“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
― H. Jackson Brown Jr., P.S. I Love You
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I once posted the quote on this blog and been trying to live the quote ever since. Though I won't be the most positive person you might know but I am trying to live a life without regret, or at least with WAY LESS regret.
One of my biggest regrets in life is letting opportunities pass by, especially when I was in high school. I had always wanted to try this and that but my doubt was controlling me by that time. For instance, I wanted to join Model United Nations but I doubt myself so I did not go or when I wanted to join competitions but I doubt myself that I can do it. The thing is... I don't even know, maybe I will succeed but there was a chance that I won't either. But the new me is willing to go against that chance. Pursuing my curiosity and not letting opportunities pass by is one of my most impactful lesson learnt so far in my life.
This is my most favorite saying engraved at my campus:
"Supaya kampus ini menjadi tempat bertanya dan harus ada jawabannya."
or can be translated to:
"So that this campus becomes a place to ask and there must be an answer"
Curiousity killed the cat, they said. I don't agree to the proverb until it has "but satisfaction brought it back" added.
For now, I like to pursue my curiousity and these are some of my stories on me pursuing it:
Watching The Beach Boys concert ALL ALONE
In summer last year, I had the chance to visit the United Kingdom for the second time. Well, the journey itself was a bit impulsive because my sister and I was planning to go to somewhere else but ended up going to the United Kingdom (again) because apparently our visa was still valid at that time. It was a last minute decision where I thought the ticket would cost extremely high, which (thanks to my hidden talent) I found a round trip ticket from Jakarta to London for around Rp7.000.000. It was unbelievably cheap because it usually cost around 7 millions only for a single trip ticket. Every pros has its cons, I have to transit in Ho Chi Minh for around 7 hours but that was okay for me. Well, I have this thing with my family where I get to pick my own flight whether I choose to fly with Garuda Airlines because all my family except me get a discount or I get to fly with another airlines to get the cheaper price and the price difference between the Garuda Airlines flight ticket and the flight that I choose go straightly into my pocket for me to spend, and of course I always choose the latter option. For me, why bother to spend a lot on 15 hours flight where I can spend those money for the next 2 weeks? More importantly, I have this trick where it usually work on how you get 3 economy seats for yourself so you can make them a “bed” to sleep on it and pay nothing additionally.
So,
my trip was supposed to go from London-Bath-Oxford-York-London but
apparently there was a slight change of plan and it went by
London-Bath-Oxford-York-Scarborough-York-London.
I
was in York having my english breakfast which suprisingly I never get
tired of when I found out that The Beach Boys was going to perform the
day after that in Scarborough, a town next to York where it takes only
50 mins train to go from York to Scarborough. I asked my sister but she
was not that interested and she chose to stay in York to explore more of
York by herself. So, I went by myself to Scarborough where at that time
I still had not bought the ticket because apparently I had to have a
permanent residence address in the UK to buy the ticket online. After I
arrived at the Scarborough station, I walked to the Scarborough Open Air
Theatre. When I was going to buy the ticket at the ticket booth and and
old couple in front of me offer two tickets for only £30 because
apparently their sons were not able to attend the concert with them. At
that time, I had a little of doubt that it would be a scam. Well, I
think that is one of the things I acquired by being born and raised in
Indonesia. After some consideration, I bought the ticket from them.
After
buying the ticket, I went to the B&B I just book on the train. It
was only about half a mile from the venue but I have to go through an
uphill road to get there. It was decent for the price paid, nothing
fancy it was just like a home but turned into B&B with Mr. Bean’s
room-ish kind of interior design. I took a nap for about an hour before
looking for something to eat and headed straight to the venue.
At
the venue, the security screening was the tightest of any concert I
have attended. Perhaps it was because of the Ariana Grande concert
bombing incident happened less than a week before. Well, I was seated
next to the couple and turned out we had these chit-chats for around an
hour before the concert began. They both were retired and now they are
enjoying their lives going from concert to another concert, from country
to country. They said that they have visited almost all of the
countries in Europe and interested in exploring Asia. They went to Japan
before, and planning to go South East which unfortunately they were
interested in Thailand and Singapore and not so much in Indonesia. They
were fun to talk to, they know a lot going on in the world. They also
offered to buy me a pint of coke because they thought Indonesia was a
moslem country and people here do not really drink at all, it turned out
that they brought me a pint of cider though after I kind of told them
the truth going on in Indonesia (or at least, what I know was going on).
When
the concert began, I did not see a lot of phone recording videos or
taking photos. What I saw on the other hand was a group of middle aged
women dancing near the stage, and also it started all of the craziness
during the show. After that, a lot of people got up from their seats and
also dancing a bit because most of them are middle aged. Oh, I also saw
a security guard also dancing to Kokomo. Anyway, John Stamos was there
and performed too!
I had a lot of fun. Turned out watching a concert by yourself was not that bad. Screw you watching-movie-alone shamers, I watched a concert alone and it was fun.
First working experience at United Overseas Bank
I always thought that working at bank would be boring because the work is too rigid but that was my prejudice. Last summer, I thought it was a good opportunity to gain hands-on professional working experience through internship. At first I was clueless since I don't know where to go and what to do first, but thanks to the internet and also online talent recruitment and career discovery platform such as Glints to help me get through the obstacles. From there, I tried to look for internship vacancies and it has clear instructions about what to do. After applying, I wait for several days for the company to contact me and fortunately UOB responded to my application through e-mail to continue with the application process. I had to take the online test and online interview. After about a week, I got an e-mail saying that I am accepted as an intern, YAY!
From around a month and a half experience as an intern, I changed my prejudice I stated earlier. There is no such thing as boring like I thought before, working in a bank could be dynamic and also fun just like start-ups work life. I also met a lot of new COOL friends and also I get to work with amazing staffs and superiors. I am grateful that I pursued my curiosity and took the chance. All thanks to United Overseas Bank and Glints!
