Actually, to make me like someone isn’t a hard thing to do. Because I have this belief: “Everyone is good until proven otherwise.” My friend told me that it’s a bad way to protect myself from that evil, but there’s nothing I can do. I really think people will do no harm to me (but I still alerted when I went outside and meet strangers).
So, to make me really like you, make you become my best friend, or even fall in love with you, is simple (in theory, not in practice). You have to be a good person. I’m not the type of person that thinks “bad guys always look better than good boys”. Aah… No. I hate the bad guy. I hate people who use bad language and treating others with no respect. I always feel threatened around people who use bad language as if that scorness is addressed to me (mostly not, but I always feel that way).
Also, the thing that makes me like someone, even more, is by showing through the action. I realized it recently that I hate someone who said wanted to help me but turns out it’s just to make a speech. I know nobody likes it to be treated that way. But when someone did this to me, my respect for him/her lose instantly. So be meant to every word you say to me, I definitely open my heart to accept you.
Uh… run away. As I understand myself, run away isn’t my thing (first, I CAN’T leave my responsibility. Second, I hate moving around. Sleep is my best medication). But… Guess what? I love to run away from my work for now. I love the idea of run away. Too many things “I don’t like” happened around me. But again, run away isn’t doable. So it’s just hypothetically. If I could run away, I might want to go to Jogja.
Why Jogja? Compared to a city where my father (Padang), the sight looks much better at Padang.
The concept of runaway is to refresh the mind for a while. If I don’t have to choose between Padang and Jogja, I love both places. Like… Seriously love Padang too. Why? Because it’s so hard to get a network connection there. For some time, internet connection is the biggest stressor for big-city people. Having a runaway to places surrounded by rice fields, hills, mountains, waterfalls, lakes and some sort of natural beautiful scene is the best stress reliever.
But there is one big main reason I didn’t choose to be there. It’s about their FOOD (sorry… It’s a basic need. I need to consider this as the main point). Padang is well known for its spicy food. I am a human with a sensitive stomach. Having a bit of capsaicin could make me suffer for the next couple of days. It is difficult for me to come there and find non-spicy food. So… To make this hypothetical run away feels more pleasant to imagine, let’s pick a place that wouldn’t give me a hard time finding non-spicy food.
Jogja is the city where my mom born. She was born and raised in that city. Is it that special? I’m not sure about that. I have some special memories there. Treasuring it now, since it’s a pretty long time ago since we did the ‘mudik’ ritual, might feel great. Go to places we used to come, visiting families or maybe go to new places we never go before.
IF I can make this hypothetical run away comes true, the first place I want to visit is the unpopular beach. Just like Jakarta, and in so many cities in the world, a well-known tourist spot means dirty and full of trash. Not to mention too many people come there. I love a quiet place where I can focus on enjoying the scenery.
The second and maybe some rounds I definitely go to is eating spot. Having breakfast at Alun-Alun Kidul is a must. The last time we went to Jogja, we almost breakfast there every day. On the last day, we found porridge that we used to eat when we were kids. It feels like traveling down memory lane and reminiscing the old times. This might help to recover from stress and tiring daily life at work in normal life. I think this is my best runaway.
What is it mean with style? Fashion style? Lifestyle? Or style style?
If it means Fashion Style… Then… I’m a casual type. My daily outfit will be a shirt/t-shirt, a long skirt, and jacket/outer. Let’s break it down from head to toe to make this post a little bit longer.
I am a Muslim woman. This means I use the hijab on my head. As some people think that the hijab is a part of fashion, I can say I always consider what kind of hijab I might use. I always pick the same pattern for my hijab. That pattern is blank. Yeah, you’re not reading it wrong. I don’t like my hijab has some pattern or print on it. I like it blank. Just a color or… A gradation of 2 colors (or more). I don’t mind using a rectangle or instant hijab, besides looking for what occasion, I only consider using a plain hijab.
Move on to the shirt, as I said earlier, I love using a shirt or t-shirt as a top. I also love wearing a layer on top of it. Jacket, cardigan, vest, or outer. This will be weird since I live in a tropical area. Usually, I wear a jacket when I ride my motorcycle. But… This style is one a habit, favorite preference. Whether I riding on my motorcycle or not, I often use a jacket.
