Business cards from KartuNama.net
L’Occitane hand cream from Vanda
Lancôme Tresor Midnight Rose EDT as a gift from and for myself
 
Cuddly teddy bear from Fajar,
hugging my newest book: “The Journeys 2 Cerita dari Tanah Air Beta”

A 2012 calendar from Edward Suhadi, “Lessons from A Dog”

But, the biggest, best gift would be the one I have given to myself. I have promised myself that I would not let anyone take nor absorb my happiness away. And, when I feel happy, I will be completely happy. No doubt.

There will be plenty of times in our lives when we feel that life is too hard, too difficult, for us to go through it. The times where it seems like no one is there for us. The times where we lose all the hopes and the dreams…

…but as soon as we make peace with ourselves, and with what happen, we will be much, much happier. The power of being ikhlas, and accepting things as they happen.

Please, don’t forget to be happy. Whatever happens.

Photo taken by Vanda Isfandari

On the 23rd of February, I celebrated my 21st birthday. It was dull at first as I did not have any plan coming up. I planned to treat my family a five-days trip but we had to cancel it because I was scheduled to depart to Shanghai on around midnight to compete at the Hult Global Case Challenge as one of the regional finalists. My mother had a trial to attend on that day, so I practically would have had an “empty” day. Then, I decided to have lunch with a beloved friend. She is studying in Tokyo and had never been in Jakarta for my birthday for around 6 years. All of a sudden my boyfriend and another best friend of mine showed up with a chocolate cake. :)

They made my birthday a simple yet blissful one. Although it was such a short celebration, I am very grateful it happened. Thank you, loves.

Also, thank you everyone for the sweet and awesome birthday wishes.

I usually pack up my activities on weekdays to have my weekends free from work. So, wherever I go, I have a bunch of “the essentials” — the things I must bring to be my company in going through a lot of stuff daily. Here they are:

Cath Kidston agenda
Unbranded wallet (bought it in a department store for less than $10!)
Colourful liners and pens
Maybelline VolumExpress Hypercurl mascara (Black)
Maybelline Fruity Jelly lipgloss (Creamy Guava)
NYX Concealer in a Jar (CJ03 Light)
NYX Eyebrow Cake Powder (ECP05 Brunette)
Tresno Joyo Balsem Telon :P
Swatch watch
Samsung Galaxy Gio

And, of course, a bottle of mineral water! What things do you bring everyday? What are your essentials? :-)

P.S.: To those attending #PopWriting Seminar with me and Sitta Karina, see you tomorrow! I can’t wait to meet you and exchange our tales of writing.

Seth Godin wrote on his blog:

Excitement about goals is often diminished by our fear of failure or the drudgery of work.

If you’re short on passion, it might be because your goals are too small or the fear is too big.

Do a job for a long time and achieve what you set out to achieve, and suddenly, the dream job becomes a trudge instead. The job hasn’t changed–your dreams have.

Mostly, though, it’s about our fear. Fear is the dream killer, the silent voice that pushes us to lose our passion in a vain attempt to seek safety.

While you can work hard to dream smaller dreams, I think it’s better to embrace the fear and find bigger goals instead.

Have you ever had a problem that keeps coming back to your life? I think we all have. At the beginning, I did not know why a problem should happen over and over again in someone’s life, but now I start to understand.

On the early weeks of 2012, I had been conversing a lot with a very dear friend. We met back in early 2009 when we started Indonesian Youth Conference together remotely as he is studying in Australia. We have gone through a lot of things during the short span of friendship. We frequently argue on tiny to big things and sometimes end up not talking to each other for awhile. Nevertheless, we stay friends until now, and we discuss a heap of things, especially about life, love, and most of all: the problems and lessons in both of them.

image source: weheartit.com

He taught me a very fascinating concept of “learning our lessons”, which I think should be shared. He told me, that whenever we are unable to solve a problem that comes in our lives and take the lessons we should learn out of it, the problem will keep coming back. Not to mention, when it comes back, the “size” would be much bigger than before. The problem will keep coming back because it forces us to learn the lessons it brings. For example, if we fail a course and did not learn the lesson on why we failed the course in school, someday we might fail on another course, big time. 

