Wow, my blog has become dusty and full of spider webs for these past 6 months. I'm really sorry for being gone just like that for half of the year, but hopefully you've been enjoying more contents on my Instagram posts and stories ✌🏻

Here we are at another end of the year, and I'm back to share my annual year-end reflection for this awesome year of 2018. I must honestly say that I'm kind of sad of leaving 2018. This year has taught me a lot of things that I never imagined before and surely there were a lot of struggles and pain to help me see these valuable lessons. These lessons are the things that make me fall madly in love with 2018 and I believe it's the greatest year of my life so far.

I'm going to sum up the lessons I got into five points and share with you what I've learned from each of it.
Let's take a flashback to my 2018 together 😉

True Love

These two words just appeared to me randomly at the beginning of 2018. They used to appeared back in 2015 too, just a week before I started dating a friend, and I honestly got so confused for they reappearance in 2018. However, I then chose to just embrace these words and make them my theme for 2018. I even got a bible verse which is related to these words (1 Cor 13:1-7, 13) that I printed and held close to my heart for this whole year.

Little did I know, I was going to learn so much about love this year that I don't even think I can tell you all just within this one post. Many many people have been talking about love through the centuries, so I don't think what I'm about to tell you is something new that you've never heard before. But obviously there's a difference with just knowing and finally truly living it.

I've learned that to love someone is to will the good of the other. Love isn't selfish at all and I double-checked whether I truly loved the people around me, or did I just use the word 'love' to cover my hidden intention of self-fulfillment. Sometimes we just forget and let our ego takes control over our intentions.

I've learned that in order to love others, you need to truly receive and feel the endless love from your Creator, namely God. As a human being, our love is sometimes limited and corrupted, therefore it is important to turn to the unlimited source of love itself which is God. I was really overwhelmed with God's love towards me this year, that I couldn't help but wanting to share that love to myself and my surroundings.

I've learned that God is my ultimate true love. I used to put my happiness into the hands of others, hoping they will always love me and make me happy. But that was selfish and rather impossible for any human beings to accomplish. I found out this year that only God can give me all of that, only God can fill the voids within my heart, for God is truly the love itself. He is indeed my only one true love. Forever grateful that I finally found my 'the one' this year.

Vulnerability

I went through a breakup this year.
Well, it wasn't really a messy and loud one, it was more of a calm and mature kind of breakup. But, it obviously indeed broke every pieces of my heart and I could literally see my dream shattered to pieces. What I did after my breakup you ask? Well, all I did was telling everyone close to me about it, as fast as I could. My intention was to let the words out, so that people would stop asking me about him. Then, right after I was done telling my closest circle, just a week after the breakup, I forced myself to get back up again and not letting this so-called tragedy affected my life ever again.
What's wrong with that? Well, every part of it is obviously sooo wrong.

If someone who just went through a breakup come to me and ask me for an advice now, all I will tell them is to just embrace their feelings. All those sadness, all those sharped piercing pain, all those swollen eyes after crying your eyes out, yup just embrace them all.

I was so used to being strong that I forgot how to be vulnerable. Once I started to embrace the vulnerability and accept all of the overwhelming feelings that I had, I ended up learning more about myself and finding peace with my situation. Towards the end of 2018, I also decided to become vulnerable again and opening up more about my feelings and thoughts to the people whom I trust which also helped me to get closer to these people.

I never thought that being vulnerable could be this freeing. It lifts up all the burdens and essentially gives you strength to continue the journey.

Fortitude

Needless to say this year has brought me so much pain. I'm not saying that my pain is bigger and harder than yours, but pain is still pain. They're still painful no matter at what size they're marching towards you. The virtue that I've learned a lot during these times of trials is the virtue of fortitude which is to find courage in the midst of the pain.

Of course it's so hard to find the light when you're down in the deepest darkest place. However, even though I learned to embrace my situation by being vulnerable, it doesn't mean that I was letting my situation consumed me. I still stood up and believed that my situation at that time was only temporary just like any other thing in this world, and I also believed that there must be reasons why these things were happening to me. The key is in enduring the pain with perseverance to find those hidden reasons, then you'll finally see a shining light at the end of the tunnel, a light called hope.