As a bottom, I usually like wearing a long skirt. When I was a kid, I like using a long skirt because I can pretend to be a princess (like every young kid's dream). But as I grow up, using a skirt actually pretty efficient. Some people might think it isn’t, but it does (on me). It simple and comfortable. Maybe because I already used to it. But seriously, I can spread my legs as far as I want and I still feel safe. Plus… Wearing a long skirt while riding a motorcycle also a good choice. Just… Never let your skirt fly around the wheel. It can cause an accident.
For footwear, I almost always use socks (with cute prints on them) and shoe-like sandals. I can’t use traditional flip flop because my thumb will be hurt. That’s why I usually wear shoes or shoe-like sandals.
Well… It’s nothing special talking about style. Because it is one among so many things I’m no expert on. Clothes are a basic need, but put them in a perfect mix isn’t part of surviving in life. So… I’m not paying too much attention to it. As long as I am presentable, clean, and smells good, It is enough for me.
Favorite book? Fiction book? Or a non-fiction book? Ah… I never do a non-fiction review before this. I need time for preparing to write those review. So instead, I will write about my favorite fictional books.
I used to say that my fave book of all time is Sidney Sheldon’s Nothing Lasts Forever. I love most of his books but Nothing Lasts Forever is an absolute mind blowing to me. It’s about three women doctor that involve in a murder case. Full of twist and unexpected ending.
There some reasons why I love Sidney Sheldon’s books all the time. First reason is 99% of Sidney Sheldon’s books have women as the main character. He always potrait all of his main characters as a strong independent woman that stand up for live. And he really good at making a female point of view.
Second reason is he really do his research for each of his books. He never publish a book with short break. Because he really dig deep in every single setting and background story of each books. And lastly, speciall for Nothing Lasts Forever, this books really feels like a med TV drama. The details, the intense emotion, everything feels real even just by read at it.
But for now, I have several new fave books. It will be Jodi Picoult’s My Sister Keeper, Akiyoshi Rikako’s Giselle and Minato Kanae’s Confession. Those books have a similarity with Sidney Sheldon’s Nothing Last Forever. It is those books using a multiple point of view to help readers understand the single situation happened through the book. I turned out love this style of writing better than author point of view of single character point of view. Giselle and My Sister Keeper is the first book I read from each of those author and the books makes me actually fall in love with the authors way on story telling. Since then, I try my best to buy every books from the author (this makes me remember I haven’t buy Minato Kanae’s Penance ðŸ¤ðŸ¤ðŸ¤).
Each of those books have a quite different theme, but still as equal attracting as others. And… Guess what! Those books have another similarity with Nothing Last Forever. It is…
PLOT TWIST!
I didn’t expect to get a plot twist when I read My Sister Keeper since it is a family drama book. But… Yeah… You have it. That book have unexpected plot that you will definitely enjoyed. As I enjoyed how 5 of the family members show their thought throught each chapter (plus 2 additional members, the social worker who assisst the youngest child and a lawyer that handle the case), the story comes ups and downs and then twisted… Like you’ve never imagine it would happened. Don’t compare it with the movie version. You wouldn’t get the excitement that I mention here.
As for Confession, I know that this mystery book must contain a twist. That’s why when I read it, I didn’t expect anything or thinking what would happen next. I just go with the plot and still… I GOT SHOCK WHEN I REACH THE END OF THE BOOK!!! Indeed! This books is masterpiece. And… Thank God I didn’t know that this book already have a movie version. I don’t know how good they picture the story, but I am a believer on ‘books will better than the movie version’.
For Giselle, this book isn’t the first book of Akiyoshi Rikako that I read. I had her others books. But this one really blow my mind. This is also a mystery book. But it has a beautiful-horror setting, which is a preparation on ballet stage of Giselle. Just like when I read Confession, I try not to think about what would happen and what kind of twist I might get. And because of this, I spend around 4 hours on Starbucks just to finish this book (because I can’t take my hands off this book). This book is ABSOLUTELY THE BEST STORY of Akiyoshi Rikako-sensei (my sister told me to read Holy mother first before make this judgement, but I need to say this though).
