On Coping with the Boredom: Seeking Hidden Passions and Staying Connected during Lockdown

 

Early Year to the Scorching Heat

***

Summer’s heatwave discomforted my adequate sleeping time. I tried to sleep, but I couldn’t. Then I scrolled my phone, hoping to have some good news from the outbreak and hoping the screen light helped me fall asleep faster. I sit in shock, thunderstruck, knowing that hate speech and discrimination were still ongoing. Feeling fed up of not having a life back is exasperating, I can relate, but the hatred is not the way to end it up. In this unprecedented time, throwing hatred would end up wasting so much time. Let the scientists find the best remedy to cure the world; our task is to help them flatten the curve and comply with the rules applied.

The magic from the hurricane, along with the rain, came closer. They stayed quite longer, lullabying me until dawn approached.

Summer’s End to the Birth of Autumn

***

Hate speech was still going on. While the case keeps mushrooming, it’s time to save millions of people’s lives by complying with the health protocols. Thus we can overcome this conundrum immediately.

***

The week after I did not pay much attention to the news, whereas I focused on the hobbies or passions which I might forget to do. The news caused anxiety and increased my stress. I needed something positive.

I walked around to Sydney Botanical Garden; this park is only one mile from my accommodation. I sat for a couple of hours; observing people, the chirping birds, and the ferries going back and forth. It was totally a self-healing!

I inhaled the fresh air and thought that I was lucky enough to have a chance of living in one of the liveable cities in the world. Sydney government had already allowed several people up to ten to gather, and I was quite blessed with this; however, my prayers were (and are) with the countries struggling to have a speedy recovery.

All of a sudden, I remembered that I have some wishes I intended to do in 2020, thinking that it might be the appropriate time to realise them.

***

The next week I also skipped the news. I tried to be productive by digging my passions as well as keeping connected with the loved ones. If we’re on the same shoe, have a go for this!

Cultivating a new yet hidden hobby might be own satisfaction for many. Taking the example of playing the Ukulele. I bought this mini guitar a few months ago (that was before the outbreak occurred), but never did I pay attention to grab it since I was quite busy and a bit pressed by the assignments due, making it inattentive for so long. It’s a stroke of fortune to finally had much time to play it, you just watch some helpful videos for the beginner on YouTube. I learned to play the essential keys and already knew the note for the most favourite song I adore, “Imagine” by John Lennon. Believe me, if you are into music, playing the Ukulele is a must thing to do. It is not only because the main keys are effortless to learn, but also, it’s easier to get along—you can bring it to your favourite place quickly.

Moreover, delving a hidden passion like taking a photograph is also a thing to consider. As we keep being aware of remaining some distance from others, walking around in such a quiet place these days is kind of placid. My happy zone is when I can find serendipity and capture some great photos. Since I live close to Sydney CBD -where this premise is risky to walk around- I usually made my trip to Royal Botanic Garden around a pleasant morning, this is the moment where the nuance is still sleepy, so I can enjoy every nook and cranny to capture the enchant pics. If you are keen on taking some photographs, you can attempt the same thing.

Furthermore, if you are good at language, you can volunteer yourself to be a translator for some NGO platforms, helping them spread the good news on this afoot situation. I found a good one, “Translation Without Borders”, where I took part in translating a COVID-19-related document from English to Indonesia. Even though the papers given might drain your energy about thinking the medical-related terms, you would gain a credit when your piece of translation be published. Not to mention that you contribute to give such a piece of helpful information to your country regarding Covid-19 news. Besides, you also enhance your language proficiency by acquiring several technical terms in the health field.

At last but not least is about staying connected. A lady of letters, Anais Nin, once said,” Each contact with a human being is so rare, so precious, one should preserve it. Since we spend one-third of our activities are home-based such as having an online class, meeting, work, etc., using some video platforms like Zoom, Skype, or Google Hangouts to name a few is a good thing to do. It is time to stay connected. We can keep in touch again with the high school friends we haven’t communicated for ages, to Uni fellows, even to family members. It will be the moment where we can cherish our days filled with the laugh and crack reminiscing the old days we’ve passed through.

Rainy June to the Hope of July

***

It’s 2 a.m. already. I woke up with a frosty temperature and the jarring storm attacking the whole of Sydney’s sky. Although the intense gale and substantial rain return to the forecast for a whole week ahead, it comes to an end with a glorious sunny day. In line with the forecast, I expect the same thing for July, resuming life with a sigh of relief.

