Writing the future

"When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another (Helen Keller)"

One important message my mother conveyed to me before she passed away in 1999 after eleven years of stroke was “Life is not just about studying or being brilliant academically; you should be involved and participate in organizations to enhance your experience and knowledge”. She also said “Smile is free; smiling from your heart is an inexpensive way to improve your look. It gives good feeling for you and people around you. However it’s nobler if you can make someone else to smile”. She’s absolutely right. Those were the best advices that she gave to me. For years I have been resentful for not having my mother around with me. Somewhere in my heart, I’m always missing her and wondering if I could do better that she might still be alive. What a silly thought :)

As years gone by, I realized that anything happens for good reasons. Those hardship in my life, gave me a firm beliefs about spreading the good deeds; even though I may not always be successful. It revealed my passion towards children who do not have privilege to choose in which family they are going to be born. It’s very tough being parent in Indonesia, especially without adequate government support in parenthood such as reliable childcare, standardization for leave-in nannies, parenting hotline and reliable early childhood centers. There is such service, but the cost is incredibly expensive that only upper middle families can afford them. For instance, the immunization that was given free in Australia, in Indonesia we have to pay about IDR 420K (equal AUD $60) for each shot. I realize that many children are unfortunate to be born in broken families and the underprivileged, and they are easily targeted for being victims of cruelty in this world, without they can even escape.

Being mother, I found my greatest asset which is my faith and my family. My faith keeps me up when everything goes wrong, and my family keeps my faith when I most doubt it. It keeps my spirit high even in difficult circumstances and at times when I lost my beliefs in myself. It gives me courage to hold on to my dreams; it also gives me hope when I’m hopeless. I always find a reason to be a better person for the sake of my family, learn from my failures and try again. I always find a reason to make a difference, and I know I can handle any rejection and failure in this life. I know I can forgive any mistakes in the past and start a new chapter, makes the impossible becomes possible.

I love writing my reflections about life but I never really unleashed this potential due to my other activities. I want to join writing club to sharpen my skills especially for humanities theme and dramatic arts club to perform something that will bring positive message for youth. I’m so sad that youth is wasted doing something like drugs and alcohol addiction. Furthermore I want to involve myself directly in any kind of women and children ministry such as fundraising activities for Ronald McDonald house charities. As a mum and a housewife, domestic violence to children and women really devastates me most. And I find out it is mostly because of poor parenting due to poverty, and lack of family or community support.

As former assistant laboratory, assistant lecturer and lecturer, I love teaching. I love the process of imparting our knowledge to others but I decided to leave the position, because I didn’t want to teach and encourage students to love the major that I didn’t even like (IT majors). I wanted to teach subjects that I really love such as Management and Leadership, or Human Resources topics but it would be impossible without any formal education background. I also want to be some kind of education ambassador, talking in junior and senior high schools, to encourage them to never let go of their positive dreams despite of their current circumstances. I want young people to be more confident and content about themselves.

I have this opportunity by joining my other professional friends this 17th -18th March 07 at SD Sewan 1 and 2, Tangerang – Banten, West Java. We have months in advance to plan this activity. It’s always great working with friends who have the same vision. In the D-Days, planning only took 20% and 80% were improvisation. Guys, you’re so awesome with your creative ideas. The pictures showed our students spirit, waving to the better future. I hope that I can do it again in the future. Many funny stories produced for this activity. It started when most of my friends didn’t recognize me as Ingrid as I have delivered my 2nd son. Well, it’s a compliment to me actually plus encouraging words that I’m not as fat as I thought (I still put 6 kilos guys). I was ready to show my id card to convince them hahaha
Andre, my KL friend, gave RM (Ringgit Malaysia) to the taxi driver instead of IDR. Then Maruli, my Sumatra friend arrived at the hotel at 3AM in the morning. The call from the reception really alerted me J I thought I was dreaming as calls in midnight never brought good news. But it’s a different call J We’re singing children songs through the journey although we weren’t sure that we can arrive to the place timely as none of us really knew the place. We just depended on Steph’s ability to read the map. Sorry Steph, I couldn’t help you a lot since I’m suck at reading maps. Sheila, as always, refreshed us with her jokes and outgoing personality. Patrice, is such a sweet girl who can handle children well. Hani, “although I’m small but my spirit is big” is a proper term for you. Fiona, always shocked me with her calm but witty comments plus she always wants to eat!!!.

From this activity, I met Grace, a very unique girl with great personality.
Then we found out that one of us asking Sultan Hamengku Buwono X as one of his personal referee. Well, guess it… we made lots of jokes from that including that he may be future son in-law of Sultan. There are bunch more stories that I couldn’t state one by one, including Edi’s persistence to provide the best colorful drawings (he successfully expelled me by putting pink instead of red color to his strawberry drawing ^_^) and Angel’s effort to bring real fruits for English teaching (and Maruli kept eating her grapes).

Starbucks Menteng, could be a silent witness of our glorious rehearsal meeting. I got privilege to “ngemper” with my friends. Gosh, I couldn’t stop feeling hungry too as the food was at the doorstep of my hotel. As a bonus, we spent an evening by watching “The pursuit of my happiness”. It’s one of best movie I’ve seen (don’t’ worry I’ll write about this in separate blog / review). It’s more than social activity.

I’m not a perfect mother, as I’m mere human but I’m trying my best to be great mother. I’m not expecting a thank you note from my sons. I simply imagine, if I grow old and enjoy my retirement, I will be surrounded by my sons and their family, celebrating Christmas with joy and peace. At that time, I know that I’m not going to look back with regrets, but gratitude, because I have done my best for them. By doing that, I hope my sons, Jensen and Joel, will be good parents to my grandchildren, and my grandchildren to my great grandchildren. And if they ask me “Why mum? Why dad? Why do you both try that hard for us?” My husband and I will answer and smile lovingly, “Well sons, again you have all of our reasons”.

One day, I hope that I can contribute bigger and more to my community by establishing a HOPE for LIFE foundation that emphasizes on women and children social activities. Everyone needs hope for life. It takes courage to finally write this dream, published to the public. So I shall fulfill it no matter what. And by doing that, the good vision for building better future generation won’t be broken. Life is too short for being selfish.

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