As for now, all of those 4 books I mention above are my favorite books. If you ask me later, this might be change. Jody Picoult has another book with multiple point a view like My sister Keeper, I will read Akiyoshi Rikako’s Holy Mother and Memory of Glass. Plus… I will order Minato Kanae’s Penance. Or I might get another favorite from other author. Let’s see again soon if this list change or not. Until then… Try to read those books yourself so you can feel what I feel from reading them.
As a girl that born and raise on 90’s era, I grew up watching a lot of western TV Series on my teenage. On early 2000’s we had a lot of interesting TV series. There some great TV series like Dawson’s Creek, Charmed, Sabrina The Teenage Witch, Gilmore Girls, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The OC and so on (by the way, that time, we don’t have Netflix, Viu, Hulu and streaming channel like nowadays. I watched everything on local television). And among all of that interesting series, my favorite one is none other than…
*Drum roll*
Yes… I fall deeply in love with this series. This series is the love of my life. The series that introduce me to Chad Michael Murray, Sophia Bush and James Lafferty. I remember that our local TV show only aired first 2 seasons of this show. I have to search for the DVD in order to watch the other seasons. That’s why it took me forever to get on the last season.
When I prepared to writing this theme, I was contemplating and asking myself “why I love this series so much? It’s a drama, which is not my first preferences.” But then… I found out why. This is the answer:
Yes… I love her. I love Brooke Davis. This girl makes me fall in love with Sophia Bush as well (I look upon Chicago PD because Sophia Bush played as Erin). Brooke’s character and her living story is something to be amazed of. She is a cheerleader captain. She is popular, but… She always write her diary like a nerd. Not intended to judged her, but to me Brooke Davis is the nerd-est character on the entire One Tree Hill show.
“When I was your age, I dreamed of having a clothing line, of having a business. Of all the things you have. But I stupidly fell in love. And one morning, your father and I got a little surprise. I told him I didn’t want kids. It was never the plan. But he wanted a son more than anything. And as soon as I got fat, he had an excuse to jump into any bed he wanted. And when we had our little baby girl, I made sure I would never be pregnant again. If I couldn’t have my dream, your father couldn’t have his, either. I probably took it out on you a little too much along the way, but you know what? You should be thanking me for giving you life.”
Imagine your mother said this to you! Your confidence might turn into ashes. But not Brooke Davis. She determined to prove to her mother that she is wrong. Brooke might doubting herself for her entire life, but won’t let her mother see it.
The other thing that I love about Brooke Davis is she is selfless.
Also… Her love life… Is unbelievable. You can search on google to see her long list of exes. But… I know she only fall deeply in love with two men. One is Lucas Scott and the other is Julian Baker. Why? Because she willing to give up everything she had for them. But the most important part is… Her story started with Lucas and ended up with Julian. She suffered a lot from Lucas, but she finally get the happiness she deserves. It makes me think… Thank God she didn’t end up with Lucas because to me, Lucas is a jerk.
Me and Brooke Davis were born in the same year (1989). We actually grow up together (even though she soar into a successful businesswoman and me… Still here, doing nothing). Brooke Davis is an example of a strong independent woman. She shows people that even if the dream she had sabotaged by her mother all the time, she still stands strong and be successful. In the end, she learned to love herself because she deserve it. It might be easy for viewers to fall in love with Haley James or Peyton Sawyer, but to be in love with Brooke Davis means you are the person that acknowledges the process of growing up.
One Tree Hill wouldn’t be a hit if it’s not because of Brooke Davis. Because I might not watch One Tree Hill if it’s not because of Brooke Davis.
I have 3 siblings. Two older sisters and one older brother (yes, I’m the youngest in my family). We used different name caller for each siblings. I called my oldest sister ‘Mbak’, my older brother 'Abang’, and the second older sister 'kakak’. Why? I don’t know. This just happen since I was little. And by using this different name caller, it’s easier for me to tell my mom and dad if we are talking about which one of my siblings.
So… My eldest. Me and my older sister used to say that she is the scariest on in the house (after my father). Back when we still young, she often yell at me and her big eyes stared at me whether I made mistakes. I understand that she was trained to be the role model for us. That’s why she went so strict with us. In fact, we always asking for her opinion through whatever issues we had because her opinion reeeeeaaaallly matters.
