A part of the title above is a hashtag in Twitter coined by this awesome group in relation to their world tour. So they’re on their journey on
their way home, and it turns out, their journey is a part of mine too, so..
well. For me, this journey was somehow quite ‘spiritual’. It changed my view on
some things, facilitated me to vent out some stuff I’ve been keeping inside,
and most importantly, it helped me better define my path on my way home...
So it happened when I came to this city. I used to hate it,
mostly because I was scammed on my first solo visit here about four years ago.
Since then, I have always considered this place as unsafe, and I’ve been more
cautious about visiting this place than any other places in the world, I guess.
To my surprise, however, my level of jumpiness for that particular visit was
much lowered than the previous visits. I don’t know, maybe it was because I
knew that I would meet my best friend (a.k.a my tour guide) there. Or maybe
because I had seen my brother living and going around the city for two months,
and he did okay. Or maybe I was just too excited about the journey as a whole
that I had no time to worry.. I was just not-jumpy, and it was great.
I met my best friend and talked about things: jobs, relationships,
family members, life goals, musical preferences.. those things that I don’t
usually talk about with people whom I meet every day, and it was a significant
let-out. Haha. We came to a conclusion that it’s important to have something
that we really like in life, and that as long as it’s nothing illegal, we
should not be ashamed of it, no matter how silly. I also got my neuroticism
addressed –this trait hardly comes out these last few years; well it hardly
comes out in general, especially for non-observant eyes.. which partly explains
why it is kind of hard to address it (i.e. because it rarely comes out). In
addition, we talked about those cool days we had, and how it has shaped who we
are now: how we skipped or delayed some school things due for things musical
and how that doesn’t change much despite the years that have gone by, how we
made friends and connections with the highly varied people in our campus and
how it has enabled us to always have a companion when travelling to most part
of the earth.. and how nice all those small things are.
I also met Bianca, my best friend’s nephew. She’s seven
years old, might need some orthodontic work sooner or later, but she has a pair
of big enthusiastic eyes, nice long hair, and what’s most impressive about her
is her intelligence and friendliness. She immediately shook my hand and told me
her name when I said hello and told her my name. She also told me that she’s in
2nd grade. When I asked her why she hadn’t slept yet (it was 10 pm),
she quickly answered, “Iya kalau aku tidurnya jam 10. Tadi sudah tidur,
sekarang mau tidur lagi,” and immediately went back into her room. The next
day, after she had arrived home from school, I accidentally slipped out an
English sentence when talking to her uncle, and she immediately asked, “Do you
speak English?” I said yes, and she quickly told stories in English: about her
favorite game, her friends at school, and her visit to Taman Mini. She
described things quite clearly (especially considering the fact that she’s only
7 years old), with high speed and well-structured English sentences. Despite
the fact that she didn’t speak in past tense (partly because of her age and
partly because we’re Indonesians that don’t have past tense in our language),
she’s awesome. Unlike most kids that I meet every day who can hardly mention
what they want to be, on day 1 of our conversation, she said that she didn’t
want to be a doctor and wanted to be a psychologist instead. Then she
remembered that she had a great time making chicken katsu the previous day, and
so she changed her mind and said that she wanted to be a chef. On day 2 of our
conversation, she said that she wanted to be a violinist, I think.. and she
also wanted to become the first Catholic Indonesian president. I just smiled at
whatever she said, and I didn’t really care about her ‘multiple’ career choice..
but it’s just nice to see a seven year old kid who seems knows that
psychologist and psychiatrist are two different things (although she wasn’t
sure what’s the difference), has an idea of what a violin is (many of my
students can’t mention the name ‘violin’ when I showed them the picture,
really), and has a knowledge that Indonesia has never been led by a Catholic
president. When I hum some songs that are currently popular, she also eagerly
responded, “I know that song!” and sang along with me, with the correct tones
and near-correct lyrics! I’ve dealt with kids who just stared at me blankly
when I tried to get them to sing, dance, or draw (who only seemed to ‘lighten up’
when given some candies or gadget).. and it was frustrating. Haha
Meeting a kid like
Bianca somehow made me feel that it is possible to have kids who are not into gadgets
and food, as long as they’re adequately socialized to that sing/dance/draw lifestyle.
I mean, I’m okay about (potentially) having kid(s) who are into food and
gadgets, but of course I’m gonna make sure that those two things are the only
things they know. In the end, if they chose to be into those things, the choice
would be made with full consciousness so they wouldn’t overdo it and forget
every other (beautiful) things in their life. So.. yeah.. that’s about the
kid(s). Let’s move on to another topic.. on the next post, maybe. This is too
long already.
I’ll come back later, with more photos :D
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