I put a big smile and close my eyes with a thankful heart.

 

Breaking the Stereotypes over Ethnic Groups in Indonesia: The Importance of Mutual Understanding and Shifting Perception

Source: WowShackon May 23, 2019

How do you feel when someone slates a lousy stereotype to your place of origin? Most of us would be very uncomfortable, right? I am either. Stereotypes are generalisations about a group of people, where certain characteristics are given to all members of the group, regardless of the variations that exist in its members. Indonesia, by any means, has some harmful stereotypes for their ethnic counterparts.

My story and I believe everyone else experienced the same way, popped up when I came to Jakarta in the edge of 2017 for the pre-departure of my scholarship. Instead of being blithesome because I could land my feet to the capital city of Indonesia for the second time, my mood suddenly changed when hearing a friend of mine pointed out my ethnic as a ‘stingy’ society.

As a man who grew up and was raised in Padang, I must question the prejudice over a ‘stingy’ word because it doesn’t make me comfortable.

Truth be told, it’s not the Padang people or Minangnese who are stingy, but it’s the way how to survive in other places seeing the allowance given by parents is enough for daily consumption and housing. To anticipate the expenditure, many of them are trying to be economical. In some extent, people think that the word ‘economical’ as being synonymous with ‘stingy’, and this perception sticks to our society along with the spreading rumours. At present, when strangers see somebody from the land of Minang, the prejudice of ‘stingy’ comes straight away.

Like Padang, there are some regions in Indonesia are being generalised too. As the data published by WowShackon May 23, 2019, such as ‘student riot’ in South Sulawesi, ‘rude and loud people’ from North Sumatera, ‘gold diggers’ for West Java, even a ‘two-faced people’ in Central Java to name a few.

Those old perceptions are not accurate at all, and if it says so, there is no data so far showing how much the percentage of these assumptions for those regions. It is just merely, to my understanding, a generalisation of one group towards another. As delivered by an American screenwriter and producer Mara Brock Arikil, 2014 with her term ‘a kernel of truth’ with the implicature that stereotype is not an absolute thing.

Unfortunately, stereotype becomes so pervasive in this country where people tend to accept it instead of letting it go. This perception—stereotyping—nowadays becomes a habit and frequently used as a joke by other people.

To make matter worse, due to these perceptions cling to particular groups, it then triggers riot and encourages tension among ethnic groups in Indonesia. As released by IDN times in 2016, some bad effects from the stereotype are the battle among other groups. The endless numbers of juvenile delinquency that happens in big cities are also rooted in the factor of stereotyping. It is because of the old-conservative thoughts of some students trying to compare one school to have a good reputation over another.

Another effect is that somebody will be hard to think out of the box, which may lead to less creativity because they are too afraid of one group. Hope college, 2018 also highlighted the danger of stereotype where it can influence how we think about other people. Stereotypes direct our attention toward some things and away from others, affecting what we notice, and what we remember later on. This case, of course, makes someone as a subjective person and think others, outside of their ethnic, are wrong. Sadly, someone who possesses the bad stereotype will always be sceptical toward others, and it affects their thoughts.

Even worse, someone will be labelled as ‘katak dalam tempurung ‘or big fish in a little sea. Someone is losing their positivity to someone else just because they come from a different part of regions from others.

To address these issues, although it takes time, we should learn how to set out our mentality. Even though people may throw a bad image toward others, our mind should be free from that perception. We are the ones who decide whether we have to follow the same attribute or being out from our zone; to learn and to find out the core of this perception.

Furthermore, as delivered by The Conversation, 2018, one way to reduce stereotype is to buffer the threat by shifting self-perceptions to positive group identity or self-affirmation. If Minang people learn how to be economical seeing the financial status and considered as stingy people, we can learn how the way they build restaurants and could survive in which anybody else trying to beg. If Central Java being said as two-faced, we should try to imitate how their hard-working could lead to their success.

At the end of the day, as a person imprisoned by stereotyping, it’s a time to be aware of ourselves. We should be aware of its detrimental effects that could cause us more anxious for that. In doing so, we should have positive thinking over other ethnics without judging them based on their regions rather based on every individual’s attitude and traits. If something bad happens for one person, let alone that person being blamed without putting his/her ethnic.

At last but not least, I love all people whatever the tribe in Indonesia is and I keep on wishing we are getting more open-minded and I can predict it is about to change.