Sometimes some of us decide to run from a problem, instead of solving it. But, would not it make things even worse? I can not imagine having the same problem coming into my life twice, let alone a bigger one. Most of the time, we can run but we cannot hide – because problems come to our lives to be solved. Problems come to our lives to teach us a lesson. They might be our “teachers”. Yet, what’s the point of attending a course if we do not learn from it? The difference it, this “course” comes in our lives voluntarily yet it must be attended and completed well, unless we would like to retake the course over and over again in the future (which would not be pretty, really).

I have problems in my life. I am sure most of you too. The question is: are we ready to learn the lessons? Even better off, are we ready to share the lessons learned? :)

If you do not mind, kindly share your “lessons learned” from the problems you faced. It must be a hard time for us when it happened, but I am sure as now we look back, everything seems make sense and necessary. Everything will be beautiful in the right time and the right place, indeed. Have a lovely weekend!

In the past weeks, I have been dealing with somewhat tough days. I am aware they might not be as tough as yours, but well, I must say I had been having a hard time to undergo my days. By any means, I believe I am currently amid the adjusting phase in life. I am adjusting and adapting to a new environment with new activities, surrounded by new people. No one can deny the fact that dealing with change is usually difficult, but it is necessary. Nonetheless, I dare say that anyone should be able to get through such thing, including me.

We technically spend each second in our lives growing older. Although most of us do not realize so, growing older is inevitable and it keeps happening, including in my life. I think God has been finding ways to teach me plenty of lessons for me to be a stronger individual. Because change, breakdowns, disappointments, are inescapable but also indispensable. That way, the best way to confront them would be to take the embedded lessons. After all, problems are just vessels carrying lessons we should absorb and learn from.

Source

And to this moment, I have learned that:

In life, we can’t trust anyone, but we sure can believe in some, and have faith in all.

Most people are not like how they seem on the surface. People who are socially awkward or always challenge our ideas might be the truest friends we could have in our lives. On the other hand, people who keep calling us “dear” or “babe” might just say them as a lip-service, and probably say them to every single person they meet.

Some people are plastic. You know. And will forever be plastic. Nothing more.

We need to live a balanced life. It probably should be a “work hard, play hard” for us young people.

Although we could always draft resolutions and set goals for the future, the present is also important thing to be thought about and, of course, enjoyed.

It is always better to have few true friends than tons of fake ones.

One day, our best friend’s life might be hanging on a thread… On that moment, we just have to be with and for them, however difficult it might be or seem.

When somebody talks about us behind our back, it means we are significant to them, if not important.

I am sure of the fact that as we grow older, for every second in our lives, we are going to learn new things. These things are going to help us sail through the sweetness and bitterness of life. The challenges we face everyday. The feelings we would like to manifest. The dreams we would like to turn into plans and then history. Amidst of them all, some people are just going to step in and try to ruin everything, but we just have to keep on going. For this is our life and our journey. For everyone else is going to come and go; but the bests are going to definitely stay for as long as they could. For this life is meant to be wholly enjoyed.

I woke up this morning to the fact that today would be the last day in 2011. Some say NYE is overrated but I am still excited to welcome a new year in a few hours. Plenty of things have happened in 2011 – as I have guessed in the very beginning.

Concluding from the past years in my life, I believe every single year, God (or, if you don’t believe in one, The Universe) always gives us a handful of surprises. I have learned that life has many ups and downs. Sometimes we can be very happy about it; while on other points, it will feel like it is kicking us in the ass. Nonetheless, if there is one thing I could hold on to, it would be that every single thing will be beautiful when it is at the right time and the right place.

The year began (and is ending) with a very hard time for me and my family. I had to make some decisions and tried my best to be the martyr to “save” everything, everyone that I love. I don’t know whether it would pay off or not but I am glad I had been able to do the best I could for my mother and my family. It was a quite scary time and, like it or not, it has pretty much changed the way I think and see a lot of things. I have realised that most “reality shows” (including news) are not that real; and I have learned that some people will ride on your misfortune to look good. On the other hand, I have also learned that no matter how “low” you are in your life, some people will always be there for you. :)

In 2011, I have also been asked to endorse a number of brands for a few months and I am very grateful about that. I have learned a lot from so many people, experts in the industry. So, thank you so much, Multiply, Coca-Cola, XL, and BlackBerry for asking me to board the ship and join the cruise with you guys. It has been a great, great journey!

