Mr. Manaek Nababan

18 July 2013

Today, one of the most beloved teacher in my high school passed away. He is Mr. Manaek Nababan, a physics teacher, who was our form teacher at grade 12. He taught me somewhat little, because in the first days of grade 12, I’m attending my brother’s commencement, and I did not get in school for a week because of OSN, and a month because of Pelatnas.

He gave us so many general and specific formulas and put it on a box that make the formula seems important. I did not like to memorize those formula though, I just like to memorize a very general and short form of concept that will derive out the formula. But his general formula is very general that it can be applied at very much cases but the formula is too long to memorize.

Before boarding the plane that took I and Peter to Pelatnas 1 at Bandung, we met a guy who claimed to be an alumnus of Sutomo and former student of Mr. Manaek. He said that Mr. Manaek was used to be a teacher at a public tuition class (like Ganesha Operation), which focuses on speed rather than concept, and that is why he like to give us formulas: to speed up our work in examinations.

There were many quotes from him that were quite funny, like

Gantungkanlah mimpimu sejengkal di atas kepalamu, agar gampang diraih

translation:

Put your dreams a span above your head, so you can reach them easily.

In my opinion, this was to motivate us to reach dreams that were reachable, not to put them at place which were out-of-reach.

On our class’s inauguration party, he intended to come, but because of family matters, he couldn’t make it. Before the party, he told our maths teacher, Mr. HL, that he said that this class was one of the best class he ever taught and he intended to go to the party. But in front of us, he apologize to us that he couldn’t come because of him being the host at his family party that night. The Monday after the the party, we kept the cake that were cut during the inauguration and then shared the cake to him.

The last time I saw him was 24 May 2013, he gave us the letter that states our graduation. His voice that time was already weak, and he wore jackets, like he was sick but pushed himself to show everyone that he was okay. Often they said that when he looked sick, if someone asked him, he will said that he was okay.

This essay may seem very disorganized, but I will keep it that way.

Good bye Mr. Manaek Nababan, thank you and rest in peace.