On Breaking the Stereotype: International Student’s Role to Face Cultural Issues

Source of picture: The Sundial

A few years ago, we might hold a myth that those Indonesian students pursuing their higher degree overseas would change their mindset—into a bad one. That myth lies in our community, to be specific in a community that relies on people’s words only–without reading many articles and asks directly to the person experiencing the same direction. Our society, at the very first place, tends to blame and bans the children first if they have an intention to go abroad. They are being frightened with the rumours spreading, as they believe one hundred per cent with the rumours without trying to seek the truth.

The issues vary, started from the woman that will be raped or get violence are still ringing in the head of every parent. Not to mention with the last news published by the local on 24 August 2015 over a girl who was forced to put off her veil and was sent home from her school, making the fear keep alarming. Then it continues on and on with a case, wherein many cases, their boys will lead to ‘apostate’. There are the sole reasons why a parent, in a long time ago till present, are doubtful whether their kids are allowed to continue their studies overseas.

Apart from the notorious sides it has, the good one comes as released by the Huff Post in 2015 that studying abroad could gain more understanding of the cultures and means of communication. In the same token, I will elaborate the fortunes earned by students so we can open our eyes for its benefits instead of blame at very early.

First and foremost, stepping your feet to a new land for the sake of chasing a better education is a stroke of fortune. You will find a new-better quality of education compared to your previous school; in point of fact, it could lead you to obtain more resources and becomes more knowledgeable. If you take a master by research, for example, you are pushed to do more research, write a piece of writing every single week; which absolutely enrich your understanding into deeply. The assignments given by the lecturers are for the self-development, instead to assess student’s competence and provide a mark but most importantly it is to introduce students with a habit of writing and citing–this is the crucial part need to be considered because most people have lack idea on how to put other’s thought, to some extent many plagiarisms do happen because we are probably less aware of citing.

Apart from it, it also gives you tons of cultural understandings. If you or your parents label other countries as a “kafir” a term refers to a “non-Muslim people” or being afraid of the stereotype does exist, believe me, you just being deceived so far. The tenet given to you this far is just to haunt you, to make you afraid of something; that’s the sole reason why there is a misunderstanding happens because our society opts to believe with rumour instead of experiencing straight away of what “other people; read people in another country” behave. Therefore, to know better, one should go and experience the same way in one country so that they know the roots of its culture, and the origins of the problem this far.

Furthermore, as continued with the cultural understanding, you will find massive of people from different countries. This is a bonus for you. If in the former school you just met people from various provinces, studying abroad will open your horizon. You will get to know how people from France or Korea, for instance, responses to the words “Thank you” and how Japanese people very often use “summimasen” (literal: thank you) when asking for help or uttering a pleasure. You can look at how their custom to the class; asking a question, giving the arguments, or writing an email. These little things might sound simple yet uphold meaningful moral lessons–that you never perceive if your home country–unless you come out of your comfort zone, that key is to go overseas.

To make things better, this is the core of why studying abroad is pivotal, is that you act as the representative of your country. You’ll be the agent to show to other people that what they know about your country so far is not actually the same as your perception. For instance, Islam, when people judge Islam as teaching which conducts terrorist, you can directly deliver to the forum that what the face of Islam actually is. Your role as the representative will, of course, change people’s perception so far.

Therefore, nothing to lose if you take a chance rather listen to your parents of the old-conservative myth they got so far because what’s truly the value of going abroad is to stay away from the old storytelling. If you could do that, I bet you’ll gain the above benefits.

At last but not least, our society is more likely as katak dalam tempurung or big fish in a little sea, they tend to get on the bandwagon, without exact experience or read the news, that is critical issue needs to be copied and educated so that our people are more likely to read or watch instead of being followers. Cheers!

“Being Alone Doesn’t Mean You’re Lonely”

Albert Einstein once said that,” Being alone has a power that very few people can handle.

I have been dragged out and felt wrathful at one point by way of people construct someone as anti-social for their solitary life. For me being alone doesn’t mean you are anti-social, introverted, unwanted, nor oblivious and all the worse adjectives someone might slate to you; there are handful of benefits you may get as you learn how to embrace the solitude you have.

For me, I begin to contemplate myself over things I have been through lately, for instance, for what remarks I’ve delivered to others and questioned back whether it hurt one’s feeling or not, this is the point where I can reflect more often to myself, to have a “me time”.

Also being alone attracts you to get in touch to your own emotions and feelings. I probably spend for about a day not to roam around or join the coffee talk we had scheduled three-time a week by peers, by way of reasons that I do have a time to look back at my feelings, and rooting back to my lonesome will be the most feasible way.

