Map of my story: 1. The Beginning

Hi

It’s nearly December and I can’t wait to celebrate my 8^th birthday for my blog. Well currently I’ve been extremely busy with my schedule, but still, I guess I need to do self-check throughout the whole year (?) Since I have some more free time today, having earlier birthday celebration should be okay right? so I’ll give it a try.

Ps. The story will be extremely long. I might mix English with Bahasa since sometimes it easier to talk it in English or Bahasa. Anw, enjoy.

Ps pt. 2: Actually, I was planning to make it in one long story, but it was too long almost reached 10 pages on my Ms word. So, I make it into several posts

Ps pt. 3: The main title is inspired by book by Muray Stein, Map of The Soul which later adapted by BTS as their newest album. The title somehow suitable for the following content because it's mainly talking about the Map of my story, my soul.

First of all, what I have been doing this year?

There’s nothing like extremely special nor not special at all within this year besides my daily routine. Since for me everything happened to me was special, but of course I cannot write it in the very detailed story, therefore I'll write some of the highlights instead. But I would say, compared to the previous study my post-graduate study is dynamically move like, in the blink of an eye. Yes, being a master student is an extremely hard compared to undergrad. Ya iya lah, hahaha. But there are some differences I could tell. Misal dulu jaman kuliah S1 sibuknya itu kan macem macem bukan Cuma urusan kuliah, masih ada organisasi, ngelesin, ya pokoknya masih banyak kegiatan non akademis yg akhirnya bikin jam tidur sangat amat kurang. Tapi lucunya dulu masih sempet aja disambi nonton drama atau variety show.

Paling suka ke perpus jaman anak undergraduate liburan. Soalnya perpus jadi sepi dan tenang banget. terbaik lah buat ngerjain tugas.

Kalo sekarang, hahaha nonton film aja nunggu bener bener free. Beban kredit kuliahnya master disini sih jauh lebih sedikit dari jaman S1 dulu, satu term maksimal 10an kredit, tp beban kuliah perkreditnya luar biasa berat. hahahaha. apalagi disini pakenya system trimester, jadi tiap 3-4 bulan ganti term, meaning tiap 3-4 bulan ada UTS dan UAS, ini yang bikin rasanya dikejar kejar deadline. Ya bayangin aja, UTS sama UAS dua kali dalam setahun aja rasanya gimana, and this, I have exam like every 1.5 months. Oiya, system ujiannya gak digabung permatkul, tapi per dosen. Iya, dosenmu ada 6 di satu matkul ya ujian UTS sama UASnya masing masing jadi 6x :’’) dalam 1 term, dan ada 3 term dalam 1 tahun. Parahnya, masih ada tugas proposal dia akhir term yg harus dipresentasikan, atau review jurnal minimal 10 jurnal. Kadangpun ada beberapa dosen yg suka ngasih kuis sebelum kuliah mulai, entah dalam bentuk kertas terus kita disuruh ngerjain 10 menit, atau disuruh maju kedepan ngegambarin struktur asam amino tertentu. Jadi sebelum kuliah malah harus belajar duluan.

What my Prof think I do, when I said I'll be in the lab during weekend

What actually I am doing: Trying new lipstick and take many selfies

Sangkin padetnya jadwal disini, aku pernah menjelang ujian, hari itu ada presentasi, ngumpulin report, dan ujian oral face-to-face sama Prof, dihari itu aku hampir 2 hari gak tidur sama sekali, bahkan Kasur gak tersentuh sama sekali. To be exact, aku gak tidur selama 35 jam. Kok bisa?? did you procrastinate (?!) Hell nooo, gak ada istilah procrastinate sama sekali karena tugas beneran datang dan pergi. Selain itu masih ada ngelab in between kuliah dan tugas, flexible sih jamnya, tp biasanya mulai dari jam 8 pagi sampe jam 7 malem. Setelah pulang dari lab atau kuliah baru deh bisa ngerjain tugas sampe pagi. Jadi semacam, tidur pagi bangun pagi. Bisa tidur 4 jam itu udah bersyukur banget sih.