I know there are times when you just want to give up and give in to the struggles. I was there too, my friend. What I did to fight this temptation to give up was by not letting myself be overwhelmed with self-pity and started focusing on what I should do next, one step at a time.

I know it's easier said than done, and I keep slipping here and there too sometimes. But just learn to keep going and doing what's your heart is telling you to do. And when you get stuck, prayer will always helps, it worked wonders to me.

Self-Love

Now that I think of it, I don't think I was ever in love with myself. I always had those tiny self-critic voices inside my head 24/7 365 (sometimes 366) days a year. I was never able to see, how loving myself could've done anything significantly great for me, until this year.

Do you realize that when you don't love yourself enough, you can let other people taking control over yourself? Because when you don't love yourself, you basically don't have any self-worth, which makes it so hard for you to stand up for yourself. That's what actually happened to me.

I used to have this huge fear of judgements. I often received many judgements from others and all I did was just receiving them and let them got into my head, so they ended up distorting everything about my true identity.

Truly realizing and embracing my identity as the daughter of my loving Father truly helped me to love myself more. I suddenly felt this overwhelming love that's so hard to contain, it basically flooded everywhere, including towards myself. One day I just woke up and find it really hard to hate myself, because He accepted me just the way I am. No matter what others think, in the end it's what He thinks of me that matters the most.

Other than embracing my true identity, I also tried so hard to switch the voices in my head to a much more positive and nicer one. It was very hard at first, but as the time goes you'll gain more confidence in yourself and it'll get easier to find anything nice about yourself. I also made an effort to make myself more lovable to me, by wearing the clothes that I like and comfortable with, having those relaxing manicure night, taking care of my skin, etc. Just list all the things that you would like to do with yourself and do them all without really caring about what others may think and say about you.

I'm glad that I can finally stop caring too much about others' opinion towards me, and letting me just be me.

Living in the present

Last but not least, I've learned a valuable lesson of living in the moment. As you might have recognized, there is a reason why the present moment is called 'present', because it's eventually a gift that you can receive right on every second that's ticking and right on every breath that you take. Life is happening before your own eyes.

I found it really hard to grasp into reality, because daydream and nostalgia were the things that I enjoyed the most. I love creating stories within my head and reliving the past memories that make me smile wayyy too much, can you relate to this? Then there's a possibility that you might be having the same problem that I had earlier this year: having such a high expectation towards the future and having a tendency to cling to those beautiful memories in the past.

I didn't realize that these habits were robbing me from my present, but apparently they made it so hard for me to accept my current situation just the way it was. I always got something to complain about my present, like things were not as good as I thought it would've been, things were not as beautiful as it was before, and so on. They also generated so much worries and fears when I lost control of the stream of my thoughts. It clearly didn't feel good at all.

After working on it, I found out that living in the present could bring so much joy and peace. All I need to think about is how to handle the situation that is currently happening right in front of me, and that's all. I'm not saying that you shouldn't think about your future or relive your past, but it's all about balance. When you're overthinking about it (like I always do), it's obviously not good and you need to start tuning in into your present again.

My advice for those of you who like to worry about your future or your purpose in life is to just stay true to yourself and be who you really are. Even though you might not know what's the specific purpose of your life right now. Just know that God has prepared everything for you, because He has designed and created you specifically for your purpose in this life. So, honestly you have nothing to worry about, because you've already got everything you could possibly need.





Wow, it's surely very very long, isn't it? Applause for you who have finished reading them all without missing any word 👏🏻

Hopefully some of my words can inspire you (and my future self) to embark on this new journey of 2019 that is about to begin within few more hours. I'm wishing you all the very best of luck for this awesome road ahead.

If any of you want to do a revenge by sharing even longer 2018 reflection that you wrote, please feel free to drop them in the comment box below. If it's shorter then it's even better! Just share your thoughts because I'd really love to read them.

