Aquarium of Life
Amrul As Hasan
When I see them through the wall of their home, I know that they are so special for me. They bring colors to my world, brighten the dark time of my life, and erase all of my painful, black memories. They are not human. They are amazing creatures that make my world.
My hobby of fish keeping was accidently began when my father bought me a pair of goldfish on my seventh birthday celebration. Since then, I started learning on how to take care of ornamental fish; techniques, and some skills to make them look beautiful in their home; the aquarium.
For me, fish keeping hobby does not just give me satisfaction, but it also give me inspiration, motivation, develop my creativity, teach me about science and bring nature close to me.
The colorful body of fish blended with the transparent water, small stones, and plants decoration inside the aquarium give me satisfaction, some peaceful feeling that cannot be described.
I consider the aquarium as a basic element in my room, and feeding the fish is my daily routine. Watching the fish in the aquarium; their shapes, the colors of their body scales, and the way they swim, give me some inspirations that nothing can give.
The sound coming from the flowing water in the aquarium give me ideal situation, where any ideas I need, flows to my brain, as fast as the water.
When I’m stressed facing bad time in life, the fish become my best companions that motivate me. I talk to them and tell them everything; my frustrations on relationships, sadness of being moved away by some people… By looking at how happy they live in aquarium, give me motivation to live happily in my world.
I see the fish keeping as a combination of hobby and decor. From loving this hobby, I can develop my creativity in decorating the aquariums. My decorations inside the aquarium don’t come from any books, but from my own idea. Although the decorations sometimes are not so attractive, but as the fish grow, my creativity also improved.
The mystery of the death of several of my fishes, develop my curiosity and interest in biology since I was in secondary school. The opportunity of watching one of my fish gives fries further strengthened my interest in science. The combination of beauty, attractiveness and thousand more characters of the fish influenced my decisions on taking major in Fishery science at this university.
The aquarium also, brings the nature close to me. As I look they swim gracefully, feed greedily, and sometimes, mates full in love, I remind myself that the nature around me is not just to be conserved but more than that, it must be appreciated for the color it give to my life.
The fish keeping, for me is more than a hobby. It’s more than that. It’s an aquarium of inspiration, motivation, creativity, science and nature.
*Aquarium of Life is an introduction speech i presented in public speaking class during my second semester at University Malaysia of Terengganu. Special thanks to Ashraf Abdul Rahman for editing the speech outline.
