Friday, 23 November 2012

Beauty: The Way I See It

#made as an writing assignment
#an example of an essay developed through definition







“People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.”
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

What’s the first thing pops out in your mind when you see a word “beauty”?  A good-looking face? The face of your idol? Your girlfriend’s angelic face? The Oxford Dictionary has its own way to define that word: beauty:  [mass noun] a combination of qualities, such as shape, colour, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight. That meaning is what common people will define too. For me, beauty has something more than just what’s invisible, more than just something that pleases your sight. It’s reflected by what you have inside of you, exactly just like what Elisabeth Kübler-Ross said above. It has to be understood, because nowadays people are competing to be the most sightly-beautiful, without even repairing their inner beauties.

Now let’s think about it: you saw a very beautiful woman on your age for the first time. Then you became acquainted to her. She seemed so nice. When you two were chatting, knowing each other well, a beggar came and your girl started to cuss him. Or when you overheard her cursed at her maid over the phone, what would you feel? Suddenly lost all of your interests toward her? I bet many of you would feel that way. That’s why, I think, how you maintain what’s inside of you is way more important than your invisible beauty.

Taking care of what God has given to you is absolutely necessary, nothing’s wrong about it. Nevertheless, the ability to take care, to expand, to develop your attitude is much more needed and is more difficult to master of course. No matter how hard you try to cover your attitude up, it will slowly but sure appear when you’re getting closer to someone. How long you can survive just by your appearance?

 

Thursday, 25 October 2012

you know what to do

uhm, chill, it's not a part of my English assignment :) . It's just a side effect of my illness which forces me to just take some rest the whole week. Caught a fever last Sunday, didn't go to college on Monday, getting worse and finally decided to get a blood test on Tuesday and the result showed that I'm infected by s. paratyphi. And the days of just-lying-down-on-my-bed are boooring -.- .


Okay back to the topic. I was sitting on the family room when this thought suddenly came to my mind. Have you ever heard one said this to you “what you said/did to someone remains forever in his/her heart” ? or this “when you tell a girl she’s beautiful, she will forget it in a couple days. When you tell her she’s ugly, she will remember it forever” ?

Honestly, I think the point is not what people say about you, because no matter how good you are, some people are going to say bad things about you. It’s inevitable. You can’t control what they’re going to say about you. You will waste your life thinking about it every time you’re going to do something.

What’s under your “control area” is how your heart react to that. In other word, actually, what’s under your “control area” is yourself.
Be more flexible. It’s not easy. You know a process to something good is never easy. By every occurrence happened to you, you are shaped. You learn to decide what’s good to be kept in your heart and what’s better be discarded.

Only then you can finally realize that your life doesn’t depend on what others say about you. Only then you can do whatever you want, with every responsibility, wisdom and conscience you have, without having to think much about what will people say.

You have choices. You always have choices. And it’s obviously clear that your feelings depend on what you choose, what you want your heart to feel.

So, what are you afraid to? Go, do something you always want to do. Chase everything you want to get. When facing people’s reactions, you know what to do ;)

Sunday, 21 October 2012

This is what I can say about students brawls..


No, I’m not going to just judge them because everyone has done that. What I want to convey is that we, these-persons-people-say-as educated people, have to see this problem from every aspect of it, because I think judgment is not very beneficial.

Let’s see this first by their reason to do that. According to an article in The Jakarta Post newspaper  I’ve just read, some students said that it’s more about pride than rivalry. They want to show others that they come from this particular school, they want to be known, they want they school to be distinguished and feared by others. Some students even didn’t know the persons they attacked. Moreover, some rivalry-caused-brawls only include several students, not almost the whole students of the school.

The second is to see this as a problem only happened in Indonesia is quite wrong I think. I’ve googled some student brawls around Asia and found one happened in Bangkok and occurred in a bus, which even killed an innocent  passenger. I also found some in Malaysia, Philippines and others. So, since it has become more than a national problem, I think at least each country’s representatives can discuss it together in order to find a better solution.

The third is how we can solve or at least decrease this problem. I’m not an psychologist, I’m just a freshly-high-school-graduate so maybe you can’t compare my ‘solution’ to what the psychologists say. So here is what I can say. We need to create a better environment for each students. By ‘we’ I mean not just the school, but also their parents, religious scope, even the country and the students themselves. How they can cooperate with each other? Trust the students, love them. Some parents are too afraid of what their children can do so they can’t trust their children without realizing that trust is one of the most important thing the teenager need to achieve. By not being trusted by the society, the students feel the urge to prove something, sometimes, pitifully by violating others.
We also have to admit that media has a huge role to this, especially social media. That’s why everyone has to be equipped by an awareness of how dangerous media is, if they can’t utilize it wisely. It’s need to be concerned at because nowadays media affects people negatively more than positively.