That's all for 2018. Looking forward for an exciting 2019 with all of you!
Until next year!
CN.

Time just flies.
It seems like yesterday that we decided to embark on this new journey together.
Trusting our guts that it was meant to be.
Today, it's already three years ago.
Three whole years just passed, and we're still here.
Lots of things happened, but none are useless.
We both got lots of lessons.
We both grow.

Here are 3 things that I learned about relationship for these past three years.

I love it when a film or a book has a happy ending. It makes me smile and it also makes me feel warm. However, you'll see that before the story reaches its happy ending, there will be lots of problems happening. Then the story just ended with a joyful ending. When the sequel arrives, usually there will be problems again. So, that's basically life. Nothing is eternal in this world, not even our happy moments. However, you can always work your sad moments out and turn 'em into happy ones. It's really up to you.

In a realtionship, the story doesn't end when you both become boyfriend and girlfriend. It might be the end of book 1, but you'll see there's another sequel coming. There will be times when you hate your partner, then there will be times when you totally adore your partner, those are all your emotions raging. Remember to make the decisions when you both are finally cold-headed, and try to work everything out. When you're truly destined to be with each other, then you'll somehow finish each book together, and keep writing and creating new books.

There's this understanding of love that I've just learned lately:
Love is when you put others before yourself.

My understanding of love used to be so shallow. When he wasn't there when I needed him the most, I used to think that he didn't love me anymore. Sometimes we have so many demands to our partner even without realizing. We forget that our partner is merely human being too. Demanding our partner to know every correct thing to do when we often don't really understand what we really want either is kind of messed up, don't you think?

When we love someone, we should focus more to the needs of our partner instead of what we want. Also make sure that our partner show the right kind of love too. Learn to love together.

Sometimes, we put way too many pressures from the society onto our relationship. Seeing others achieving new milestones in their relationship, doesn't mean that we also have to achieve the same milestones now. I learned that every relationship is unique and has its own pace, just like every person is different. Putting too many pressure isn't going to take you anywhere but dooms.

Accepting your own pace and growing together is actually a lot nicer than ticking another relationship's milestone box. Just keep your relationship in prayer and enjoy it. You'll appreciate it more this way than when you're pushing too hard.


Those are all the lessons learned and there will be more lessons along the way.
We'll just never stop learning, and I'm glad that I get to share these few lessons with you today.
Wishing you all a great future ahead,
CN.

Hey! Happy New Year everyone! 🎉
We're now officially on the very first day of 2018! Wow, how fast the year's gone by. I especially feel like 2017 just flew by so fast and suddenly we're in a new year again. I think a lot of people will agree with me on that, because there were lots and lots of people mentioning the same thing to me. Oh well, before we proceed further into the year, I would like to share with you a few things that I had experienced in 2017.

2017 was one of the toughest year of my life. There were a lot of tears and pains but thankfully it's also the year where I found my rock. Everything started off quite nice, as I was working towards my goals. But somewhere along the road, I just somehow lost it, which led to a lot of disappointment and feeling crushed from within. Definitely not a good feeling to have.

I am the kind of person who wants to get everything done as quickly as I could, but not in this year. 2017 turns out to be a year of growth where I learned a lot about patience and love. It's the year where I discovered more about God's love and mercy. I learned again that my timing is totally different than His timing, and believe me, His timing will be much more perfect than any of our planned timing.

Another lesson that I got is that love costs something. You can hardly love someone without sacrificing something, or else it can't be called love because love isn't a selfish act. I was reminded not to be afraid to love someone just because I have to feel some kind of pain as a cost of it, just like Jesus suffered and died on the cross for His love for all of us.

Honestly, the only one I could really depend on in 2017 was God. I felt like I had so many broken relationships and a lot of miscommunications with the people around me last year. It's just a little bit too much for me to handle by myself and I just got so worn out at the end of the day. Therefore I started to shift my focus to God. I started to practice gratitude towards what God had given me every single day, I started to learn about His Church, I sought for every understanding and knowledge I could possibly get just to feel closer and closer to Him everyday. Surprisingly, it brought me so much peace at the end of the day.

