I Love Rain

SIMPLE AND ELEGANT

Serenity In My Heart

There are many things that I keep in my heart and at times I wish I could share them with others. But I often take a step back because I know what would come my way if I did. 

I love too much, and I care too much. Sometimes they can be two good things, but most of the times I always get hurt because people don't understand that kind of love. So I slowly begin to let things go, one by one, and I'm surprised to be where I am now.

When you love someone, it takes a lot of effort to keep the fire burning. But, often you'll get tired when you're the only one who constantly tries to keep it alive. You'll get tired of living your life for the other person.

You'll get tired of loving too much. 

And then, what do you do? 

It's sad when people only realize how much they've taken you for granted all these while and that they realise you can never be the same person you were before. It's sad when people start to feel the things they should've felt long time ago. 

It's even more painful when they finally understand how it feels to love too much, but you aren't there anymore. 

You aren't there anymore. You've stopped trying to protect the fire from being blown out. You already took that one step ahead. 

It hurts, but people rarely understand this. It's always easier to comprehend things that are good & morally right.

Would it suffice to turn back & start all over again? Or would it be better to take another step ahead & never look back? 

Nggak semua yang kamu lihat, atau yang kamu pikir kamu tau, itu yang bener-bener terjadi.
Gampangannya sih kayak bio Twitternya @aMrazing,
"Orang yang ngetwit galau, belum tentu lagi galau. Ngetwit judes, bisa aja sambil ngupil. Not everything you read is true."
Intinya sih kurang lebih kayak gitu.
Nggak semua orang yang kelihatannya slengekan, nggak meyakinkan atau apalah, nggak punya mimpi yang besar. Malahan, mungkin mereka punya mimpi yang lebih besar daripada kamu, mereka punya kemauan, kesempatan, rencana yang lebih jelas atau apapun yang lebih daripada kamu buat sampai ke mimpi mereka. Never underestimate anyone, karena bisa aja mereka yang kamu pikir sekarang ada di belakangmu ternyata nantinya satu langkah, tiga langkah, atau lebih, di depanmu. Sekian.
(random thought, as always.)

The Meaning of Friendship

Manusia merupakan makhluk sosial, yang tidak bisa hidup sendiri tanpa orang lain di sekitarnya. Seberapa besar ego yang kita miliki namun, kita tidak bisa menghindar dari hukum alam bahwa kita pasti membutuhkan orang lain untuk mengisi dan mewarnai kehidupan kita. Anda tentu bisa membayangkan bila anda hidup di suatu wilayah namun tidak seorangpun di sisi kita. Tidak ada yang mengajak kita berkomunikasi dan berinteraksi, tentu hidup kita akan terasa sepi dan pastinya kita menjadi tidak tahu apa makna kehidupan dan bagaimana membuat hidup terasa indah.

Usia remaja seperti kita pasti membutuhkan seorang sahabat. Sahabat yang selalu mendengarkan keluh kesah kita, sahabat yang selalu memberi semangat untuk kita, sahabat yang selalu mengingatkan kita jika kita salah dan yang selalu ada untuk kita. Menjalin sebuah persahabatan tidak melewati proses yang mudah dan waktu yang singkat. Terkadang sebuah kesalahpahaman dan terkadang keegoisan yang selalu mementingkan diri sendiri sehingga menimbulkan kesalahpahaman yang menimbulkan suatu pertikaian menghiasi jalinan persahabatan. Hal tersebut tentunya tidak didasari dengan kebencian. Namun dengan adanya pengalaman suka dan duka, tertawa dan menangis di dalam persahabatan membuat persahabatan tersebut akan lebih berwarna serta membuat kita menjadi lebih dekat dan memiliki rasa kasih sayang satu sama lain.

Seorang sahabat yang baik tentu tidak akan menghianati sahabatnya, dan selalu menjaga kebaikan atau keburukan sahabatnya. Namun terkadang cobaan datang menguji persahabatan. Tetapi sahabat sejati akan menghalau segala cobaan dengan rasa kasih sayang dan kebersamaan sehingga cobaan tersebut dilalui dengan indah. Dan tentunya cobaan tersebut dijadikannya sebagai perekat hubungan persahabatannya.

