Monday, 21 November 2016

Pun sukses, ternyata relatif..

Siang tadi saya membaca sebuah artikel beserta videonya, dimana sebuah eksperimen menunjukkan hasil yang sangat berbeda ketika kita mendefenisikan sukses kita, dibanding orang terdekat kita mendefenisikan sejauh mana sukses kita. 
Kita cenderung menilai kesuksesan yang kita raih masih jauh dari harapan, merasa tidak pernah cukup baik. Sedangkan orang-orang terkasih kita ternyata sudah merasa bangga dengan apa adanya kita, apa yang kita raih atau sedang kita usahakan..
Membaca artikel tersebut lantas saya merenung, sukses pun ternyata relatif. Sering kita tidak menyadari, level ketidaksuksesan kita adalah kesuksesan bagi orang lain. Seperti sejatinya manusia tidak pernah merasa puas, suka lupa bersyukur. 
Kerapkali pun kita lupa, hal kecil yang kita anggap sepele, bisa jadi hal besar yang memberi arti bagi orang lain.
Anggaplah saya membenarkan diri atau hanya sekedar menyenangkan diri sendiri, tapi sebagai contoh, ketika saya kembali ke Indonesia setelah menyelesaikan pendidikan Master di Liverpool, Inggris, saya tak langsung ditempatkan di tempat dimana saya bisa berkarya, berfaedah bagi orang banyak.
Saya kemudian merasa diri saya sia-sia, mengingat kata-kata yang kerapkali saya dengar dan camkan dalam diri, "sebaik-baiknya manusia adalah yang bermanfaat bagi orang lain". Tapi kemudian saya sedikit menyadari, mungkin saya lupa, keberhasilan saya mendapatkan beasiswa, menyelesaikan pendidikan di negeri orang, bisa jadi sedikit banyak menginspirasi orang-orang di sekitar saya, terutama yang masih muda dan bisa mengusahakan kesempatan itu. Bisa jadi, keindahan foto dan kekayaan pengalaman yang saya dapatkan memberikan secercah semangat bagi generasi muda lain untuk bergiat lagi menempuh pendidikan ke jenjang yang lebih tinggi. Bisa jadi, kata-kata yang serasa tak penting yang saya lontarkan di media sosial atau di kehidupan sehari-hari sebagai buah dari saksi pergumulan hidup saya dapat menggerakkan hati orang lain. Hal-hal lain, apapun bentuknya, kecil dan besar, banyak yang lupa saya syukuri.. 
Alangkah baik untuk menetapkan target setinggi-tingginya, berusaha semaksimal mungkin, berharap sejauh mungkin, karena Tuhan menganugerahkan kita kemampuan untuk tidak menjadi seorang pemalas. Namun, kita sering lupa untuk berhenti sejenak dan bersyukur...
Tuhan menganugerahkan talenta yang berbeda-beda, pun sukses akan terdefenisikan berbeda dalam setiap individu.. Lihat ke atas sebagai pemacu semangat, namun lihatlah juga ke bawah sebagai pengingat untuk bersyukur.. 
You are worthy. Di saat kita merasa kita tidak cukup baik, gagal dan sia-sia, ingatlah, pasti selalu ada orang-orang yang kagum akan kita, menginginkan tempat kita, atau yang mengasihi dan selalu mensupport kita.. 
Berilah ruang pada hikmat yang mengaliri darahmu ketika bersyukur, lantas kau pun bisa berdamai dengan diri sendiri untuk melangkah menjadi lebih sukses lagi :) 

-Sevi, 211116-

Sunday, 20 November 2016

It won't last

Have you ever felt so happy you scared to death of misery?
Have you ever felt so whole you scared to death of empty again? 
That's how things work in life.. 
No thing is permanent..
Be ready.

-Sevi, 201116-

Come to Me, all who are weary...

War is outside yet inside..
Forgive yourself.. forgive yourself..
World is an illusion.. leads us nowhere end..
Come back to His arm..
The safest place.. 
Feel no fear, no more.. 
In a true peace.. a true beauty..

-Sevi, 201116-

a true peace..

The question is, who pulls your strings?
Your ego? Then life seems full of trouble..
Your money? Then life's just a matter of uncounted numbers that will cause you giddy..
Your power? Then life's just a never ending fear..

The key is, forgive yourself first. Have peace, make peace, be peace..
Otherwise, we'll be too tired to live...

-Sevi, 201116-

Wednesday, 16 November 2016

Inspiration

I want to inspire people, I said.
But you did, you said. 
I looked at you with the brightest smile. 
But then you stand, about to leave. 
How can I inspire people? I asked. 
But you did, you answered. 
How can I inspire people when my inspiration's gone? 

-Sevi, 161116-


Thursday, 10 December 2015

What make they (or us?) different?

Based on my observations within the last 3 months, I can list some of comparisons between us (Indonesian) and them (British) as follows:


1.       They’re punctual. If it’s said 10.00 am, then it’s 10.00 am sharp! No excuses, even for another minute. 

2.       They appreciate every little thing that exist. 

3.       They like to throw away old and broken things. If they use it once, then they will get rid of it. They never knew things like “using your old pyjamas or underwear as ‘kain lap’” hahaha..