Next… My older brother. He is the only son in this family. So… Speaking from sibling rivalry point of view, he had the most favor from our father (even though he keep saying that our father treated him as hard as his other siblings). Because our unsolved sibling rivalry, we don’t have quite attachment like me with sisters. I don’t hate him. It’s just… There’s a lot of things I can’t understand about him. Even his wife sometimes can’t understand him.
And the last one is my older sister. We are 3.5 years apart. Back when we were little, she is my biggest enemy. She likes to tease me until I cry and told our parents.y mom used to say that 'everyday is a battlefield’ for me and my older sister. But now that we grow up, my oldest sister and my brother already married and living separate live from us, me and my sister grow fond together. Even people keeps saying that we’re look like twins (we aren’t. My sister has small, sharp eyes like an Eastern Asian peole while I have a big normal Indonesian eyes). Even though I still have a trouble disclosing emotion talk to her, we practically talk about everything everyday. We are more likely partner in crimes (even though we never do anything against the law). She is my wing (wo)man, and I guess I am hers.
Even though me and siblings geographically separated (except my older sister), we still like to talk about everything. Because communication is what makes us stay close with one another. We (well… I speak about this as myself, from my own point of view) learn from our parents what not to do to our siblings so we can have harmonious life until later. Because according to a developmental psychology book I read when I was a college student, sibling are the longest relationship human can ever had in their life span. So, we need to maintain a good relationship with them because we might rely on them the most in our life.
Today… The challenge wants me to talk about my best friend. Um… Which one? I have a lot of best friends here.
Music? We already talked about that.
Books? We will have a theme about this later.
My yarn and stash? They aren’t my best friend. They are my stress-reliever.
Aah! I know! Brownie! My teddy bear!
Aah… No. I bet they want us to talk about human best friend. Hahahaha… Let’s talk about that one. I will talk about best friend without revealing names (because I don’t want any of them read this and find that their name isn’t the one I mention in my post).
I actually realize this not long ago. I don’t have that many friends nor best friends. But… I definitely can distinguish them. Which people I percieve as my best friends and which people aren’t. How I do it is by sitting with them and having conversations. IF I can speak so many thing even without being asked and told them about what lies deep in my heart (my worries, my problem or MY FEELING), they are definitely my best friend. If not, then you are just a friend to me. This might sounds weird, but to me… It’s valid.
I always identify myself as sociopath. Not that I like to manipulate, deceit, aggressive, or can’t empathize toward others. I have difficulties to approach others. It’s a path(ology) on social(izing) (Pffffttt! Whatever it is! I’m introvert, I don’t like socializing).
This condition makes me barely have friends. I have that ability to communicate with others, getting to know others. I just not that easily to believe in anyone to put their name on my friendlist. I know, I have this life philosophy that totally different with how I deal with others ( “All human are innocent, until proven otherwise” ). But still… I can’t make everyone my best friend. Friend? Maybe. Best friend? Not so fast!
I happened to ask my middle high school students about “what is the main difference between friend and best friend?”. One of them told me that best friend having so much connection to ourself, while friend is just someone I know more than just a name or where they live. I actually agree with that. A best friend can speak so many words even without saying anything.
I realize this when a long time friend, which I thought she is one of my best friend called me and we’re having a chat on the phone. She talked about eeeevery single things happened in her life while I just listened to it and replying adequately. When she finished her stories, she often asked me, “how about you? What you’ve been up to?” And none of that words came out from my mouth. I never been able to answer to that kind of question. Sometimes I don’t think she is actually interested in my story, sometimes I think she just trying to make speech to give her time before she tell me another story of hers. I’m not hate it. There definitely a people that allowed you to have passive role and put you as listeners to all of their concern. But I might put it this way: “I am her best friend, she isn’t mine”.
So… To people I called “My Best friend”. Thank you for listening to my thoughts, my concern, even small talks that reeeeally has no meaning. When you give me the opportunity to become myself without judge or say to my face, “My life is way more interesting that yours”, it’s the time that I would do anything to you. Because you make me feel I am something. I will give you my forever friendship, anything you need (as long as I am able to help you), until you betrayed it (I just wish that day wouldn’t never come). Until then… Let’s have this exciting friendship for a long time.
