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Fishing is my most favorite thing to do here in the Maldives and a lot of my colleagues have noticed my love for this activity. My friend even said, when Aysa hears about fishing, she forgets everything – even me.

Whenever there are fishing trips, I am usually present. Sometimes I get invited, sometimes I gate crash the fishing party.

If you have never tried to go on a fishing trip, you might be wondering why I like fishing.

First of all, I find joy whenever I get on the boat and set sail. I like to be out on the sea. I get to see picturesque sunsets or starry skies. I get to hear the waves and I get to feel the relaxing effect of this natural music.

The second reason why I love fishing is the excitement that I get whenever I feel the movement of my bait, when a fish is biting it. And most especially, I get excited whenever I catch a fish.

But more importantly, I like fishing because it has taught me, and is still teaching me valuable lessons in life.

When one goes out for fishing, one needs the knowledge and skills, good weather, luck and timing (this is according to me).

My colleagues who are really pro in fishing know when and when not to set sail. When it is too windy, the waves will be very strong. Then it is not the time to go out for a trip. But then, it’s not all about the weather nor proficiency.

There was one fishing trip when I was with pro fishers and the weather was really excellent for fishing. The sea was very calm but we caught almost nothing, maybe just 3 to 4 pieces of fish for almost 4hours. No luck.

Then there was one fishing trip when I was with beginners and the waves were a bit rough but we caught tons of fish within one hour. Whenever we put down the line, within seconds we had fish on our baits. But after that said hour, we didn’t get anything anymore. So I can say, it was just pure luck and good timing.

Whenever I think about these trips, I think about life. I think about how people can never have everything at the same time. They can have knowledge and skills but never the luck or good timing. Some are so lucky but because they don’t have the knowledge, their luck gets wasted. This applies to job hunting, business management, writing, career advancement, etc., and even just to life in general. Though we can say some did really get lucky to have all these elements in life at once, hence they became successful.

Apart from the different elements of life that I learned and mentioned, fishing has taught me and is still teaching me a very important value in life and that is patience.

Whenever I drop the line into the water, I sit quietly. I listen to the waves while I wait for that movement from underneath the deep sea. I wait till I learn how to feel when the fish is biting my bait. I wait until my luck comes. I wait till the good times come.

I wait. And I wait patiently. In silence.