Dalam sehari kadang gak kehitung berapa kali ngopi. karena kalo gak ngopi beneran deh rasanya gak semangat ngerjain tugas. hahaha. This pict was taken in Uspace, a co-working space in front of my dorm. glad they open for 24/7

The bad side of this habit is, aku jadi abai sama kesehatanku sendiri kadang lupa makan disaat udah kurang tidur. Alhamulillah sekarang aku punya roommate yg bisa ngingetin makan, dulu jaman masih sekamar sendiri, kadang aku terlalu larut sama tugas sampai pernah makan dua hari kemudian (Lagi lagi). The story is, the last meal I had was on Saturday night, and I had my next meal on Monday evening, meaning I skipped the meal for the whole 2 days. Ikr, this is pretty unhealthy. Oh iya jadi inget, ngomong-omong tentang unhealthy lifestyle, dulu aku pernah nonton drama, ada orang yang belajar atau kerja teralu keras bakalan mimisan, which in my opinion it was too much. Aku pikir itu lebay, I mean seberat apa sih belajar sampe mimisan gitu kok kayaknya berlebihan, sampai akhirnya aku ngalamin sendiri. Yes, it was a nosebleed followed by an extremely headache, and at that point I had to stop and took some rest. Kalo belajar sampe mual-mual sih jaman S1 dulu pernah, tapi kalo sampe mimisan, baru kali ini deh seriusan. Glad my body sent me a signal. According to some website I visited, nosebleed and headache are pretty normal for some people who are dealing with stress, and I guess I did. It was so stressful at that time. I didn’t even count how many times I cried alone just because I was physically and maybe mentally exhausted. I cried for no reason although I was loudly laughing in front of my friends. Bukan karena sedih, tapi lebih ke rasa stress dan tertekan gitu sih makanya nangis.

Biasanya kalo ada mahasiswa magang atau mahasiswa baru dari Indonesia,  rutinitas semi-wajib ya nyabu

Undip squad!!!

We were invited to have diner at Pa Pin's house (former International Student Affair's staff)

Look at how we enjoyed the warm convo

Alhamdulillah, sekarang aku udah banyak waktu luang karena semua kredit kuliah udah terpenuhi, tinggal memenuhi kredit thesis yang masih banyak. Currently I’m busy with my lab work for my Thesis yang mana tetep padet, but at least aku bisa ngatur waktu sendiri. Misal aku butuh waktu nulis draft proposal, aku bakalan beberapa hari skip gak kelab dan mundurin jadwal ngelabku ke hari berikutnya. Instead of staying in the lab, I’ll go to coffee shop nearby or go to the library, just to find some tranquillities and finished my paper works. And my professor didn’t mind with that, because she trusts me doing anything based on my own schedule, as long as I show my progress. 

Ngelab itu selalu menyenangkan. yang gak enak ngerjain laporannya. hahahaa

Selain itu aku juga masih sibuk sama TA (teaching assistant) semacam asisten praktikum gitu. Bedanya asisten praktikum di Undip sama di kampus ku sekarang, yang jadi asistetnnya itu mahasiswa S2 atau S3. enak banget kan, praktikum S1 tapi yang ngajarin master sama PhD student. Dan lagi praktikum disini enak banget semua udah disediain dilab, jadi asisten gak pusing nyiapin bahan ini itu, tinggal masuk kelab terus ngajar deh. Dan dalam satu kelas diajar sama 1 dosen dan 1 TA. Kecuali praktikum term kemarin, international classnya engineering (Btw kalo disini engineeringnya masih umum, baru nanti penjurusan mau engineering apa ditahun kedua, jadi mahasiswanya buanyak banget). Jadi praktikum Fundamental Chemistry aku harus ngehandle sendiri, karena dosenku selama satu term harus ke France. OMG OMG. Backgroundku kan Biology, dan disuruh ngajar Chemistry itu PR banget. dan sekelas aku ngajar sendiri, dari teori sampe prakteknyaa. tiap abis ngajar aku pusing banget, nguras energi banget seriusan. Kalo udah kayak gini mesti pergi ngeskrim atau ngopi biar seger lagi. hahaha.

Muka happy karena praktikum selesai juga

Baru bisa pulang kalo semua mahasiswa udah balik. Dan selalu ada mahasiswa yang minta jam extra buat dijelasin. H.a.h.a capek banget sebenernya, tiap abis praktikum itu rasanya kayak telat buka puasa, lemes banget
tp paling seneng kalo liat mereka senyum udah mudeng

Ini ya definisi kerjaan numpuk. Setelah praktikum pun masih ada tugas ngoreksi kuis, report dan input nilai. 

Proposal thesis is currently on the way, now I’m working on it! Wish me luck! I just so happy to have my Prof as my mentor, she’s really taking care of me and my friends. I thought 2019 would be really hard. Yes most of the times yes. But so far, apparently I'm doing okay. Overall, there were many things happened within this year, the struggle I had to face, the happiness I needed to embrace and many things.

*See you in the next story (Pt. 2)