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Category: Life updates

Kaleidoscope, or Why I am an English Literature Student

Published by Antariksa Akhmadi on 2013-12-16

Oftentimes, I am just tempted to ask myself: why do you have to be here?

By being here, I mean for being placed in this university and taking this major.

Actually, I had planned to take a major in informatics or computer science and aspired to study in Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember. However, as I approach the half of 11th grade, I found my interest for it had dimmed. I feel that my passion does not lay in working discrete mathematical problems or designing algorithms. Truth to be told, I even have a poor understanding of mathematics. It’s very frustating to be working in problems, solving equations when actually I even can’t do basic arithmetic calculations. So, by the end of the sixth semester I already considered other options for my higher education.

I first read philosophy when I was in junior high school. At first glance, philosophy is shocking for me because it forces people to question things they have taken for granted. But after reading Sophie’s World (it’s a truly great book and I’d recommend anyone to read it), I am turned to be a ‘philosopher’ by definition that everyone is in fact a philosopher. It affects the way I see and think about things to this day. Based on this fondness, I considered taking a philosophy degree. There are currently only two state university that offer a bachelor (sarjana) in philosophy, which are Universitas Indonesia and Universitas Gadjah Mada. Studying philosophy will take me apart from whatever I’ve learned in school, which I hated the most.

There’s a problem with taking a philosophy degree, though. As people already said, job opportunities for philosophy bachelors are scarce. Apart from being a lecturer, someone who has a philosophy degree will probably work on fields relatively unrelated to their study such as becoming a journalist, writer, or even an actor or actress (one Indonesian artist really has a philosophy degree, do you know who that person is?). On a not-so-serious note, actually the easiest way you could become a student of UI is by taking a bachelor of philosophy as your choice in SNMPTN/SBMPTN/SIMAK. In SNMPTN 2012, from 25 seats offered for the S1 Ilmu Filsafat only 14 participants chose it. It’s a very good option if you’re so desperate to be a student of UI. :mrgreen:

Here’s some quote I found in Reddit that I use as a guide for choosing a major:

People will encourage you to “study what you love” and things like that. I just disagree completely. Study something practical, and then study what you love in addition to that (in the form of a minor or a second major).

Even though I have a passion in philosophy, it doesn’t mean that it’s good to just study it. We need to think about the opportunities that our study will give us in the future. Given the rate of competition that keeps raising by the years, it’s only logical to choose a major that give more security for finding jobs in the future. For this reason, I was forced to choose something else for my major.

At early 12th grade, by some chance, I found another field that I was interested in: Literature.

So, choose why literature all of sudden? Basically, I’m someone who is fond of reading and writing.  If you hate seeing letters and feel more comfortable writing formulas or codes, then considering amajor of literature is out of question. Another reason is that both literature and philosophy belong to one discipline (and oftentimes one faculty): humanities.  Of course literature is not at all the same with philosophy. But, when you study literature you will certainly meet philosophers within your books. Both literature and philosophy requires their student to be a careful and understanding reader while being an excellent and communicative writer, too. Most importantly, both require their students to think critically and be able to indulge in abstract concepts. In short, there are many similarities between the two fields. If you like to write, read, and think, then a literature department will probably be a perfect place for you.

But that still leaves me (or you, dear reader) with one final question: why English Literature?

Some say that a S1 Sastra Inggris degree may no longer has good prospects in the future. It’s just too mainstream. Most of public and private universities around the country have a S1 Sastra Inggris program. There are too many graduates competing for steady job demands. However, in my opinion the job competition in the humanities sector is not as fierce as the competition in other fields. There are a lot of job opportunities, too. Among the available jobs are in translation, broadcasting, public relations, linguistics (basically, being a language scientist), or even the diplomatic corps. An English Literature graduate will have a job opportunity of literature, communication science, and international relations combined. Some of my friends really work as a presenter in television or radio. Pretty promising, isn’t it? Well, I’ve got no statistics or data that supports my belief. It just came from common sense, although I do know that what people call “common sense” tends to be misleading.

So, that’s it.

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“High school never ends”

Published by Antariksa Akhmadi on 2013-07-08

That deplorable statement. Come on. It sucks, man, but high school does end. From here on, you will have to find yourself new friends. Also, you will be separated from your old friends. You feel like you’re old already. You think that what lies ahead is no more than a painful life at college and work and work and all the miserable, ugly, truth about real life the adults may have had warned you of.

