Thursday, August 3, 2017

Throwback to Fresh(man) Year

Today is officially my last day of my university years. I just submitted the final hard copy of my thesis. I have ensured I’ll be getting my diploma on time and that for sure I will be part of University of Indonesia Graduating Class of 2017. The only thing left is to pay for my graduation fee and a farewell event provided by my faculty. I'm just glad I had sorted all things administrative—its been seriously bugging me for weeks and causes unnecessary stress for me lately. Anyways, as I am about to get my undergraduate degree, I was looking through pictures of kinds of stuff that I had yet been able to post on the blog in the last few months since I was so distracted with my thesis. Rather than to post something food or travel related, I was actually inspired by some of the pictures I’ve taken during my university years and the people that come with it. It's bittersweet, this nostalgia. Which is why I decided to embrace it by posting a sort of throwback, walking the memory lane, of documentation of my last four years. 

YEAR ONE 
One of my first campus-wide orientation activity. All the freshman—five thousand and more and so and so—were told to wear all white attire, the males wore white shirts and white pants while the females wore a white shirt and white skirt. We were gathered to practice for the freshman choir, a tradition in which every incoming class of University of Indonesia students would prepare a set of songs to be sung in the assembly during the graduation ceremony of the graduating students within that same year. I forgot when exactly was this taken and what we were actually doing, but we sure were practicing choir sometime during that day. 


This group picture is taken after OBM—I forgot what it stands for and I won’t even bother to look it up— but it was like an introduction week to the university’s learning program. The students from this group came from all faculties within University of Indonesia. I remember my group being G-4A. I am still friends with many of the students I met during that week and I’m very thankful of that. 



This is taken during my first outing with friends from university (except for the one outing we did due to the obligation to finish our group outing for the faculty orientation program). This was me in front two medium-sized pizzas, shared by four people who all belong in the same faculty orientation group. I was part of Group 20, named “Mens Rea” which is a latin term “of the guilty mind”. I still remember how the task to make a report on the definition of “Mens Rea” becomes a huge burden to all of us members. 



Picture above is that “one outing we did due to the obligation to finish our group outing for the faculty orientation program”. 



I made frequent visits to my high school and talked a lot to my juniors about my experiences in high school and college entrance process. Yesterday even my high school homeroom teacher left me a note to again come visit the school and he misses me. Too bad I was so busy with some more thesis-related stud that day :( 



This was taken during an MPK English class inside my faculty C building. 

The picture is taken at the same classroom as above. 



I used to hang out at an all-you-can-eat dim sum restaurant in Depok. Super cheap but as years gone by, we realize how subpar the flavor of the dim sums are. For there is a price for flavor. 



A corner of Starbucks Coffee located inside University of Indonesia’s Central Library. One of my earliest hang out places when we as freshman were too scared of the eyeing seniors inside the faculty canteen. 


A random note my friend left for me during class—I remember the classroom being F203—the room my class most frequently uses. This was during the time Ylvis' “What Does The Fox Say?” was trending. 



Celebrating my 18th birthday with new friends at university. They tried to surprised me but failed as I recognize the people scrambling back and forth in preparation of the surprise. It was still a very sweet gesture though.


Also big shout out to my high school friends who still bother to threw another surprise once I got back home. I love you guys, too. 




Me being part of a campus event for the first time. This is for Simposium Hukum Nasional 2013 where I was the liaison officer for participating delegates. 



A memorabilia during my photo essay project for Indonesian People and Society class. This is a silhouette cutting made by a old man around Kota Tua. Everybody referred to him as “Opa”, the oldest vendor in Kota Tua. I’ve never seen him since then, even after numerous times I explored Kota Tua. Due to that trip taken to Kota Tua, I learned how to take a ride on Transjakarta by myself from Kota to Blok M and became interested in exploring Jakarta museums. 



Went to become part of the faculty’s Badan Eksekutif Mahasiswa #TeamAdvo. 



Took a batik class that made me financially broke but I gained tremendous knowledge and new friends. Also: I still hate art class. My final painting for this class was so horrible that the assistant lecturer can only laugh when I submitted my model pattern.

That's all I can immediately found (and have picked from other embarrassing pictures) on my Photos gallery coming from my freshman years in the University of Indonesia. A continuation post on the things that happened during my second year will be posted sometime soon. Looking back, there are so many stories to be told. Freshman year is when my GPA was at its highest but at the same time, it was the time where I was most anxious about everything. College is so new to me and everything was so different. The people, the customs, the scheduling, the distance with people as well as the distance to my physical home.

I missed my high school friends so much and I became so attached to the memories I had in my previous school that I kept on comparing it with the ones I had on the campus. I realize that I have to approach unfamiliar settings differently in the future and as I am writing this I am reminded that I have so much more to learn for even my yearnings for knowledge and experience will only begin after the end of those years I spent in school. I am anxious to start a new chapter, but seeing my beginnings in this chapter I can only then tell myself to calm down, take in everything in a pace you are most confident in and believe in yourself. Don't you see what you have become now?

The answer is, I've become unemployed. Hehe.

No comments:

Post a Comment