So… We are going to talk about happiness (again). No, I’m not hate it. In fact, it’s fun. But… I hope I’m not gonna find this topic again in the next challenges because I might running out of idea what to write about the same topic. And I might already put a spoiler on day 2 challenge, which I wrote about things that makes me happy. In the end of that post, I put a quotes from Julian Baker (One Tree Hill’s character) about happiness.
So… Happiness… According to this quote, hapiness is a state. If I’m not mistaken, when a word has -ness in it, it means it’s a noun. So Happy-ness is a noun word for happy (adj.). Why should I mention about this because how I see it help me explain about what I want to write (and how I think about it) here.
Happiness is a noun. Literary, it’s correct. But to me, happiness is a state. A condition. A condition which people meet something that make them happy. For example, my source of happiness is cat. Whenever I met cat, I might feel happy. That time when I can play or by just looking at cat is my happiness.
Do I want to feel happy most of the time? Yes, most of the time. Why most of the time? Because evolutionary theory mentioned that in order to survive, human must feeling varieties of emotion. That include sad, disguist, fear, etc. (Just watch the Pixar’s animatin movie titled Inside Out). How do I get my happiness? Search for my source of happiness. What If I can’t find them? I probably feel less happy. Less happy, it doesn’t always have to be sad. Just less happy.
Then… How do I know I feel happy or already find my happiness? Understand your body response on anything. There some typical responses happened on your body when you feel certain type of emotion. For example, smile or laugh is identical with happy, and tears is identical with sad. Even though in practice, tears can mean joy and smile can mean anger. But when you understand your own body responses, you might be able to distinguish these complications.
Also, scientifically, the memory can help you know whether you feel happy or other emotion. If you feel happy, then you are able to easily access (meaning remember and recall) happy memories. This is what they call as mood congruence learning. If someone can easily recall sad times, this may reflect that their emotion state is sad.
Is it bad to feel sad? I might say no, it isn’t. You need to feel sad sometimes (but not too often). Why? Because we need it to feel the contrast effect. Just like… How can you say something beautiful if you never see something awful. A short person wouldn’t call short if there’s no tall people. So does happiness. You won’t feel happy if you never feel sad. Sadness helps people understand what it meant to be happy and how to be happy (by avoiding things that can make you sad or, logically speaking, approaching somethings that can make you feel happy).
So, my point is… Try to understand yourself. Listen to your feeling. Acknowledge when you feel happy, what things that make you feel that way. When we can figure how to be happy, we will find our hapiness come more often than sadness. That way, we can start to enjoy this life.
Uuuhh… I’m so excited about this theme. I got to talked about thing I love. Music. It’s not that I am a musician, but I do enjoy music companion so much. And because the them is the power of music, I’m not gonna write a review, but rather I want to write what kind of power music has and what it has done to me.
I started to enjoy music as a companion since I was in primary school. I did listen a lot of music since earlier than that. But… The one I do enjoy because I choose which music I wanted to listen started at later years on primary school (when I was 10 or 11 years old). Because I had 2 older sister that already reach their teenage age, I dragged to have a similar taste to them. I listened to 80’s and 90’s music a lot, thanks to them. But when we growing up, we decided to choose our own fave genre. My eldest sister strict with her pop genre, my older sister enjoy rock music a lot and myself found RnB music more pleasant to listen.
I listened to a lot of RnB and Hiphop music much. But I prefer RnB is the best suit for me. Blue, Destiny’s Child, Brandy & Monica, Alicia Keys, Chris Brown, Ne Yo, Usher, Black Eyed Peas, etc is my preferences in music in that time. I even remember that Blue’s first album All Rise is the first album that I bought with my money and I collected all of their albums (that happened before digitalization era). But these several years my music preferences has turn from western to eastern, especially Kpop. I still have RnB as my favorit genre. But there also ballad that caught my ear easily.
Earlier on this post I mention that music was my companion. It still is. Music is a friend. A companion. Wherever I go, whatever I do. I used to listen to music 24/7, even in my sleep. This is probably the main reason I can maintain my focus while doing anything else. I used to listen to anything 24/7.