Indeed, having the sense of loneliness is bit weird for some people as considering that the person is someone who does not want to have a chit chat to others, someone who does not share their matters, for me by far to be lonely is to recharge the energy. Very often do I sit for hours just to reminisce my actions lately and soon after that I have the stamina to rise, to be a better person, to learn how to be mature and of course to speak in a pleasant way.

Being alone also helps me enjoy things that I am craving for, taking example as reading tons of books I’ve been lately buying, sadly, since I did not have enough time to digest all of those, by having a solitude it could give back the activities I wanted to do. I also have a chance to travel, to meet new people and culture and learn the way of life from them. Having this position really gives a sense of understanding and that’s what I love the most from being alone; I do have a time to know better who I am and what I am looking for already.

In addition to this, it teaches me to be productive and more independent as I do not rely too much to others for an easy matter, I can cope the problems with my own way as loneliness teaches me how to respect the inner peace I have.

Gracias solitary. I’ll have you more in my life.

Ijen Crater taught us to be persistent

To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other places/countries,” Aldous Huxley”.

Visiting “Kawah Ijen” best known as Ijen Crater never be a regret, proved that I have thrice headed to that beautiful spot added with its mesmering range of mountains, bear a faith to pay a visit one or two or three more times.

This place is well-known by tourists all over the world not only about its stunning view from above but because of lots of things it offers once the visitors reach the peak, particularly, the most and having said the two only spots for a blue fire in this universe apart from New Zealand. Indonesia should be proud to have this and its surrounding should be maintained so that it triggers foreigner visitors massively, hence, this nation could be taken into account on its tourism place beside having a white-sandy beach such Bali Island.

Mostly people would be permitted to trace the path leading to blue fire in the vicinity of 1 a.m, it is because the sparkle of its light would appear at 3 until 4 a.m, in which it takes time for about 3 hours reaching the summit.

Getting blue fire itself does take times and efforts and everything in between. Having helped two friends since they are females and had a serious health problem at that time, I had to patiently wait and guide her to trigger their spirit.

Other friends have walked for about a half mile before us and would be difficult to give a shout because thousand mass fill this area, eventually I only rely on the word called “resting”. Franky, I hate to take a rest many times while climbing, yet since I have to take care of my friends whom they suffer from both physics and the temperature, it’s a must then.

Oftentimes they give up not to find the fire nor hike the mountain as it is the first time for both climbing such a high land–approximately 2500 km from the sea level, their fatigue of dehydration make them surrender in early.

It’s every now and then I have to convince them that it’s such a vain work if done with the word of giving up, the value of hiking a mountain is here, through off the phase of tiring.

As slow as we pace the lane, their spirits evoke, exponentially, forced by their massive willingness to witness directly with their naked eyes about the real view from above.

At around 3 hours and a half, we finally step our foot at the top of the mountain, it’s such a pity knowing the blue fire would disappear but feeling cheer at the same time since we had conquered the sense of tiring and surrender, for us it’s more than it.

Added by taking tons of views from every angle, Kawah Ijen is really enchanted and astounding in every direction, no doubt every people pose everywhere there.

One thing for sure that climbing a mountain really needs big effort and sometimes there is a downturn spirit, meaning that to have a beautiful spot, once have to pass through difficult moments and Kawah Ijen has taught us about this.

That’s the lesson I got today, through travelling to Kawah Ijen. I have discovered another culture, open the horizon of world magisterial landscape and above all about to shape my temper to be caring to others.

Pare is not a house but home

Hitherto, I feel overwhelmed, the sharing session about a quest for getting scholarship I’ve done last night made me so emotional, and that’s for almost a couple of years I wasn’t dropping the tears out and blue at the same time.

Being an orphanage for some people might be a wound, feeling like there’s no affection would be perceived, as truly it does, solely only parents know how deeply a child feeling is.

My memory goes back so far, seeking the question I’ve been so far and reminding me a scratch in heart,” what I was doing recently as I forgot the parent I own?”.

Frankly speaking, I struggled for the scholarship for almost two-year and it was very badly seeing other friends of mine have already set off their journey, and very moroon that I have still await for it.

Since then I never back home, I leave my family members in home while waiting for me to have a glimpse of triumphant I have achieved, it’s actually six months ago I promised to myself to go home, very bad the planning run to a different direction.

I extended a calm and peaceful life in Bandung, a place adored by people by its picturesque area and its hostility as if getting a language and academic training.