The last thing is use the law. Some students brawls happened because the students thought there won’t be any serious punishment since Indonesian law enforcements are easily bribed. The country has to prove its integrity towards its people or everything will get worse as the time goes by.

Okay I promise it will really be the last, but I found an interesting opinion on Indonesian students by Pandji Pragiwaksono (http://pandji.com/gimana-tuh-jawaban-saya-keren-ga/) . It is written in Indonesian so I’ll do my best to translate a snippet of it.

“for every 300 students brawling on the street, there are 30.000 students who are studying, exploring their competencies, thinking and creating something. The media has never met them because the students are in their schools environment. It  barely puts them on the headlines because a news about those studying students are not eye catching enough compared to the news about the brawling students. Every time I met people who said the quality of Indonesian students is getting worse, I’m sure they have to change what they read and watch.”

Saturday, 6 October 2012

a summary and response of the article titled "Wii sales may recover, but kids will still be fat"



made as an academic writing class assignment.


summary:

the falling sales of Nintendo’s Wii console reminded this article’s author about how big people enthusiasms on this invention and how it was expected to revamp the era of consoles when it was first released back then. the author reckoned on the Nintendo’s plan to launch the new version of Wii that it won’t make kids more energetic than ever. the author then presented some studies that showed us how a new technology can possibly against its initial purpose in the end. for example, the invention of Automatic Braking System on cars’ wheels and the Wii orchestrated exercise.

response:

what i can conclude from this article is that in the end, no matter how sophisticated a technology will be, it is the human’s sense that will determine what will be happened to them later. let’s think about it: they’re given a technology to facilitate themselves but if they don’t have any awareness and discretion about it, the technology will soon hit them back.
on the Wii case, it is clear that kids’ willpower and not the development of Wii that will make them exercise more. if they themselves don’t have any urge to exercise, what can the Wii or other technologies do?
a better way to make kids exercise is by instilling the awareness of a healthy lifestyle and keep encouraging them to do some outside activities because a videogame can never replace the benefits of doing the real exercise. parents have to be a good example for their children too, by not focusing on technologies too much and accompanying their children to interact with the real world outside.
the second point I got from this article is: bring the enthusiasm out for a new beneficial thing is easy; maintain the intensity of the enthusiasms for a long period is another matter.

P.s.:
I’ve Googled some articles about the study published in the journal Pediatrics which is mentioned on this article given to me (and found out that it’s published by Tom Baranowski, a psychologist) and those articles consider almost the same thing about it. You can find it on http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/business/active-video-games-dont-make-youths-more-active.html?_r=1 or http://www.center4research.org/2012/03/can-children-get-exercise-through-video-games-%E2%80%9Cexergaming%E2%80%9D/ .

Sunday, 23 September 2012

me -as I know it-

actually I don't know if i need to introduce myself again, but that's what I'm asked to, so here's something about me, as I know it.

Indonesian born. was delivered to this world by my mom in Bandung, so yeah, I'm not a newcomer in Bandung, right? :P

I'm too old to sing Taylor Swift song, Fifteen, and you know, the song in The Sound of  Music movie *I loveee this movie* , Sixteen Going On Seventeen. I'm eighteen at this very moment and soon to be nineteen *yes time flies that fast*

as the eldest sister with my three younger brothers, I learn how to be flexible and that's what I always want to develop, my flexibility. The fact is I'm still watching soccer matches with my brothers in my spare time until now.

I'm an introvert. I love spending time with myself, with good books, good coffee or chocolate and good music. I can spend hours reading books without realizing it. but I love hanging out with my pals too. I do love shopping, as almost every woman do, and I love traveling. I love observing people's life, people's habits and how they spend their days. that's why I prefer stay not in a tourist area when I go abroad.

I speak Indonesian, English, lil bit Deutsch and Mandarin. basically I love learning new languages and facing the challenges.

I love helping people. sounds weird, eh? I don't know, I just feel really happy if I can see people's smiles after they had their problems solved. so don't hesitate to come to me if you need some help, okay? if I'm able to do it, I will :)

Friday, 14 September 2012

online portfolio

due to my writing class' new task, i have to, umm, make an online portfolio exactly like this blog. and i feel like using this than to made a new blog. so from now on, i will post my respond to an article given by my lecturer, Ma'am Sofie, once a month.

thank you for your understanding :)

another Priska's random thought

have just explored memoPad on my Blackberry and found out that 
I wrote this few months ago:
 
11.01.12
 
It will be too plain and less-adventurous 
if we didn't do anything stupid in life. 
Sometimes you need that. everyone needs that. 
Making wrong decision is okay. 
And it's also okay to regret it awhile,
because that's what a normal human does. 

