A flashback lesson

No, No.. I’m not getting married yet.
The kebaya photoshoot above is for my bachelor degree certificate and yes, I’ve finally finished my study at Andalas University’s English Department. After 4 years of crumbling with things I don’t really enjoy, hehe. And now I can let off the title of college student and crown myself with the “happily unemployed” title. Teehee! :p

I graduated with GPA 3.4, ITP TOEFL score of 573, and a straight A for my thesis. Furthermore, I actually could have graduated several months earlier, because I have delayed doing my thesis supervision for… 8 MONTHS since my proposal exam in February 2012. When I first came to my first supervisor, she was like “now you need me, huh??” I was frightened as hell, but thankfully my supervisor is a very objective kinda person, that she passed my thesis in only 3 supervisions, whoa… know what, she’s known for the most perfectionist (*and sometimes moody) supervisor in my department, so I was surprised that I could pass the tiger. I believe this is the effect of reading Ayat Kursi every time I saw her face, hehe. Everything may sound good and smooth, but am I satisfied? Hhhmmm… not that I’m ungrateful, but I wish I could have done better, and done something I really like.

Like in every ending, we need to recap all the things had happened, all the things we’ve gone through along the way. So I rewind the memory to the days after my high school graduation. I put English Department as MY FIRST CHOICE on the SPMB examination. My parents freed me to choose any major that I wanted AS LONG AS IT IS IN WEST SUMATRA, meanwhile I have a passion in art or broadcasting. So, since there’s no such related majors provided by universities in W.Sumatera, I had to prepare a backup choice, and at that time, my consideration was “anything I’ll choose here won’t make me happy, I’m not going to do what I like, so why bother myself doing things I don’t like”. And by that thought, I chose English because I thought I was good enough at it so later I wont need to work/ study hard to get good score during college. Actually, I got awarded as the highest 10 in Padang for my UAN score for social major and offered the scholarship at the police academy, but when I showed my highschool principle my beautiful long finger nails with big cute rings, he just said “Ah, I see…” *LOL.

So, here goes the days in English Department. Everything went as I had predicted, some even worse. I spent my days playing and hanging out here and there, no studying, and guess what, My first semester’s GPA was 3.7. I am not underestimating anything/one or bragging, but I just wish it could’ve been more challenging. I took English courses since senior highschool and I have to admit it was way more challenging than my college study, at least all teachers and students spoke in English, some of my English tutors were native, or if they’re Indonesian, they had the super cool English accents. Most of English department students were those who ain’t really love English, so they have a very limited knowledge, I often answered most questions to speed up the learning process that my lecturers also often asked me to stop doing that. One lecturer, Mr. Hanafi, once told me “improve yourself by improving others. So stop answering all the questions even though I know you’ve got the answers because you’re just making your friends depending on you and trust me that is not right.” Those sentences are one of the most precious lessons I’ve got in life! The thing I like the most from my study is literary criticism and british/ American/ Australian cultures. I am glad that some students share similar interest as mine but unfortunately most of them read the translated works, I personally think that it’s one way to mislead us since there are many senses that we can’t get through our language.

Anyway, the only challenge I got is on my thesis examination day which didn’t go smoothly but I thank God for that because it makes my S. Hum more ‘something’ for me. And now that I’m an English graduate with a realization of “if you only do what you’re good at, you can never do much”, only if I could turn back time, I would have chosen economics. So, for young fellas out there who are going to college soon, my advice for you is to make your choice carefully. Make sure you know exactly what your major is like and the situation of the university. Don’t wanna regret in end, ite?

Other things that I wish I could fix from my college time are that I should have participated/ joined more organizations, made more friends from other faculties. I did join some, but I wish it could’ve been more because I admit that I only focused with my department friends. And I regret the years when I tried to avoid and forget everything about art and design as my disappointment because I couldn’t continue my study in the major that I like. I REALLY should have never done that. And now time has brought me to be an English graduate. Though there are many things I wish I could fix, I still believe that things happen for reasons. Most of the times we don’t know what the reasons are, just don’t stop believing. In addition, I read my favorite blogger’s, Diana Rikasari, writing about her life before success, and you know what, she also went to major she doesn’t like, and now she’s BIG. So, again and again, don’t stop believing, don’t stop trying!