Exams are Gone, This is What I've Got.

Yay! My final semester examinations are finally done. Well, they didn’t run so badly as I previously expected. And I pray, may I pass all of the courses this semester.

I previously stated that I hate exams, but nevertheless they are inevitable in my life. To avoid exams means that I have to drop out from my university. Believe it or not, I even googled “reasons not to drop out” back then. Then I thought deeply, reverting back my mind, and clearing everything else but my consciousness. Then I realized the important things that I forgot, things that are really valuable. I was blinded by my passions and ambitions that I overlooked the other side of my life.

First, I realized why I am here. Looking back a few years ago, I was just a future-less kid growing in a remote village in Boyolali, Central java. I consider my family poor among my neighbors, even we didn’t have television back then. For years we didn’t have our own electricity, we got electricity from our neighbor through a single wire, and split the bill enough for lighting our house. And my education, was, well, way behind the other “kids of the city”. I never touched computer back then. But my spirit keeps me moving forward, as always. I don’t want to live in the condition I am now, so I struggled to be better, and better.

A few years later, I could enter the best junior high school in my area with scholarships. A few years later, I could enter one of the best senior high school in Indonesia with scholarships. And now, here I am, studying at the best university in Indonesia, this time also with scholarship.

These are things I often forgot; I hardly spent a penny on my education. For all my life, I enjoy education for free. Meanwhile, others are still struggling to get into good schools, let alone thinking about tuition fees. Am I the most ungrateful person on earth?

My educations were the most significant things that shaped my life. Those are the reasons why I’m here, and not becoming a hopeless son of a farmer. Those are things that made me what I am today.

For many times, I often had the urge to get out from this vicious circle  of education (I thought it was stifling my creativity) to follow the life I wanted to be (I want to be an entrepreneur, a writer, a designer, and a programmer, in case you want to know). What made me sick about education was the fact that every skill I need, I could learn them on my own, without needing a university degree. But I’ve never been so wrong.

If I dropout, what would I say to my family, to my parents and godparents, and to everyone that’s been supporting me for years. Everyone would think that I’ve lost my mind. What would I say to this country, that I abandoned its support for my future, by paying my education. And I would waste my next 4 years worth of education. Even if I’m sure that I could reach my dreams without going to college.

In my life, I hate to be mainstream. And I followed anti-mainstream people, people who are against the rules and conformity, people who dropped out and successful. But then I realized that the mainstream ones are different in my case. Here in Indonesia, the mainstream ones are people who never went to college. Here, the mainstream ones are poor and uneducated people. So, If I wanted to be anti-mainstream, I have to get my university degree!

Although some parts of college are stifling my creativity, but college trains my analytic and rational thinking. It connects me to friends I didn’t expect to meet. It provides me with valuable resources (internet connection, books, etc), that even supported my idea of self-teaching. So, if I gave them up. Am I not the most ungrateful person on earth?

I am full of spirit and passion, but why risk a life with nothing as a starting point, as a key resources? A four year of university experience couldn’t hurt it, anyway.  🙂

In case you have the feeling to drop out, it is you, who couldn’t take the advantage of a university experience. Remember that smart people find solutions, and dumber ones find reasons.

Live life, and happy new year, everyone! 🙂