 
But living your life in the regret of 
your wrong decision will only make you stuck there. 
And that's pointless. You have to keep moving forward. 
I know it hurts because the thoughts of 
"how if I didn't do that?" 
or "how if I chose the other decision 
instead of this one that moment?" 
keep haunting your mind. 
 

Truth to be told you don't know that 
maybe your life will be worse if you took 
that 'another decision'. 
Possible, right?
I mean you really can't predict what's gonna happen
in your future

 
And to be fair, once in the past, 
you must had been enjoying the result of 
your wrong decision. 
You surely had been smiling because of that. 
 
So why don't you just put that 
beautiful curve again on your face?
 

            Smile. 

 
   Smile because you have finally realized
your mistakes in the past and decided to be more 
careful at making the upcoming decisions. 
   Smile because life goes on
and you better flow with its stream. 
   Smile because you believe your life will be wonderful 
no matter how bad your decision was. 
   Smile because your smile is contagious. 
   Smile because you have no idea how deep someone 
has been in love with your simple smile. 
 
So, smile, dear you (:

Wednesday, 8 August 2012

how i ended up like this..

kali ini gue mau cerita tentang gimana gue bisa berakhir dengan jadi mahasiswi FTSL ITB 2012. Kenapa? karena orang-orang yang deket sama gue mungkin sampai bosen tiap gue cerita rencana studi gue yang berubah-ubah.

awal tahun 2011, gue hampir hampir banget pindah ke Melbourne. lanjutin SMA trus kuliah disana. dan......batal. tepatnya karena mungkin papa mama ngerasa gue masih terlalu kecil kali ya? hahaha gue juga lupa kenapa.



pertengahan 2011 papa ngasih brosur Goethe Institut Jakarta. gue, hmm, excited. sejujurnya gue disuruh kemana aja mau, asal nggak di Indonesia. kenapa? karena dari kecil waktu orang lain punya cita-cita jadi dokter, jadi insinyur, jadi apapun itu, cita-cita gue adalah kuliah di luar negeri. jadi memang nggak ada pikiran bakal kuliah di Indonesia sebenernya.

oktober 2011 mulailah gue les bahasa jerman. dan jangan percaya sama orang-orang yang bilang Deutsch itu gampang. susah -.- . tapi gue semangat banget meskipun setiap satnite gue akhirnya harus dihabiskan di Goethe Institut.  dan karena gue pulang-pergi ikut temen, gue terpaksa selalu jadi cewe sendiri di antara 4 cowo setiap sabtu malem, which was, yeah, let's just call it a good experience hahaha.

awal tahun 2012, Bu Bernadette, guru BK sekolah gue mulai muter-muter ngasih liat nilai rapor anak-anak dari semester 3. yap, bentar lagi pendaftaran SNMPTN Undangan. gue udah denger gosip dari banyak kalo gue daftar dan keterima dan gue tolak, sekolah bakal di-black list. dan sejujurnya gue juga ga akan tega nolak kalo gue keterima. silahkan anggap gue orang yang 'ngga-enakan' atau sebagainya, tapi emang bener .__________. ..

gue udah tau papa pasti bakal maksa gue daftar. dia bilang gampanglah nolaknya. entah udah berapa kali berantem sama papa gara-gara masalah daftar SNMPTN Undangan. well, yah, gue udah berjuang sebisa gue tapi pada akhirnya kan gue harus taat *atau setidaknya itu yang gue pikirin waktu itu* .

memang sih, papa nggak maksa gue nerima itu. bahkan dia udah konsultasi sama agen buat berangkatin gue ke FH Aachen, Jerman. entah udah berapa kali itu agen dateng ke rumah gue, atau papa yang ke kantor mereka. udah ngomongin biaya lah, apa lah. semuanya. papa bilang papa cuma mau buka semua pintu buat gue *menghela nafas panjang...*