My mid-of-year was celebrated with the second Indonesian Youth Conference. It was such a mesmerizing moment, because my dream finally came true once again. The visitors tripled from 2010 stats, and although I am no Program Director anymore, I still feel that we have made history once again.

I did get the chance to travel to Switzerland. I went to Geneva to speak on behalf of Asian youth as a panelist in “Global Youth: Leading Change” session, which became a part of the High Level Panels in 100th Session of the International Labour Conference. I shared the stage with Monique Coleman, UN Youth Champion. A few months later, thanks to Om Triawan Munaf & Euro RSCG Jakarta, I participated as a Delegate in One Young World Summit 2011 Zurich.

Another highlight would be on traveling. Before I arrived Geneva, I went to Nice for a few days on a backpacking trip. It was great – my first backpacking trip ever! :) In July, I went to Bali to attend Regional Entrepreneurship Summit, and for the first time drove a stick-shift outside Jakarta (and almost crashed a tree, oh well).

Academically, not much had happened. I had to launch a business for a class project, but it turned out that we really loved the idea so we have decided to take it beyond the assignment. With some friends, I joined business plan competitions and brought a couple of trophy back to campus, for the first time in my life. I also participated in the committee of Regional Youth Leaders Conference and BINUS International Debating Championship (I had never been a part of university events committee before).

In terms of social life, not much has changed. I am aware that I am still pretty much the same damsel. I have met a lot of new people but my closest friends remain the same. I have become more and more attached to my IYC mates, as well as my girlfriends since junior high school.

As for love life, I am glad that this year, I will be celebrating NYE with the same person. A few days before IYC, Ryan acquainted his turning point: the birth of Indonesia’s stand-up comedy community. Since then, he has secured an internship with his dream work place, Imaginary Friends Studios, joined the Stand Up Comedy Indonesia (Kompas TV) competition, and won first place. Ryan and I can’t predict the future, but I endearingly hope that we will stick together as long as we could.

I am pretty sure that my 2012 will be full of surprises as well. I already have a few plans coming up for the year, and I must say, I am tremendously excited about it.

My two-cents to face 2012 would be: Britney Spears said we have to live each day to the fullest; Bruce Lee said the first step to be immortal is to live a life worth remembering. And, yes, dreams come true, if we put much faith in them and tons of hard work to make them come true. ;)

Happy new year!

I remember when I was a kid, I used to spend time with my cousin, Didiet Maulana, and see him (who was still in high school) making fashion sketches. He then continued his endeavor studying Architecture in Universitas Padjadjaran, working for MTV and now PT GAP. However, now I am in university, Mas Didiet has finally reached his dream, to become a fashion designer and have his own fashion line. It is called, IKAT Indonesia.

Didiet and his muse, Izabel Jahja

IKAT Indonesia aims to re-introduce Indonesia’s traditional fabrics, especially tenun ikat, in a fresh, chic, modern way. Please have a look at IKAT Indonesia’s Facebook page to browse more of its collections. Or, visit the place and meet Didiet, at Jl. Dempo I No. 59, Mayestik, Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta.

To close the post, here’s me in IKAT Indonesia at the launch of its first collection. :)

A few days ago, I was invited by the British Council Indonesia to share about my activities with the Global Changemakers as well as others related to the British Council in front of Jo Beall, its Director of Education, who was visiting Indonesia. That day, I met a number of inspiring youth, from a variety of British Council’s programs: Global Changemakers, E-Idea, and AGF-Social Entrepreneurship. Here are a couple of videos to warm up your day.

This is a video about Wangsa Jelita, a social enterprise started by Nadya Saib, which empowers rose farmers in West Java.  Nadya has just graduated from ITB a few years ago, and she is now building her own “dynasty”.

Yet, this one, is a video about Lingkar Ide PPIA, a project started by Dirgayuza, who represented Indonesia in Global Changemakers’ Asian Youth Summit.

Interviews with these two inspiring people can be read in my upcoming book. Enjoy your day!