One of my bad habit is keep the earphone plug into my ears everytime. There was a time when my friend feel a bit annoyed and confused when we did a discussion but I looked like I listening to my earphone because my earphone plug on my ear. I have to explain to her that this is the way to make me focus on our discussion becaus if I put my earphone down, I might easily distracted by simple and meaningless sounds around me (bacause I have a hypersensitivity with sounds, sound pollution is the worst to my attention span).
I also have a lot of unique experience with music. Once I got a panic attack because one of my team member can’t attend our presentation at class. One of us have to cover her part and explained it to our lecturer. My other friend told me to cover that part because she hadn’t understand it (actually, neither do I). That time when the panic attacking me, I got out from our class, put on my earplug and listen to one of my favorite group songs. Guess what? That panic attack slowly faded away. I did the presentation smoothly and out group got the best points.
The other unique experience I had with music is music actually can make me focus on my emotion. I have these playlist that contain different type of theme to express my feelings. I had a angry playlist, broken heart playlist, proposing playlist and even a compilation of sweet song to describing what it feels like to fall in love. There was one time when I felt burn out and need to cry to relieve my stress. But I can’t. After talked to my bestfriend, she told me to watch a sad movie or listen to a sad song. I choose to do the second one. I listen to one of my fave singer song and suddenly I crying like a baby. Those cortisol I kept in my brain leaving me as I listening to sad broken heart song.
Because of their power, I have a trouble keeping a distance to music. But nowadays, I successfully keep my distance to earphone. I only need it when I sleep, when I need a better focus or when I need a companion (from a non living things). The power of the music I felt is even though it isn’t a living things, It has a big presence as much as a living things to me. If someone asked me what thing I will bring I have to live in a desserted island, I definitely bring music with me.
“I came to coach basketball players, and you became students. I came to teach boys, and you became men.”
Samuel L Jackson (a.k.a Coach Ken Carter)
So… For today, I have to talk about my favorite movie. I took (almost) all day long contemplating what movie I should write here. And… Here it is! My favorite movie of all time is *drum roll…*
Before we dig deep, I may warn you. I’ll be writing this as a review. BUT also contain a lot of spoiler (It’s my right here to write a spoiler if the movie because I have to explain why I love this movie). So… If you haven’t watched the movie already (even though this is a quiet old movie) and you hate spoiler, then don’t read any further. This post may upset you.
Okay… Let’s get started! My favorite all time movie titled COACH CARTER. This movie was released on 2005, bas d on true story, and have a lot of awesome cast on it. Samuel L. Jackson, Channing Tatum, Robert Ri'chard, Rick Gonzalez, Ashanti and many more. The movie is a story of a basketball coach that trying to make a better life for his basketball player. Instead of JUST playing basketball and not thinking about life after high school.
There are some dialogue on the movie that actually reeeeeally deep. Some of them is a simple word like this one,
The boys actually have an attitude problem from the start. It’s like they never put a respect on anyone. Here… On his first day on work, Coach Carter come and teach them manners. Even his methods a bit extreme (but that’s what he needs to do). Me thought that Coach Carter actually come to Richmond Oilers just to make the team reach winning after being beaten on previous season. Turns out… That’s not what he wanted to do there. He had another agenda.
But what he wanted to achieve isn’t a things people expected from the boys. They repeatedly said that “the whole community is behind the boys,” but all they wanted is just the boys to play basketball and winning the whole things. This is why… When the boy was given the basketball contract, which consist of them having a sufficient grade on class and behaving well outside the court, Coach Carter got a lot of rejection because peole think what he’s been doing is useless.
When the boys failed to meet what the basketball contract they signed up, Coach Carter locked the gym, cancelled all the match they have and force the boys to studying at the library. This even bring more chaotic situation and bring a lot of media attention. That’s why… Coach Carter held a heart-to-heart talk with the boys so they can understand what the situation. Coach Carter need to explain what is his actuall plan for the boys. Apparently, the boys finally follow what Coach Carter asked the to do because they finally become brave enough to have a dream.
