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The Excruciating Pain of an Unexpected Goodbye

Yesterday morning my uncle died. None of us expected this because he was a very healthy military doctor. Even though he used to smoke in his early days but nonetheless he's fit enough to live many more years. Moments after he died my mom got a phone call. At that time we were in the car on our way to get breakfast on a pleasant Sunday morning. She immediately cried. Rather hysterically. It was an impressive coincidence because we happen to be quite close to his house. We rushed to his house. When we got there I could here people crying from outside the house. It was incredibly heart-breaking to know that the info I got was true. I entered his room and he was... Well, dead. My aunt told us and the rest of the family there about how he died while she was bursting in tears and pain and sadness. She said that after praying Dhuha (you can google that) he lied in bed and told my aunt that he felt tired. He asked her if he could be supplied with oxygen (they have an oxygen tank thingy). ...

I Believe in Second Chances

So you've heard the news. 8 drug dealers have been executed in Indonesia. The thing that bothers me the most is that all of them has spent a considerably long amount of time in prison and their prison inmates said that they've changed. But for various reasons (that the Indonesian government consider appropriate) they were given a death verdict earlier this year. To let you guys know, I'm an Indonesian, I'm against drugs, and still I question "why". People change. Everyone's got some goodness in them and they deserve second chances especially with the fact that prison has been proved able to change them. Indonesia's intention to fiercely fight drug dealing is absolutely good news. Their way of doing it is really questionable though. We're dealing with lives here. Innocent lives, yes. But not innocent forever. The pain of knowing lives that deserve second chances pass away is indeed unbearable. Especially to the family left by those who are execute...

When a Sound has No Meaning, it's Called Noise

You do notice those buggers who always give critiques whatever you do, good or bad, don't you? At least I do notice them. Most of the time they really really bug me. Well i mean i do a lot of things wrong but that doesn't give them justification to keep throwing rocks at me. Let alone those times when i actually did something right. I'm always considered as someone weird and absurd at school so this happens a lot to me. My dearest friends would tell me to just ignore them and move on. But you just simply can't ignore external stimulation can you? Especially if you're an introvert like me. So how are you suppose to get through this? This is how i do it. 1. Keep your head down and walk away or don't answer. This gives them affirmation that you aren't listening. That way, they'll think twice whenever they want to do the same thing. 2. Fight back (with your HEAD). Take  to them an argument. You need to use your intelligence so that you make sure you nai...

I Was 3rd in an English Speech Competition!

This actually happened quite a long time ago. And I know what you guys are going to say. "You grew up in Australia! How on Earth could you get (just) 3rd in an English speech competition in Indonesia competing against Indonesians who don't really get to experience what you've experienced?!" Well first of all this competition was held by the Sebelas Maret University, a very known university in Solo, Central Java so there are a lot of fluent English speakers there. Secondly, delivering a speech is not just about speaking. It's a whole lot more than that. Anyway, right now, I guess I'd tell you how it went. So on the preliminary stage all you had to do was just deliver a speech in front of an audience and three juries. You're only allowed to bring a cue card and not the whole text (which is quite common in speech competitions). So on that staged I guess I delivered my speech well enough (even though I was s**ting myself because I'm not used to being in f...

Kartini Day

So today, on the 21st of April, Indonesia commemorates a day called the K artini Day. We celebrate this day in honour of one of our National Patriots, Raden Ajeng Kartini. On this Kartini Day, students usually wear their respective traditional costumes. So if you live in Java then you have to wear the Javanese surjan (if you’re a boy) or kebaya (if you're a girl). Not only that. Usually schools celebrate this day by having a few internal competitions (only the students in that school are allowed to participate, so it's not public). For example, my school had a dimas-diajeng competition, a photography competition etc. If you're wondering what a dimas-diajeng competition is then you might wanna google that because I honestly don't wanna bother explaining it (hahaha, sorry guys). But anyway, it was fun. Oh, I forgot to tell you that before all of this started, in the morning, we had a flag assembly ceremony as a tribute to R. A. Kartini. But the thing is, the st...

I'm an Indonesian, I Use a Seat Belt, if You're an Indonesian, You Should Too

In western countries, when people get inside a car, the first thing they'd probably do is buckle up. In Indonesia, no one hardly gives a f**k about that except a few people like me. When I ask them why, they say that it's not necessary. Especially Indonesians who's sat on the back seat. Maybe they think that the seat in front of them would function as an airbag or somethin lol. The point is, travelling with a car not wearing a seat belt is utterly utterly stupid especially if you do have a seat belt in your car (let alone with those fancy beeping alarms that screams automatically when you don't buckle up). If you're an Indonesian reading this then I really hope you guys would get your heads straight (I mean it). Seat belts save lives. I'm not giving any mainstream research data here because I think (and I hope) you guys are smart enough to realise this. Next time you get into a car, buckle up mate!

English Can Help Indonesia to be Recognized by The World

Sometimes I like to speak English in school. When I talk to my friends (in Bahasa Indonesia), I like to use some English terms that I think are very familiar and easy to understand. But some of my friends don't really like that habit of mine. They often say that because I'm Indonesian and I currently live in Indonesia I should be using Bahasa Indonesia at all times no matter what. That way people could really see me as somebody who actually loves Indonesia. And I was like "What the....". These people are terribly mistaken. Just because sometimes or often I use English it doesn't mean I don't love Indonesia. In fact, because I'm fluent in English, I can help my country. I can share what my country has to the world because I can communicate easily with people from anywhere. They don't seem to see this opportunity. So I'd like to urge my Indonesian friends out there to study English and be able to speak it fluently. Imagine if all Indonesians could s...