Semua orang pasti membutuhkan sahabat sejati di dalam hari-harinya. Namun tidak semua orang berhasil memilikinya. Ada yang berbahagia dan menikmati indahnya persahabatan. Namun tak jarang yang tersakiti karena adanya penghianatan yang merusak dinding persahabatan. Menjaga sebuah persahabatan merupakan hal yang penting. Jangan sampai ego dan penghianatan menghancurkannya. Jadi hargailah sahabatmu, muliakanlah sahabatmu, karena dengan persahabatan hidup kita terasa lebih indah dan berwarna. Dengan persahabatan pula membuat hidup kita menjadi lebih bernilai. Kehadirannya bagaikan tetesan embun yang menyejukkan di saat kita merasa sedih dan tanpa kehadirannya kerinduan akan kehadirannya selalu bergelora di dalam hati.

”seorang sahabat lebih berharga dari ribuan teman yang selalu mementingkan dirinya sendiri “

Perpisahan Bukan Kesedihan

Perpisahan adalah kejadian yang tidak diinginkan oleh siapapun, terlebih harus berpisah dengan orang yang kita cintai dan dengan seorang yang pernah mewarnai kehidupan kita.

Tapi tidak sepantasnya kita memandang perpisahan dengan kejadian yang buruk, justru perpisahan adalah awal yang baru untuk memulai cerita baru, seperti burung yang terbang meninggalkan anak-anaknya, seperti telur yang nenetas, seperti ular yang berganti kulit, dan seperti jipratan air yang gemericik. Intinya setiap hentakan perpisahan selalu melahirkan pencerahan yang akan terbekal dalam waktu selanjutnya.

going to the new step

                                                                 The end is near
                                                                   Just by a blink
                                                              everything will change
                                                                            fast
                                                                          faster
                                                                            and
                                                                           gone
                                                                            .......

                                                           There'll be an answer
                                                    with every struggle we've made
                                                                   The answer
                                                                  for our future

                                                                    ........................

                                                    Then there'll be new beginning
                                                             with new atmosphere
                                                                 new surroundings
                                                                  new knowledges
                                                                               and
                                                             with challanges ahead
                                                                  waiting to see you

                                                                              .............

                                                  there's still a long long long way to go
                                                                                just
                                                                    keep on believing 
                                                                           and never
                                                                                 ever
                                                             stop reaching your dreams

HELL YEAH IT'S THE SENIOR YEAR!




LETS FIGHT FOR OUR FUTURE!

xoxo,
Arika

Passion and Hardwork

Do we really have to live our life according to our passion? Is it true that we can’t compare each other because we all are really unique and have our own talents? Or shall we be conventional? Shall we follow what society has set as standard, just because of the fact that we are social beings who undeniably need each other? I mean, sometimes living in your own way makes you different from your circumstances, right? And sometimes difference is not acceptable, right? Now I am like in the middle of two different phases, where I intensively start questioning myself such things.

When I was still an innocent kid, what I cared the most is just how to get the first rank in the class. I didn’t care too much about another kind of achievements and now I never understand why, I regret about this. As the time goes by, I start to realize that living a life like that is a waste of time. And as I grow up, until now, I keep on searching the so called ‘passion’ of mine and the meaning of the word itself.

According to my Oxford Learner’s Pocket Dictionary, passion is (1) strong feeling, esp of love, hate or anger; (2) very strong sexual love. According to my observation on my circumstances, and on myself too actually, I have my own definitions about passion.

(1) Passion is often misinterpreted as a justification. A justification not to do what we have to do. Sometimes people say it’s not their passion when they find something hard to do. I’ve learned that actually, it’s not always true. Ask yourself again, is it true that it’s hard because it’s really not your passion? Or you’re just too lazy to work hard? Or maybe you’re just being lack of gratitude for what you got? Here I take my own case as an example, a case about not making justification as a reason for me to give up.

For a half of one year, I studied in shs I don’t feel really good at. I don’t know, I’m just not that into it, not as much as most of my friends. I don’t see any interesting thing about oil and gas processing as they do, I feel quite intimidated when I see chemical reaction and busy wondering how is that hell reaction even found instead, I don’t have a good sense in carbon, and so on. I once thought that I didn’t belong there, but giving up is simply stupid. That shs was the way I had chosen for myself, so the only way out is trying to finish it as well as I could. I never thought of any other better place for me. I couldn’t guarantee myself that I wouldn’t complain and would feel better if I was in other major, so… I just had to keep going. No, I’m not saying that we just have to let ourselves flow wherever the river takes us. But if you’re busy daydreaming about flying while you’re in the middle of wild current, you may drowned. You better keep moving, swimming as fast as you can to the calm ocean where you can start to think how to fly.