akhirnya gue daftar SNMPTN Undangan. sejujur-jujurnya gue nggak tau mau milih PTN mana dan jurusan apa. tapi waktu itu gue rasa yaudahlah coba-coba aja ITB, belum tentu masuk ini, rapor gue masih ada nilai 7 nya. tadinya gue mau taro FTSL ITB di pilihan 1. tapi papa *yeah, again* nyuruh nyobain FTI, dan karena passing gradenya lebih tinggi dari FTSL, yaudah gue jadiin pilihan 1. sebenernya emang maunya masuk FTSL dan ambil jurusan Teknik Lingkungan, karena kayaknya cuma itu yang menarik perhatian gue hehehe. gue juga taro Teknik Kimia UI dan Teknik Lingkungan UI di pilihan 3-4 *yang setelahnya gue langsung takut sendiri gimana kalo akhirnya masuk UI*

sedikit berlebihan memang, tapi buat daftar aja pake airmata tuh hahaha. karena gue udah janji ke diri gue sendiri, kalo gue keterima, pasti gue ambil, berarti kan lepasin FH Aachen.

mungkin kalian pernah denger atau bahkan sering bilang "aku berserah sama Tuhan" atau "aku percaya sama Tuhan", gue juga sebelum ini sering bilang gitu kok. tapi baru kali ini gue merasa bener-bener berserah. ada dalam kondisi dimana gue emang beneran ngga bisa mengandalkan apapun. nggak kepintaran gue, nggak sekolah gue, nggak orangtua gue. dan gue nggak bisa pakai kekuatan super buat merubah hasil SNMPTN Undangan itu kan? hahaha.

dan dalam kondisi itu gue bener-bener belajar banyak. setiap hari gue diyakinkan buat percaya sama Tuhan, sama apapun rencanaNya meskipun gue nggak bisa lihat sampai sekarang. nggak gampang lho. lebih susah dari integral volume-nya Pak MM *entah apa* .

dan kalau setiap malam orang lain berdoa supaya keterima SNMPTN Undangan, gue cuma berdoa "Tuhan, Tuhan tau banget kan aku pengen ke Jerman. tapi kalau Tuhan rasa aku lebih baik di Bandung, aku percaya kok sama Tuhan. bahkan aku percaya kemanapun Tuhan taruh aku, itu tempat terbaik. Aku lebih mending ada di Indonesia sama Tuhan daripada maksain ke Jerman tapi ngga ditemenin Tuhan" . dan gue dikuatkan setiap hari sama orang-orang di sekitar gue :)

oh iya bulan April gue berhenti les di Goethe Institut. sebenernya maksudnya nunda dulu sih. soalnya harus persiapan UN dan SNMPTN Tertulis. oh iya gue lupa bilang kalau selama kelas 12 ini gue juga disuruh ikut bimbingan belajar sama papa, buat SNMPTN Tertulis.. hmm belajar taat waktu kita sama sekali nggak ngerti itu susah ya ternyata hahaha.

hari-hari menjelang pengumuman SNMPTN Undangan, gue makin tegang. apalagi ternyata dimajuin kan pengumumannya. dan 2 hari menjelang pengumumannya, tanggal 24 Mei, gue nerima hasil tes masuk FH Aachen dan yaaa gue keterima........makin galau hahaha.

26 Mei 2012, pas wisuda sekolah gue, lagi duduk alim dengerin yang pidato di depan, tiba-tiba belakang gue ribut-ribut. ternyata pengumuman SNMPTN Undangan udah keluar. jadilah pada meriksa dari hp. waktu itu gue tau ada 2 temen gue keterima FTI ITB. tapi berhubung gue lupa id gue jadi gue harus nunggu sampe pulang -__- .

trus ya seperti yang kalian tau, gue keterima FTSL ITB. nggak bisa ngegambarin perasaan gue waktu itu. senang, sedih, bingung, lega, nyampur deh. tapi ya gue lega akhirnya gue bisa tau Tuhan maunya apa.

so here I am now..

udah ngelewatin OSKM ITB 2012 nih. dan gue nggak menyesal udah ambil keputusan itu. malah setiap hal yang gue liat disini bikin gue bersyukur sama Tuhan udah tempatin gue disini.

kelompok 139 :)

closing OSKM - lampions

closing OSKM - 'dewi'

kakak-kakak taplok


mungkin gue bisa lanjutin S2 gue di Jerman, atau mungkin memang jalannya gue nggak ke Jerman sama sekali. apapun itu, gue bakal jalanin dulu hari-hari gue disini sama Tuhan dan biarin Dia ambil alih semua langkah hidup gue :).

gue bangga bisa jadi mahasiswi FTSL ITB 2012 *semoga bisa masuk Teknik Lingkungan tahun depan* dan gue bangga dapat kesempatan dari Tuhan buat belajar taat sama Dia.

ayo belajar! :D