While I’m not an adult yet, at least I can assure myself that there’s nothing to be feared about. We all grow up. As soon as we get older and no longer enjoyed things we’ve enjoyed as kids, we’ll find other kinds of enjoyment. Life’s difficult, it is, but at least not impossible to live.

Good news, though. You’re still considered a teenager until you reach twenty. Even when you’ve eventually been a 20-ish person, you’re still considered young by the society until you’re at least 25 (or if you get wrinkles sooner).  But it also could be 30 or even 45. So, take your time, especially if you’re still under 18 by the time of your graduation.

Anyway, congrats on graduating and starting your new life at college. 😉

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Syukur

Published by Antariksa Akhmadi on 2013-05-29

Sebuah pesan dari seorang kawan masuk ke ponselku. Aku lekas-lekas membukanya dan terheran-heran. Isinya ucapan selamat. Benarkah ini? Aku bingung antara harus bersyukur atau masygul. Terlebih lagi, sialnya, aku sedang berada di kelas bimbel mengerjakan tryout. Konsentrasi yang sudah lama kubangun buyar. Hari itu aku lebih memilih untuk mengikuti tryout dahulu ketimbang langsung membuka pengumuman SNMPTN. Boro-boro punya ranking bagus, ulangan saja aku tidak pernah lolos. Nilai UN pun kepala empat. Mana mungkin diterima?

Sekitar satu setengah jam kemudian aku sudah berada di rumah. Setelah panik beberapa saat karena kehilangan kartu peserta, akhirnya pengumuman kelulusan itu berhasil kubuka. Ternyata benar. SMS-SMS yang menanyakan kabar kelulusan dan juga yang memberi selamat tadi kubalas. Alhamdulillah.

Alhamdulillah?

Terdengung-dengung lagi apa yang diingatkan temanku. Rasa syukur seseorang bisa menjadi penyakit hati bagi yang lain. Dan ya, memang sedari awal aku akan memilih untuk bersikap semadyanya. Ini bukan sesuatu yang perlu selebrasi. Ada yang bilang ini semacam undian, malah. Yang jelas, ada baiknya kalau kita yakin bahwa semua ini ada hitung-hitungannya: hitung-hitungan orang-orang di depan komputer dan terlebih lagi hitung-hitungan dari Yang Maha Menghitung. Dan sekali lagi, kejadian ini tidak istimewa.

Tapi, salahkah sekadar memuji-Nya jika Ia memang menyuruh yang demikian?

Walau kataku tak terdengar, tapi semoga lisan ini tetap dijaga.

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Truth About Studying

1004

Published by Antariksa Akhmadi on 2012-10-20

Waktu itu masih pagi buta. Aku bergegas menuju lapangan lalu segera mengenakan tanda pengenalku. Di lapangan, sudah ada beberapa orang lain sepertiku yang sedang bersiap-siap, dan salah satunya berkata, “Wah, paling mek nang kene yo onok acara sing nggenah koyok ngene.” Aku menjawab dalam hati, “yo gak ngono sisan rek.”

Jawabanku tidak salah. Masih banyak pejuang-pejuang di tempat lain yang mungkin kita tidak tahu yang dapat melakukannya jauh, jauh lebih baik dari kita. Dan mungkin, tantangan yang mereka hadapi bisa jadi lebih besar dari kita.

Maaf, aku hanya ingin berpesan bagi kawan-kawanku yang berjuang: jangan takabur. Jangan merasa bahwa kita sudah menjadi yang terbaik. Kita hanya terkurung pada pandangan yang sempit, bahwa semua jalan pemikiran dan perbuatan kita sudah benar. Bahkan, kita masih perlu menempuh jalan yang jauh untuk sampai pada kebenaran. Dan karena ketakaburan itulah kita sekarang harus menanggung akibatnya (semoga hanya untuk saat ini saja).

Sudah banyak yang mau belajar dari kita. Tapi ingatlah, kita sendiri tetap harus belajar. Masih banyak carut-marut yang harus diperbaiki. Masih bertumpuk masalah yang harus diatasi. Dan mungkin, di luar sana akan kita temukan solusinya.

Lihatlah keluar sana dan temukan pembelajaran-pembelajaran baru. Bukankah kita semua adalah pembelajar yang dinamis?

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In word we trust