I can say that 2017 was the year of me finally coming back home to Him. Not only because I finally learned and felt a lot closer to Him than ever before, but also because I was finally able to let go of my ego and encountered His grace on the Sacrament of Reconciliation after 6,5 years of thinking that God will just forgive all of my sins and avoiding it so much. It took a lot of courage to step into that confession room and confessed every wrong doings that I could remember. I would describe my experience as a nerve-wrecking-yet-full-of-excitement one.

Now that I'm finally back on track, it doesn't mean that it's getting easier though. In fact, it's getting harder than ever, because evil loves to mess up with the good, as you might have known. I have a goal to stay strong in Him as hard as I can. It's totally not easy, because there will be days when I just won't feel like it, since we're not perfect yet. However I pray that at the end of the day, I will always find my home again.

I might sound quite religious in this post, but I think 2017 was the time when we needed religion the most. I solely believe that religions are the means to get closer to God, no matter what your religion is. 2017 was so full of tragedies and pains and I saw people used religions to create even more pain by blaming, spreading hatred, etc.

Religions have a pure purpose, and when some people with a certain religious view commited sins, it doesn't mean that the religion itself is bad. It's not the religion we should fight, but the corruptions within it. Just remember that evil loves to make something good become bad. Don't be deceived by it and always stay close to God who is so full of love and mercy, which I believe is what your religions teach.

Whether you believe in God or not, in our darkest hour we will always seek for a greater power to help us, just like what Sam Smith sang in one of his song, Pray:
"Everyone prays in the end."
We sure do. We will always look for our home.

Keep on praying, friends, and let's greet 2018 with our improved and better self. 2017 was one hell of a year, but now we can proudly say that we've survived it well. People said, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger," right? 😉

Hope you're having an astonishing first day of 2018 and another year full of His grace!
See you on my next posts! 😁
CN.

Hello everyone, how's 2017 treating you so far? Well, for me it's still quite a good start. I hope it's been a great start for you too! :)

I've been thinking to write this post for a while, but I just wasn't quite sure what to write.

December 2016 wasn't really counted as a nice month. Yes, it ended beautifully with my trip to Bali. However, before that trip happened, there were a lot of complications that made me felt exhausted and sad. It made me lost my excitement for 2017. I was always excited for new year before, but not this time.

As I entered 2017 and tried to look back at all the things that happened in 2016, I found something.
I finally discovered that 2016 wasn't such a bad year after all. It was just a matter of point of view.

in 2016...

I traveled quite a lot. I even had my very first traveling abroad experience with my boyfriend, which was so much fun. I also managed to go back to my hometown in Makassar again after years not visiting it.

I started documented my life intensely on my blog and diary. So, now I can open them up and look at things I've done in 2016. I even won a blogging competition by Gramedia once. Well, I just won the third place, but still, it was still a great achievement.

I made lots of new friends, which was really exciting! I can't wait to see how these friendships will grow.

I started to work in a company that is so welcoming and I've had a great experience so far.

I finally hit 1k followers on Instagram (I know it's not really important, but it did make me proud because I worked quite hard for it).

I also learned that life is so full of precious moments that sometimes don't get enough recognition. Most of the time we just get caught in our hectic schedule/work/deadlines/life/etc, that we forget to just stop for a little while and actually enjoy our surroundings and what we're doing.

Hello there! I'm sorry I've been gone for a few days and didn't post anything. I just didn't feel like it, because I've been having some quite rough days and I wasn't emotionally stable. But, there is this one sentence that keeps echoing inside my head during those days:

Source

I believe everyone is sensitive about their body image. We don't really enjoy it when people talk negatively about our body. I never really understand why someone wants to hurt the feeling of others with their mean words, when they don't really know what the other person is experiencing. However, with the right attitude, I think we can overcome those insensitive judgement and become a better person.

