Explore!

• Notes

27 August 2013

Everyone is born with exploration instinct of which we, humans, must be proud of. According to National Geographic magazine issue January 2013, there is a reason why we, humans, do explorations all the time everywhere: to the highest peaks, to the deepest sea, to outer space, to wildest rainforest, to hot volcano, even in the labs: to explore the unknowns. It is because a specific gene which is embedded in every human makes us having the exploration instinct. Ever since I arrived in NTU, I used my instinct in exploration quite often and I like to challenge myself in explore the path that I’ve never gone through, to test if it is the shortest path to my destination. There are still a lot of places which are unexplored by me although they are in the NTU Campus Map.

Getting lost is common, but finding your way out yourself will make you feel very awesome. This is because we also like challenge and when we accomplished the challenge ourselves, we feel like we are victorious, and hence we feel very great. If you get lost and not in rush, the first thing you should do is to get directions. There are many ways, but in this modern era, you can use GPS of your mobile phone. Then, you should go straight to the direction of your destination, crossing the buildings, the fields, and the uncrossables. Finally, if you get to the destination, be feel great, if not, backtracking is the easiest way.

So, what are you waiting for? Explore!

NTU

• Journal

3 August 2013

Finally I’m at NTU! I’m living in Hall 11 and this week is somewhat busy. We departed to Singapore on 29 July through the newly opened Kuala Namu International Airport. After we arrived at Changi Airport, Singapore, we were fetched by NTU bus directly to our hall. Hall check-in was nicely facilitated by the seniors. There, we also met Welcoming Committee by PINTU (Pelajar Indonesia NTU). They also guided us to do many things required at the next day. On 1 August, my father, mother, and sister came to pay a visit. Actually it was for some agreement signing which my father must attend. Life here is quite tiring, but overall, it was nice!

Mr. Manaek Nababan

• Journal, Notes

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.

IMG_4772

Everything will be OK. If it’s not OK, it’s OK.

• Others

“Everything will be OK. If it’s not OK, it’s OK.” — Risan Petrus

That is a quote from Risan Petrus, that was shared to students who followed Pelatnas 2 TOKI 2013 which was held at Bogor. As I’m not qualified to Pelatnas 2, I got that quote from their assistants sharing at their Facebook accounts.

It was a quote with deep meaning. It implies that people is not perfect and thus should be thankful of what the situation those people are facing. Everything will work according to plan, if not, never mind.