Ruang Berimajinasi, Belajar, dan Berkarya

Mimpi adalah ruh manusia. Dengan itu kita hidup dan bersinergi dengan kehidupan. Setiap hari saya bernafas dengan mimpi karena dengan mimpi itu saya bisa hidup. Sebagai anak Indramayu yang biasa saja dan bukan siapa – siapa saya punya mimpi besar untuk belajar di Eropa. Memang terdengar konyol untuk orang seperti saya. Namun dengan keyakinan kuat, mimpi ini selalu saya tanamkan dalam hati sampai saya dipertemukan oleh LPDP. S aya mengenal beasiswa LPDP pertama kali tahun 2015. Tidak ada sama sekali keberanian untuk ikut dan hanya bisa membaca tulisan di blog beberapa awardees LPDP dengan perasaan sukacita. Beberapa kali saya diingatkan oleh teman kost saya (Sunandar) untuk mencoba tapi saya selalu bilang “belum siap” (padahal diam – diam saya memang mengincarnya) karena memang persyaratan untuk ikut beasiswa ini menurutku sangatlah banyak jika dibandingankan dengan beasiswa lain seperti chevening, AAS , atau Stuned . Lagi, mental saya waktu itu sangatlah poor , masih ada perasa...

Apa itu IELTS? IELTS merupakan singkatan dari International English Language Testing System. Ini merupakan test berskala internasional yang akan mengukur 4 kemampuan Bahasa Inggris (Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking) yang diselenggarakan oleh Universitas Cambridge, British Council, dan IDP Educational Australia. Tes ini memiliki berbagai versi seperti akademis dan umum. Sebelum kalian memulai tes sebaiknya kalian menentukan terlebih dahulu versi apa yang ingin kalian ambil. Tujuan dari IELTS versi akademis yaitu bagi mereka yang ingin mendaftar di universitas dan juga untuk lembaga pendidikan tinggi lainnya, sedangkan versi umum ditujukan bagi mereka yang ingin melakukan pelatihan non akademis, bekerja, dan tujuan imigrasi. Dari berbagai sumber yang saya baca, ada versi IELTS baru yaitu IELTS UKVI. IELTS ini memiliki sistem yang sama dengan yang lainnya, tapi fungsi dari versi ini merujuk bagi mereka yang ingin melamar visa (umumnya untuk turis). Namun, bagi kalian yang ingin ...

As a person living miles away from home, I experience lots of things. I learn a lot from those experiences and I believe that it would be so worthwhile for me now and in the future. One of my findings is about what a friend is. When we stay away with our family members, we are supposed to find the other ones that can take over their position. In short, friend plays important roles in this case and I do find unique things about that too that may be interesting to share in this article. Generally, there are five types of friends that I would like to discuss here, they are loyalist, advisors, adventurer, leader, and demure. Loyalist, is a type of friend that is never absent when we need their helps. They magically have a reason to come and help us happily. Sometimes, they are even more concerned about their friends than their own. I luckily have a friend who is a loyalist. Once I was sick after work, I called him to take me to the clinic at 11.00 PM. I knew he might be so exhausted b...

Getting older is something we can’t avoid. When our age has reached 25, people start to panic regarding to maturity. Often times, people issue that we have been officially mature when we have stepped ahead to a marriage. Somehow, marriage is fine as it has been a need for every individual who initiates to do so. It is because in my country, living together without having legal status is claimed as an illegal relationship which is taboo. A few people come to a decision to a marriage just because they want to have an acknowledgement from society that they have a legal status as husband and wife so they can live together and do what they are allowed to do such as sexual intercourse. Some other people may assume that they are in need of getting married because they think they are no longer young. These people formulate the considerations of it by the age, regardless their psychological states, maturity, and readiness. The other reason is caused by the jealousy. These people feel jealous...

As a human being, people naturally daydream when they are stuck with the life they undergo. Daydreaming is a free activity as people have an ability to dive into their imagination without limits. Concerning to this phenomenon, there are basically three benefits of daydreaming that give positive inputs for people. Daydreaming is a good way to lower stress levels. It has been scientifically proven by Researchers from the Anti-Stress Center in which they said that it can lower stress levels as well as blood pressure. It is not wrong to daydream that we are a president who has a great control to rule the nation or a prince or princess who live in such a great palace. This kind of thing will exactly reduce the burden in our mind and clear the negative thoughts. Creativity can also be explored by daydreaming. In many circumstances, we sometimes forget to rest our brain as we are too busy to perfectly work in achieving what we are expecting to. As a result, we get depressed and down, we...

When I saw the rain, I felt there was my mom’s spirit beside me. My heart said that my mom was not far from me. She was smirking and hugging me tightly. Therefore, when it was raining, I went to open the curtains and stood up to look at it. Like today, the rain came down at midnight. I woke up and opened the window to let my body blown by the air. I was still wearing my blue pajamas given by my mom on my birthday 3 years ago. It was heavy rain with a storm that could kill my ears. But I wasn’t frightened as I believed that my mom was always by my side. Lightning struck the earth, it was like flames in the sky, which was followed by the sound of the thunder that could break my ears. I closed my ears. But again, I wasn’t afraid of it because I knew that my mom was always by my side. “Odi, are you awake?” My father suddenly appeared and got into my bedroom. I looked him flat. Frankly speaking, I hated my father. He was always being rude to my mom. What a cruel father! “Leave me, ...

Telah terjadi pergulatan dalam diri saya tentang karakter. Yang saya pahami, karakter adalah sesuatu yang tumbuh berkembang dalam diri kita yang sangat sulit kita ubah. Perubahan karakter bisa terjadi, namun hal tersebut harus atas kehendak orang yang bersangkutan bukan dipaksa oleh orang lain. Kiranya hal tersebut terjadi pada saya tepatnya pada tanggal 28 Juni 2016, tepat dihari kelahiranku. Salah teman terbaikku dikostan mendadak berubah badmood setelah saya kenalkan pada teman kantorku untuk berbuka puasa bersama. Hal ini bukan hal sengaja yang saya lakukan untuk membuatnya begitu, sampai kemudian dia bercerita kepadaku kalau dia tidak bisa mengimbangi pembicaraan aku dan teman kantor dan dia merasa dikesampingkan. Dia sedikit mem-blame saya karena tidak bisa melihat dia yang terasa mati kaku karena sulit mengikuti alur pembicaraan. Padahal didalam obrolan itu saya berusaha fokus pada keduanya dan tidak mengabaikan pihak manapun. Saya pun sedikit terganggu dengan alasan yang selal...