Have you ever heard someone told you that you're fat, then somehow other people said you're skinny? I've experienced it for quite some time, but not until now that I realize how bizarre those comments are. Like, it's rather confusing, don't you think? Some people think you're fat, some people think you have normal weight, and some other people think you're skinny. It makes me realize that other people don't really know what they're talking about. Everyone will have different opinions about your body. No matter how fat or skinny you are, they will never be consistent about their opinions. That's when I ask myself, "Why bother with what they think then?"

What really matter is how you feel about your body and how you should treat it right. What I like to do to have the exact standard of my body is by checking my BMI (Body Mass Index). It will tell me exactly whether I'm too skinny, or if I'm in my normal weight, overweight, or obese. After knowing the truth, the next step is to accept your condition right now and try to change it if it's not right (too skinny or overweight). Remember that you're not changing to please anybody but yourself. You deserve to have a healthy body and a long life. So, if taking care of your body will make you achieve that, why not? I believe it's everyone's dreams to be the best version of themselves, it's just a matter of their own mindset to reach those dreams.

When you're doing something because you recognize how important it is for your own body, life, and future, you will finally embark on a journey to be the best version of yourself. The only thing you need right now is a positive mindset to keep you going strong. It's not gonna be easy, because life is never easy. There are a lot of trials and errors coming towards you, but if you believe that you can overcome them, then everything is going to be worth it.

This mindset can be applied to any issue honestly, not just body issue. So, stop listening to those negative comments and believe in yourself. Happy Monday! :)
CN.

Source

Hey, it's Monday again!

Mondays can be hard for a lot of people, because it means you have to get back to your work and say goodbye from the comfort of weekend for a while. Work is a part of life that you just can't deny. No matter how hard you want to avoid it, you still must do it to make a living. However, you shouldn't just work to earn the money. Yes, we do need the money, but sometimes there are greater things that you can get from your work than the money. You may not realize it, but as you work day by day, you're improving something within you, whether it's your skill, personality, etc. These things can bring you to the better things ahead.

You don't need to love your job at first, since not everybody can get their dream jobs instantly. However, we can make the job that we have right now to be useful for our future ahead. We can't really rush a learning process and our growth, and we don't need to rush things. Let's just try to make the best of everything that is happening to us every single day. One day you might see that those days are forming up a better you and a better future.

If you're having a hard time to start your week again, just imagine what you want your future to look like. Believe that one day it will come true. Believe that good things take time and you're on your way.

Enjoy your brand new week!
CN.

Aku membayangkan kota yang teduh dengan orang-orang yang ramah. Orang-orang yang peduli. Mereka yang melakukan hal-hal kecil karena mereka merasa memiliki. Sampah dimasukkan ke tempat sampah, tidak dibuang ke sembarang tempat, apalagi ke sungai. Bunga-bunga yang dikagumi dan dirawat, bukannya dipetik dan diinjak-injak. Mereka yang berkendara dengan bijak dan tidak mengebut sembarangan di jalan. Mulai dari hal-hal kecil ini, kita sebenarnya dapat menimbulkan lingkungan yang lebih baik untuk kita tinggali bersama.

Kita yang hidup di perkotaan identik sebagai orang-orang yang berkecukupan, baik dalam keuangan maupun pendidikan. Meskipun demikian terdapat satu hal yang terkadang tidak dapat ditemukan dalam masyarakat ini, yaitu keprihatinan dan kepedulian, terutama kepada lingkungan. Lahan-lahan yang hijau dibabat untuk dibangun gedung-gedung tinggi. Sungai yang jernih menjadi keruh akibat sampah dan limbah yang dibuang ke dalamnya. Tanaman di taman yang indah dirusak hanya karena masalah sepele, seperti es krim gratis. Sungguh sedih melihat warga kota yang 'berkecukupan' dalam hampir segala hal itu, tetapi kurang berkecukupan dalam kepeduliannya terhadap lingkungan.