But… I didn’t make it, I have tried but I was indispensable at the time.

Gone with the winds, I further lengthen my journey to a place calmed home; Pare.

I went there three months ago and still feeling attached these days, not only for the better classroom activity it has but because of the people.

I got a sense of family here, because majority of them are very care and affected, most importantly, we learn how to tight the blood.

***

Today I am on my way going to Jakarta, a place for about half of population in this county rely their fate on. I was invited to fullfil my college admission, I hope this becomes the last of struggling.

I am writing this becuase I have still a very deep thought and feeling last night, that incident which happened by chance stick to my mind, still.

I miss home already and my mom as well.

A quest for scholarship hunter

Part II

If you compare yourself to others, you should turn back and find any other ways, not for the scholarship lanes.

If you follow what other have followed just because they are in the same direction as yours, you might also turn back you path.

Finding scholarship is not that easy, it needs efforts, excessive endeavours and prayers.

You also need to tell the truth of yours, never let anyone drive you but digging what you are going to find and what’s something unique about you are precious.

And that’s far better rather relying on others.

If you fail, try it again, I am pretty sure everyone has its own time to fly and I also know that those might end their struggle. Verily, I was in your shoes, and I never gave up. I took those failures as a turning point, to develop, to introspect, and to know better who I am already.

If you just surrender in early, meaning that you’re the coward one, very lame for a “hunter” to go off in despair at the beginning.

Hence, you have to find the “beauty, unique, or something people never had”, that’s why you can conquer the wishes you have in life.

Aspire to Inspire, A Story of a Young Man Who Begins to Realize the Importance of Living the Dream

PART I

“Once Paul Coelho said in his best seller novel, The Alchemist, that if you want something then the whole university will conspire to help you”

–The aforementioned quote it’s so me, a guy who is quite lucky compared to other his friends in securing the grant owing to the mounting efforts he made–

Let split the hair by talking a glimpse of story I have been through for almost a half-decade fighting for the scholarship so-called LPDP, best known as Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education. My sense of appealing joined to that renowned stipend was begun since I was in the junior year at college. Very seldom have I paid a serious attention like this, to get better knowing about the ins and out of scholarship, particularly LPDP. Having the privileged to be the student of a great university which supports its student’s development, I was one of the many who were quite lucky to witness directly the generous-humble-and open-minded speakers who used to be the students graduated from reputable university abroad.

The agenda of this was initiated by my home university — seemingly becomes a weekly program — to hold a seminar related to education. It was conducted since the boards of Uni realized and put a hope to its students about the importance of pursuing higher degree, and inviting some speakers would be one of the effective solutions to spread motivation more on students who either less motivated to follow campus rules; leading them to have a bad mark, or to those who already prepared the best for their future education, yet being stuck to the snippet information they were looking for since there was no place but a direct talk of the graduates themselves.

After watching directly the sharing and talks of students graduated overseas, it inspired me a lot to have a passion like they used to have. The preparation is not that easy as people see the pictures of them standing in the renowned building of beautiful scenery outside there, or having the overseas degree, but the battlefield they have conquered becomes the real preparation itself. Such a pity seeing people nowadays judging people to be happier and luckier solely because they post their story on social media without knowing exactly the perspiration they had, the huge sacrifice they did, and how great number of prayers they wished.

Following this, the speakers used to talk to the conference I joined gave some tips and tricks on how to prepare in early to secure the scholarship. The gist of this is that we need to balance both academic and social life while running our life in college. By doing so, either in academic like showing a strong interest towards the subject we are craving for later on, or in social life by participating in some organization; in the circle of campus, or outside, by aim to shape the nature of humans as a “zoon politicon”.

Having infused with the spirits distributed to audiences, I aspired someday that I could be one of them, the speakers. Verily, they had opened the narrow mind I had; which put academic first among other elements.

To be continued …

 

The Jakarta Post would always be remembered

This is essay brings me to be one of the selected applicants to work at The Jakarta Post. It such a sad day seeing the job I am craving for needs to be left since I secured a scholarship, but who knows I end up working as a journalist later on.

” The Pressure of Remote Area’s Students Once They Got Accepted at College”

When the announcement of National University Entry Exam best known as Seleksi Nasonal Masuk Perguruan Tinggi announced 5-year ago, I stepped up on the ground feeling like I was one of the luckiest people ever who has found the key to happiness. Being passed for the selection followed by almost 70.000 students across Indonesia was something that I patiently wait for – as if thinking that how wonderful life treated me whereas other people have not met their dream campus yet. I , to be honest, have registered last year but my destiny has not met yet and then I tried it again in the following year as if whispered to God every single day with one hope that this dream can be granted.

