Treehouse

Nowadays, treehouse is not something so foreign anymore. We may have seen it at some tourist objects, especially those which located near the forests or located in lodgings with outdoor concept. Some children parks or adult's outbound spots even have them. Some of them even gone viral, like treehouses in Coban Rondo camping ground and Nusa Penida's cliff. 

It has been widely accepted now. (At least here. I don't know about all places but in those western kid novels I read, the children were playing in a treehouse). At some point, at least to people around me, the concept of treehouse was so peculiar. I still remember the time when I was so obsessed with treehouse and people ridiculed it.

It was after I read an old comic titled "Swiss Family Robinson", I think. The comic was so old because it was Dad's childhood comic. I thought, 'the comic is Dad's so people who are the same age as Dad now must have been heard/know about this'. Because I was obsessed with it, I drew it anywhere and anytime.

And I mean, really anytime. In art class in school, I drew it for a few weeks consecutively. At home, I drew it leisurely. Of course, the designs were not the same. There were several forms and details I added to different pictures. But the object was still the same: treehouse. Either it was surrounded by forest or beach. 

At some point, my homeroom teacher asked me why I drew houses perched on a tree. I said that the building has a name: treehouse. I explained where I knew about it bla bla bla. He said that he never knew house like that. I told him it's okay because from the sources I obtained it was actually an emergency house, not a 'normal' one. It was used by someone when he was stranded—like the Swiss Robinson family—or by children when they were playing (later when I became an adult, I found out that some tribes including the ones in Indonesia use treehouse as their living home). I remembered a weird expression etched on his face at that time. I couldn't name it. It was mixed between confusion, confusion, and... disbelief.

I didn't think much about it. It wasn't until my friends asked me too. I told them the same thing I said to my teacher. There was one unforgettable response,

"I don't think that exists. I asked my dad and he said that the only treehouse he knows of is a birdhouse."

or in our language, "Masak, sih, ada yang kayak gitu? Aku nanya bapakku terus dibilang kalau rumah pohon yang bapak tahu ya rumah doro (merpati)."

Then they laughed. In a mocking tone. 

It was quite blurry but in the back of my head I recalled someone (probably) saying, "Ah dia ngayal, kali."

And I remember that I kept silent and looked back at those looks of disbelief with a stare in disbelief. 

"Maybe your dad doesn't know all thing? Maybe my dad actually knows more things than yours."

But they were insignificant and I knew they would keep mocking me if I explain it further (yeah you know how kids mocking, right) so I let that be.

This 'insignificant thing' reached the ear of my family members. They asked me the same thing: why I drew that, where I knew that from. And the ending was quite predictable.

"That's uncommon thing to draw. You should try to draw more normal things."

I declined. Why should I? Other people drew robots, princess and castles. Those were 'unreal' things too. So why should I stop? Moreover when I know that it was real, it existed.

The comic book itself was an adaptation from an old, classic, adult's adventure novel. And I mean, the treehouse had been shown everywhere aside from the comic I mentioned. Winnie The Pooh picture books (okay some people might not read it), TV's cartoon (certainly they had seen it because we talked about the cartoon at school). So why didn't they know of it? Why did they think I lied?

I didn't care. So I kept drawing treehouses until I got bored with it.

I realised now that the treehouse was a small detail in kids cartoon so they most probably didn't pay much attention to it while I recognised it because of mere-exposure effect.

At that moment, maybe up until this time, I might be a headstrong—or a stubborn one if you may—person. But, that character was what I actually need in some occasions. Yes, we—I—should consider another people's perspectives. As an adult, we have to be open to the other's opinion and then filter it. The problem is, as an adult, we—or just me? Maybe—pay attention to another's voice too much that we become docile and don't have our own voice. 

Or simply said as people pleaser.

Many adults do things not because they want it, but because the people around them told them to do it. The 'things' I mean are those that are trivial. Matters about prestige of owning some stuffs, wearing some stuffs. Things like that. 

In certain point, it reached some things that aren't quite trivial. Life choices, for example. Even though it gives more impact to my life than those trivial things. And I regret it.

At these times did I wish that I was as headstrong as the kid in me who kept drawing treehouse because that kid believed in me and believed in it. Even when people around me, adults around me, even my own family, doubted it. 

There were some occasions that I regret that I was headstrong, uncompromising.

But there were some occasions too that I regret why I wasn't headstrong and so compromising. 

Maybe I should've listened to my guts more than I listened to the voices around me.

Maybe I should believe to the 'treehouse' rooted in me.

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Disclaimer: photo is courtesy of AzzanArts