Terkadang kita terlalu mementingkan kepentingan diri sendiri, dan tidak menyadari bahwa lingkungan memiliki pengaruh yang begitu besar dalam hidup kita. Terdengar suara kicauan burung yang memberikan kita semangat di pagi hari. Di malam hari terdengar suara jangkrik yang mengantar kita ke alam mimpi. Kita dapat memuaskan dahaga dari air jernih yang mengalir dari pegunungan. Kita dapat hidup berkat oksigen yang dihasilkan oleh pepohonan. Hal-hal kecil. Kita telah terbiasa dengan hal-hal kecil ini, sehingga terkadang kita menganggapnya sepele. Bayangkan apabila kita tidak dapat mendengarkan suara-suara alam. Bayangkan apabila kita tidak dapat memperoleh air. Bayangkan apabila semua pohon telah ditebang habis. Dari mana kita dapat hidup?

Hal-hal yang terlihat kecil dan sepele sebenarnya memiliki kekuatan yang besar. Hal kecil yang dilakukan dengan giat dapat membawa perubahan yang berarti. Contohnya saja, dengan membawa botol minum sendiri, kita dapat mengurangi sampah plastik dari air kemasan. Satu hari mungkin dapat mengurangi dua hingga tiga buah sampah plastik, tetapi apabila dilakukan dalam satu bulan, kalian bisa hitung sendiri betapa besar pengaruhnya untuk lingkungan. Seandainya setiap orang dapat melakukan hal-hal kecil seperti ini atas dasar kepedulian terhadap lingkungan, tentunya lingkungan kita akan menjadi jauh lebih baik dari sekarang.

Mungkin ini hanyalah idealismeku belaka, karena tidak semua orang akan memiliki pemikiran yang sama. Namun, alangkah indahnya ketika manusia dapat memberikan sumbangan kepedulian bagi lingkungan sekitar mereka. Mulai dari hal-hal kecil untuk menuju kota yang ramah lingkungan dan tempat tinggal yang layak bagi semua makhluk.

Minggu lalu kita merayakan Hari Bumi, di mana bumi kita sedang sakit dan memerlukan perhatian lebih dari kita. Isu Global Warming mungkin memang sudah terlalu membosankan bagi kebanyakan orang, meskipun demikian isu ini adalah isu yang masih berjalan dan tidak akan pernah bisa terselesaikan apabila kita tidak mengambil aksi. Mari kita mulai melakukan hal-hal kecil bagi Bumi tempat tinggal kita bersama, karena kalau bukan kita, siapa lagi?

Happy Earth Day!
Semoga makna Hari Bumi ini dapat diresapi dan ditindaklanjuti bersama demi lingkungan yang lebih baik.

CN.

Aku dilahirkan dan dibesarkan dalam keluarga yang berasal dari Sulawesi. Aku dilahirkan di Ujung Pandang dan sempat menjalani masa kecilku di Kota Soroako. Meskipun demikian, aku tidak dapat mengingat dengan jelas masa kecilku ini, karena aku masih terlalu kecil saat itu. Pada saat aku berusia dua tahun aku mengikuti keluargaku pergi merantau ke Pulau Jawa. Hal ini membuat aku mengalami suatu pengalaman budaya yang aku rasa akan menarik untuk diceritakan.

Bahasa Makassar dan Mandarin seringkali digunakan dalam keluargaku, karena kedua orang tuaku yang merupakan penduduk keturunan Tionghoa yang berasal dari Makassar. Ketika aku masih kecil, aku tidak merasa ada yang aneh dengan hal ini. Aku beranggapan bahwa semua keluarga menggunakan bahasa yang sama seperti keluargaku. Hingga suatu saat, salah satu teman dekatku berkata bahwa logat keluargaku lucu untuk didengar. Aku kemudian baru menyadari bahwa budaya keluargaku dan budaya yang ada di tempat tinggalku saat itu berbeda.