When I reached this scene, I felt a lot of emotion. Sad, upset, anger, frustration (I guess that’s what Coach Carter feel on the parents-teachers-community meeting). But then… This words linger in me. To educate someone, to lead someone for become a better person, you don’t have to be a teacher. A basketball coach can do that. This means… You don’t have to be a teacher to educate anyone. You can be whatever you want. Only some of people inside the court understand the noble wish Coach Carter wants for his boys, but not for the majority of the community. They even ask the board to fired Coach Carter because ‘they can’t enjoy basketball anymore’ (seriously, this is frustrating situation even for the viewers).
And… As the results…
Instead fired Coach Carter tom his position, the community cut the chain that Coach Carter use to locked the gym. Looking at the scene makes me think that… Everything he’s done to support the boys and trying to make them better is crumbled down in an instant. The community think the best for the boys is just playing basketball and win every game they had. They don’t care about the boys future.
But… When he entered the gym, he found unexpected view.
THE BOYS ARE STUDYING ON THE GYM!!!
Even more heartwarming is…
The boys aren’t giving up on Coach Carter’s dream. They help him to achieve it. I can’t not cry watching this ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜
So..
After watching the movie, I came to a thought. I still can live my dream to help others by not become a teacher. I can be an educator for them. I can help them shinning and become a better person in the future. That’s why… I continue my study on psychology and become a student counselor as I am now. Because “that’s the only way I know how to do that!”
I don’t know if I can write this theme correctly because I’ve never been in relationship before. I can’t tell that being single means happier than in relationship or otherwise. But… If being single means I’m happy all the time rather in relationship, I said it totally b*llsh*t! (excuse my language)
To me, being single means I can explore everything by myself. I don’t have to asking permission to anyone to do anything I want (I still do it to my parents, it’s my role to do that). You know… I love watching movie at cinema alone. Others may say it’s sad and lonely. But it’s okay to me. What’s the point of having someone by your side during a movie when you enjoying everything alone? I know, it’s nice to have company when watched something (I sometimes go to cinema with my bestfriend or my sisters) but still, going alone sometimes feels more rewarding.
Also I think being single means I can learn so much about myself. You know there’s saying “you need to learn to love yourself first before learning to love others”. I still feel there a lot of things that I don’t understand about myself and if I involve with anyone, I might facing so much stress to understand everything. It’s not that I don’t want to understand anyone, I just think that I might not be ready for that.
BUT…
I need to add this. Being single doesn’t mean happy all the time. There was a time when I need someone beside me. Listen to my concern, help me ease all the hard time or just… exist (this might sounds funny, but sometimes someone existance can make you happy). I’m aware that being in a relationship allows you to share the weight of the problem with other and having double happiness you feel. And since we live in a world dominate with people who has great tendency toward extroversion, being single is a disadvantage. Yes, it’s society that make someone feel bad for being single, not themselves.
I’m totally agree with this quote. We need to stop looking at status as the indicator of someone degree of happiness. Relationship status doesn’t decide whether someone lives their life happily or not. It’s lie on their mindset. I have some mutuals that turns this mindset upside-down. Them in relationship means disaster and some of my mutuals that single already live their life to the fullest.
So… If next time someone ask to me “Single and happy?” I will answer
Today’s theme feels a bit emotional. It’s about parents. I feel a bit emotional because yesterday one of my friends lose her father. I can only write her a message that I wish I could hug her. I know there are no words that can console her because losing a parent is the worst thing I can imagine.
If I had to write about my parents, first of all I want to expressing my grateful because both of them are still alive (and healthy). I might not the best daughter they have, but I do my best not to disappoint them in various ways.
My dad is my personal Iron Man. No, he isn’t a billionaire like Tony Starks, but he always provide everything I need. He isn’t the type that showing nor saying anything about loving his children. In fact, up until now, I still got trouble try to understand how he sees the world. This makes our relationship going through rough road. There’s a time when my dad poring all of his anger JUST on me and act like he is fine to his other children. This things often burden me and makes me mad.
There’s also time when his behavior made me think I wasn’t worth as child. But my sisters always told me that I shouldn’t take it seriously because my dad never meant it. But… You know… I’m the sensitive type of person. I won’t be able to do their advice.
Nowadays, our relationship is going better. He never yell at me anymore. There isn’t any little thing that make him throwing his temper to my. He still criticizing, but it’s bareable. And I still trying to understand and not confront anything he did (or say). This means… In order our for father-daughter relationship to work out, someone needs to spend more listening (even if it’s destroying from the inside).