4.       They like queuing. 

5.       They must hold the door opened for you till you come in if they go before you.

6.       They don’t have maid, they do all the things themselves. They are shopping, cooking, cleaning and so on, by their own self.

7.       They always have their voice. They criticise everything. They don’t like to be told to do something if they don’t want to.  They don’t receive things the way things are, they keep questioning things.

8.       They don’t mind of languages you use as long as you can communicate each other. They’re none like “grammar Nazi” hihihi..

9.       They never stare at someone as they’re weirdo or something. They don’t care how you look. They care what’s inside you.

10.      They use "please" too often and "thank you" in every single sentence. 

11.      They dont litter. (Exc. cigarettes)

Well, thats all i can think of right now. I'll add some more on the way. Its not that i made any judgement or i underestimate my beloved country, but at least we may have another perspective and learn from the well-developed country, right? ;)

Cheers!
SMP

Wednesday, 9 December 2015

"Are you okay?"

"Are you okay?"

Local people, esp. scouser (Liverpool local people) often said those things as greetings. It's not like they're worried or something, it's just their way of asking "how are you".

It feels like a blink of an eye (well okay, its not that fast :p), I have been here for, like, 3 months already. I get used to the environment, but missing home so much as well. Nevertheless, there were so many lesson that I have learned till today.

Campus life might be so tired and it was quite a hard time for me. There were so many assignments and things to do at the same time. The standard here is so much different from Indonesia. But what I found more interesting here was, they (the University of Liverpool) not only gave you millions assignments, knowledge, or whatever may come in the learning process, but also shaped your behaviour. I learnt a lot from my reflective learning and class/tutorial session, I know more about my own self, and I learnt a lot from my team as well, I know more about people. However, both university and life in the UK so far gives me lesson learned in so many ways.

Start from yourself. We want change. We want to do something for Indonesia. Whilst we still got nothing to do in global scope, we can just start from ourselves. Be bright, be an inspiration in everywhere you go. Responsible for your own self.
When it came to the classroom, when tutor gave me feedback, "excellent", and she asked me whether I'm Malaysian, I proudly answered "Nope! I'm Indonesian!".
When it came to the relationship with others, be kind, be open. Indonesian will eventually be known as  "kind" and "friendly" people. People be attracted to you, by being you! Being a real positive Indonesian. You might get an idea of how precious moment it could be, when one of your friend started to say "thanks, Sevi, I feel a lot more better now".
It is important to have a branding. Be a good branding for Indonesia in everywhere you go. So people around the world won't have a single story or negative stereotype about Indonesia.

Explore yourself. Try new things. Be flexible. We will end up in extinction if we keep doing the same routine on and on. Get your ass off of your comfort zone. Improved something good and learn something new. Embrace the challenges. I would never know what Western food tasted like if i keep on my routine to have my Indonesian meals. I would never know that i did pretty well if didnt fight my fear to just raise my hand in class. And i would never know before that British people are so polite (even more than us, Indonesian) if i didnt challenge myself to talk with locals. Small things like that. But it will somehow make you learn to know yourself and your surroundings more. 
 
Another thing is, kindness investment. Be nice to everyone, everywhere you go. I always try to build a good relationship with everyone I met. We will never know, somehow, we need each other.Who knows that I somehow lost my room key and be charged 40 pounds for losing it. Fortunately, since I had a good relationship with my landlord (while everyone else in this flat not really had it), he was sort of like, "i don't want to charge you, I know 40 pounds is such a big amount of money, i will help you tomorrow, I have the backup key and I will help you to duplicate your key, but don't tell this to my manager" and he helped me to duplicate my key room, so I'm free from the charge fee. I gave him a box of chocolate, since people here don't get used to receive "uang rokok" ;D 


Finally, i repeat, never stop learning. We can always learn something from anything even from a piece of rubber for its flexibility and ability to keep the constraints stable. What makes British different from us Indonesian, they were like, trained to appreciate every little thing, appreciate every little curiousity, knowledge and even mistake. They were like, contributing in each other's growth. Stay fool, stay hungry. When you have a capacity to learn, don't imprison yourself. Learn to discover who you are, to be free. Sure we will have some time of being down in order to learn, sure there will be times of failing, but there will always something that we can learn from our experience. It is okay for being vulnerable sometimes; vulnerable is a new way of being safe. This will result in the growth of our strength. Always try to pick up something from every little thing that happen. From our ups and downs, there must be something useful for us to learn. "To know knowledge is not the answer. To know how to use knowledge to deal with the unknown is."

Having experienced lots of things here, I come to the conclusion that God is good all the time, and I need to learn more and more in days to come (well, I have 9 more months haha), so I can be someone who grow more (psychologically, of course haha) and be useful for my surrounding.
So, when they ask me "are you okay", I will definitely answer "I'm good! Thanks. And how about you? You alright?" ;)

'Ta, mate!

Liverpool, 09 Dec 2015.