Aku bertumbuh di Kota Surabaya, kota terbesar kedua di Indonesia. Dengan bertumbuhnya lingkungan pertemananku di sekolah, aku semakin terbiasa dengan bahasa dan budaya Jawa. Saking terbiasanya, ketika aku mengunjungi keluarga besarku di Makassar, terkadang aku menggunakan bahasa Jawa untuk berbicara dengan mereka. Anggota keluargaku pun menjadi bingung dan menanyakan arti dari kata yang baru saja aku ucapkan. Alhasil, aku kemudian mengajarkan beberapa kata dalam bahasa Jawa kepada mereka. Sebaliknya pula, mereka terkadang juga mengajarkan beberapa kata dalam bahasa Makassar yang tidak kuketahui. Tidak banyak kosakata bahasa Makassar yang aku mengerti, karena aku tidak menghabiskan banyak waktuku di Makassar. Pertukaran budaya ini membuat kami saling belajar, memahami, serta mengalami budaya satu sama lain.

Aku telah menetap selama kurang lebih dua puluh tahun di Surabaya. Selama menetap di sini, aku tentu terus belajar mengenai bagaimana Surabaya itu. Surabaya terkenal dengan patung ikonik ikan sura dan buaya (dalam bahasa Jawa: baya) yang berasal dari legenda asal mula nama 'Surabaya'. Selain itu Surabaya juga dikenal dengan sebutan kota pahlawan yang didasari oleh perjuangan arek-arek Suroboyo pada saat mempertahakan kemerdekaan Indonesia di tahun 1945. Surabaya juga dikenal sebagai kota yang rindang dengan kuliner yang menggiurkan. Namun, Surabaya juga dikenal dengan bahasanya yang terdengar lebih tegas dan kasar. Hal ini telah menjadi stereotip dan juga persepsi banyak orang terhadap Surabaya.

Pada tahun 2014, aku sempat menjalani masa magangku di luar kota yaitu di Solo, Jawa Tengah. Meskipun berada dalam satu pulau yang sama dan juga masih menggunakan bahasa Jawa, namun terasa perbedaan yang jelas antara Solo dan Surabaya. Bahasa Jawa yang digunakan di Solo merupakan bahasa Jawa yang lebih halus dan sopan. Orang Solo seringkali menggunakan basa krama (tingkatan dalam bahasa Jawa yang santun dan sopan) yang dapat disebabkan oleh budaya keraton yang terdapat di Solo. Sedangkan bahasa Jawa Suroboyo-an seringkali menggunakan basa ngoko (tingkatan dalam bahasa Jawa yang tergolong informal). Sebagai orang yang telah lama menetap di Surabaya, aku sudah sangat terbiasa dengan bahasa Suroboyo-an dan tidak menyadari bahwa bahasa tersebut terdengar kasar. Aku baru menyadari bahwa bahasa tersebut terdengar berbeda ketika aku mengalami sendiri budaya yang ada di Solo. Aku dan teman-temanku yang berasal dari Solo seringkali menganggap aksen satu sama lain sangat lucu serta unik.

Setelah mengunjungi beberapa tempat yang berbeda di Indonesia, aku menyadari bahwa Indonesia ini begitu unik. Setiap kali aku mengunjungi tempat baru, aku merasa seperti berada di suatu tempat yang berbeda, seperti berada di luar negeri. Bahasa yang digunakan berbeda, cara berbicara dan berperilaku yang berbeda, makanan yang berbeda, dan sebagainya. Indonesia dapat dilihat seperti kumpulan negara yang memiliki satu bahasa universal, yaitu bahasa Indonesia. Apabila bahasa Inggris memiliki aksen British; American; maupun Australian, bahasa Indonesia juga memiliki aksen yang bervariasi mulai dari Suroboyo-an; Jakarta; Sulawesi; Batak; Ambon; dan sebagainya. Aku menjadi terkagum-kagum karena sebenarnya kita dapat merasakan sensasi ke luar negeri hanya dengan berkunjung ke daerah-daerah di dalam negeri.