As for my Mom, she is my number one role model. I learn how to creatively cook anything I eat from her. It’s not that her cook is terrible. In fact, she is the best cook in the world. It’s me that keeping too much creativity (and interest) that makes my food sometimes only taste delicious to me.
Besides cooking, I learn soooo many things from my Mom. Patient and selflessness. If we live in Divergent world, my Mom would be from Abnegation. So… If people ask me how can I be so patient facing everything, the answer is my Mom train me all of my life.
Still, I want to say that even that my parents aren’t the perfect parents in the world. To me, they are the kind of parents I need. They teach me so many things. The give me everything I need. I might not good for showing them my feeling, but still… I LOVE THEM SO MUCH.
Through the 2020, we are force to lock ourself on our house, not going anywhere because the world is suffering for COVID-19. With this situation, it is impossible for anyone to held a massive event that can be attended by so many people. Turns out… This is one thing I miss the most on 2020. The Natsu Matsuri (Japan Summer Festival).
Last year, on 2019, I went to the biggest Natsu Matsuri held here in Indonesia. It is Ennichisai.
The event held on Little Tokyo, Blok M. To me, this summer festival is the most elaborative Japan culture festival in Indonesia. It isn’t just about pop culture (Japanese Idol, cosplay, anime’s merchandise) but also the Japanese traditional culture. I came there when they about to do the Omikoshi.
The Omikoshi is a portable Shinto shrine for the gods and spirits. It resembles a small building which is fixed to 4 poles. Omikoshi are usually very heavy and require many folks to carry it on their shoulders. The Omikoshi is usually bounced up and down to the rhythm of the chants (https://archive.dannychoo.com/en/posts/omikoshi).
Last year was the first time I saw Omikoshi right in front of my eyes. There surely so many people involve to carry those big cart around the venue. I don’t have too many documentary of the event because I was too mesmerized of what happened in front of my eyes.
This video was taken by my sister’s cellphone. By the time that Omikoshi was held, we were surrounded by sea of people, with a sun shine so bright… and hot (just like what a summer supposed to feel). There'are also another cart carried by those people. The giant one is the last cart (too bad I can only post one video here). But it is always amazed me seeing this kind of culture being presented live (even though I’m not a culture-mania kind of person).
The other things I remember the most from Natsu Matsuri is their food festival. Foods like:
Ringoame (candied apple),
Taiyaki (fish-shaped bread filled with red bean paste),
Giant octopus skewer,
Okonomiyaki (Japanese style omelette) and Takoyaki (ball cake filled with octopus),
or even Ramune.
… sometimes only visible on this event (well… Ramune, takoyaki and okonomiyaki can be found in the supermarket, but it taste better when you have it on the festival).
One last thing we usually saw on Natsu Matsuri is COSPLAY.
Usually, people will wear a light costume/make up based kind of cosplay. But this hungry Kaonashi also appeared at the Natsu Matsuri I attended (this wasn’t take on Ennichisai). But this unique views also one thing I miss from attending Natsu Matsuri.
I heard that despite the pandemic situation here, Ennichisai actually postponed and not going to be held this years. I read from https://www.kaorinusantara.or.id/newsline/131438/ennichisai-2019-terakhir-blok-m-komentar-pengunjung that the comittee decided to postpone the event for several years in order to be reviewed. They also said that after the reviewing process, they will held the event on a bigger venue (thank God if this really happened). Hopefully, over this all pandemic will be over so they will held the event and I can attend the event again. I hope next year this wouldn’t just a memory to me.
“I sometimes wonder why we stay up late uploading photos and messages to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. No one forces us to; it’s simply that we want to share with the world what we did that day, what we thought about, what photo we took. I think this has to do with the fact that we want someone to listen to what we have to say, even if that someone is the inpersonal online world.” (Haemin Sunim, 2018)
Starlight Day
A star can't shine without Starlight, and Starlight has no meaning without the star
Current Fave Song
Blog Archive
Current Status
Mencoba menulis kembali karena kondisi kesehatan mentalku sudah mulai membaik.
