are?" are no longer just exaggerated lies to make people care about the environment. That's why I created this website, to remember the moments that made me care about this place, to share my journey of learning, caring, and inspire a bit of chang(e).

A picture of my friend and me embracing nature during the trip.