Aku baru benar-benar menyadari keberagaman ini ketika mengalami budaya-budaya tersebut sendiri. Memang secara teori telah dinyatakan bahwa Indonesia memiliki beragam budaya, namun kamu tidak akan benar-benar merasakannya sampai kamu mengalaminya sendiri. Kamu tidak harus menghabiskan uang dengan pergi berwisata, kamu juga dapat mengalami budaya lain melalui berteman dengan mereka yang memiliki budaya yang berbeda. Jangan membuat perbedaan membuat kita menjauh, tetapi buatlah perbedaan menjadikan kita kaya. Mewarnai dengan satu warna tidak akan seindah mewarnai dengan beragam warna yang berbeda. Beragam warna budaya ini yang akan membuat Indonesia menjadi indah dan membuat kita lebih menghargai keberagaman tersebut dan juga masing-masing warna yang ada.

Selamat mengalami budaya lokal!

CN.




Tulisan ini memenangkan juara 3 Gramedia Blogger Competition Februari 2016 :)

Few days ago, on January 14 to be exact, the capital city of Indonesia was terrorized by explosions and mass shooting. As an Indonesian, I was quite shocked to hear the news at noon. I didn't really believe it at first, but then I directly went on the internet and turned on my television to find any related news about it. Apparently, it did happen and was still happening. I was quite afraid that it would be as bad as the attack in Paris few months ago, but as I continued to keep on reading the updated news, I wasn't really sure how to respond to it.

Wow! It's been quite a while since the last time I posted anything in here. This morning, I just randomly remember about this blog (which I completely forgot that I had, oops!), and I decided to write something here to share with you guys, whoever and wherever you are reading this :)

So, as you guys may notice already, another year is coming to an end. I don't know if it's just me, but as I get older, I feel like time just seems to fly way faster than it used to. When I was little, I could play all day long and still got a lot of time to do any other stuff that I loved. Now, I am working on my laptop for what feels like an hour and the sun will set already. Sometimes, I get a scary thought that I will not be able to do everything that I want in my life because I feel like the time is chasing me. I also fear that I'm not productive enough, I haven't done much in my life, I wasted too much time doing something, etc. At time like this, I really like to reflect on everything that has happened in my life, just to see how much I already been through, to reassure myself that everything is going to be fine and I'm just overreacting too much.

I remember starting 2015 with a new hope, a set of goals, and a prepared heart to face my thesis for my bachelor's degree. It was the final step to graduate from university, and I can't lie to you, I was really nervous in those early months. What I was grateful about is that I had a lot of amazing friends to go through it together. We shared the same nervousness, struggle, and success together. Some might remember their thesis moments being scary and stressful, but I remember it as a beautiful time when I could have some bonding time with my friends. Yes, I was in a lot of stress, yes, it was quite a struggle to finish my thesis, but it was an amazing journey because we did it together.

2015 is the year when I found love. I can't thank God enough for that, because He has sent me someone special to be by my side. I don't really want to talk too much about it, since it's quite private for me. However, this moment has changed my life a lot this year, so not mentioning it will be just wrong. I know I imply my boyfriend with 'someone special' here, but I think it doesn't necessarily need to be a boyfriend or a girlfriend, it could be anybody. Your parents and siblings could be your 'someone special', or your friends, your pets, your neighbors, etc. In fact, I have a lot of people to be thankful for this year and everyone is special. I think I just need to be thankful that I have so many people in my life that keeps me going everyday and are ready to help whenever needed. So, I sincerely say thank you to everyone who's crossing the path of my life.

Overall, in 2015 I faced a big transition from school life to 'real life'. I am still struggling with it, I still have a lot of worries about what I should do with my life, whether I have chosen the right decisions, and all those confusing questions about the future. However, worrying about it will bring me nowhere, so I decided to stop worry about the future too much and just do what I feel right at the moment. I think some fresh graduates will have this kind of struggle too, but since life won't wait on us, it's best to just keep on going and make sure that we're doing something which we won't regret too much.

2015 is going to pass and 2016 will be a new blank page. Let's take what we've learnt in 2015 as a lesson to have a better year in 2016.

Life is full of ups and downs, but I think that's what makes a balanced life.
Have a beautiful 2016 everyone! :)


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