Back to the story of ups and downs of students including me at first for not passing the selection, it then comes to my mind and the people around me about on how to be a good student in the university. For me, frankly speaking, possessing a background from a simple family where a home is far-off the main city at around 89 miles. It is in the rural area of the edge of West Sumatera where there is no electricity access and we frequently make a light by putting stone oil in the remaining- aluminium can.

In the place I stay now, only some of the students with the same ages are having an access to feel the nuance of sitting in the classroom and getting a piece of knowledge from the lecturers. That’s why with the lack of students coming from a rural area in getting a chance to have an educational sense, it then makes us getting a bit of pressure in reaching the dreams. Our surrounding fully supports but once we failed, they will not believe that we are the good one. Thus, it forces us to keep studying more and more, and it leads to have a lack of social activity during our life in campus.

Back then as the high school student, it’s true that always compete one another simply because we want a good mark and a good position in class, no one can deny it. But life in university is totally tremendously different from the concept we had once as high school student. Students of university are now pushed to have both better at involving in organization and academic because these two concepts which will make them being the person that will be considered by the company for a better position once they graduated.

Sadly then, students from the remote area where I live now want to make their parent being proud of them; they do not want the travail and perspiration of their parent are fruitless yet they will try to be a good one solely of their parent’s effort to give an access to them as if promising to pay it back. As we realize, when the students only pursue the good account in their study, it will lead them to anti-social person, study-holic, and think to finish their study as soon as possible. That’s what I feel today. Lucky to me that I could have managed my time during a college life but it is such a bad day seeing my friends who finished their study very early are still looking for the jobs because every time they apply for it, they never meet the criteria needed by the company simply because they do not have an experiences in indulging in organisation though their GPA is astounding.

At last but not least, that is the pressure for us as the students who graduated from the rural area, even though our family or our surrounding support us, they solely voice the spirit of achieving the good mark, yet not to show up to us that we have to be good at both sides: academic and extra-curricular. And it is true also that they do not know what is good and what it is not in college for their children because almost all of them never had the sense of going to college.

Now we taste what we have done and I still believe that by voicing at early to high students, it is hoped that they can open their mind-set that it is not the mark we have in the transcript as the consideration of one’s success, it is truly the attitude, having social activity that could shape them into having a better future.

From the Blue sky which turns to be Bluish, Grey to be Greyish, A host chattings would never be oblivious

A small talk I had before leaving a comfort cliche I abode for almost a decade turned to be something I would never forget about.

A wise man — to whom I always shared little pieces of life stories and to whom also I was having whim — could have lead to a memory and I felt wholeheartedly perplexed, restless, and gloomy (I hate all of these adjectives above).

My surrounding in Bandung was pretty good, the ambiance, the cuisine, and everything in between making a life of twenty-five person who still looking for of what life actually is becoming blue. The old man I always “greet” every now and then would be forgetten, meaning that there would be no “good morning Sir”, or what a lovely sky with its blue colour, or merely saying “hi”.

My life embezzled my aspiration, my future careers are still vague and I am quite dilemma, but this man, who is in the same age as my dad, is the never-ending supporter of mine. When a problem hits me, he wisely shoulders, gladly welcomes me to come to his house just to give an ease and patiently advise that the ups and downs of life are just temporary. Often time he also lends me some books to read, to get new insights that there are so many people out there who since the dawn of days were struggling with life, to seek staple, to find a source of water, even to endure the pain of life as to life is too harsh to be lamented.

From that person also I tried to convince myself that a short life which turned to be a quarter of decade is just a step for searching a meaning, a deep one and I am right away in the phase of letting fate go, mixed with the mysterious ways of life.

Blessed! admittedly yes. Tested! of course. But I’d like to end this puzzle of challenge.

I can’t thank you for the warmth a middle-aged person like you could ever give lotta motivation to never being surrender in early, to never feel satisfied with little surprise life has to offer. Had I had a chance to post a photo of us, I would have loved to put it here, sadly my phone was getting unbearable at the moment, hence I just showed my concerned here, to remember the blast days I have with you. It seemed to me that Bandung would be a third home after Melbourne and it’ll be missed so badly.

Thanks to galaxy Sir, thanks Bandung, and sky would always be changing.