(2) Point (1) is actually evolved from another concept: some people may think that living their passion means they do not have to do hard work. A common misconception. Even for myself, at first. What make a pianist great is of course his/her hard work, not merely his/her intention to play piano. So, it’s the same. Whether you follow your passion or not, to be great, you have to work hard. One of my teacher said: “Heart can never be tired, while brain can.” Then based on that, what makes the hard work (on following passion or not) different is only which part that works harder: your heart or your brain.

My teacher said that we should do what we like, just focus on that, then we’ll be great. That’s true, for ideal condition. But unfortunately, just like the same teacher said: “Ideal things is only available in heaven.” And now I’m not living in heaven. Life is never as simple as that. Even though I try to do what I like, my brain sometimes interferes with my focus. Sometimes my brain gains information too much, receives too many perspectives, cares too much about what people will say, forces me to compare my goals with society standards, then finally it distracts me from the path I’ve chosen. I’m lost in my own thoughts, over and over again. And that’s… tiring.

This is somewhat contradictive. Heart can never be tired, but apparently heart can never work alone. There’s always brain which simultaneously work with it, either constructively or destructively. And heart is just like a magnetic compass, which I need so bad to lead me back to the right path. But then again, although I hold it in my hand, there’s always brain which somehow has this kind of strong magnetic field. So strong that it often disrupts the needle, giving false reading of direction I’m heading to.

The point is still the same: hard work. Getting yourself back to the right direction is more than just relying on your compass. Maybe you should try to read direction from constellation…

(3) Passion is not always correlated with achievement. I mean, I often ask myself, what am I doing while some people get various recognition in their life? Where have I been? I found out that some of my friends think that way too. What makes it so frustrating is that it’s like we’re all been standardized. They say everyone is unique. They say everyone do have the right to choose what they really want to do as their passion told to. But, some people are appreciated since their passion passes the society standard, while some people may not even be recognized for their uncommon passion. Then, unique somehow lose its charm. Unique is not unique anymore. Is it fair to compare two different passion or talent? Is it fair to kill the uniqueness?

No, of course it’s not fair. Just like Albert Einstein said: “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” So who is responsible for this unfairness? It’s not society that judges you, not even your family who demands perfection from you, no one but your own mind. My own mind. I mean, what people say shouldn’t be a big deal, because actually what’s matter is how do we respond to it. How come it’s so hard not to let our mind be controlled by unfair judgment, either from around us or especially from ourselves? Well maybe it’s because we often correlated passion with achievement. It may have a correlation, but not always. Someone told me many times that the most important thing about passion is it makes me happy. Ya, we got to keep in mind that passion is principally something that makes us happy. If it also makes you a good achiever, it’s a bonus. Remember, not everyone can get bonus, because if they can, then it’s not bonus anymore. So… here, hard work still counts. Those who get bonus is usually those who work harder, or work the hardest (luck factor being ignored).

***

In the end I conclude that for me, maybe for some of you too, life is nothing but a struggle. Whether it is for my (still vague) passion or for compensating my unreachable passion, it is a struggle. So…

Do we really have to live our life according to our passion?

Living our passion or not, we have to work hard anyway. Just choose which hard work that more worth it because everybody has their own purpose of life, either to satisfy yourself or to satisfy others.

Is it true that we can’t compare each other because we all are really unique and have our own talents?

Yes, as long as you don’t tend to correlate passion and achievement, this is valid.

Shall we be conventional?

Go back to the first question.

Lucky you who realize your passion early and know exactly how to live it right. For those who feel a little late like me, and still have a lot of question in mind, let’s keep moving forward and try to find a way. Let’s just work hard, try to forget the justification and competition. Let’s be grateful for what we got. Let’s just compete with ourselves, defeat the destructive side of us and don’t let it dominate us too long. Let’s be… better.

Last, let our mistake for being late or being confused be only ours. Learn from it, turn it into a lesson, and make it as a guideline for us to give a better education about recognizing passion to our children in the future ☺.

I LOVE DRAWING

 I use copic marker to draw . I bought it when I went to one of a bookstore in Bandung.