My Birthday Note

Today is my 28th birthday. And today, I only want to write about how grateful I am with the life I live in.

Not much things to say. I simply want to thank God for all of the ups and downs in my life. For the dreams those do come true, and for the downfalls which make me stand even higher than before.

I also want to thank everyone who stays here with me; with all my flaws, with all my imperfections. For always having my back in the hardest possible time. For the supports, for always listening, for always understanding, for always finding a way back to me with their sincere forgiveness for all my faults.

Finally, I want to thank myself for learning, for finding, a true happiness in life. For accepting myself, for being the best that I can be, and for surviving every lowest point in 28 years of my life.

New age is always another new beginning for me. A new start, new hopes, a new finish line to run into. I really can’t wait to see how life can surprise me even beyond my imagination. Happy 28 years anniversary for me! I wish nothing but the best for me 😉

Girls, Stop Falling for The Wrong Ones

Girls, at some point, we should stop letting ourselves fall for the wrong ones.

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Don’t fall for a guy just because he told you that you look pretty that day.

Or when he keeps telling you how smart you are.

Or how different you are.

Or any other pretty things that anyone can say.

He may have that super charming smile.

He may always say hello and asking how your day is going.

He may always make you feel special.

Feel pretty.

Yet again, don’t fall for him in a blink of eyes.

Remember girls, talking is easy.

You may be not the only one.

He may just enjoys being friendly.

Or maybe, he just enjoys being the center of attention.

Hey may only say things and forget.

Hey may never really care to every word you say back to him.

Don’t fall for him, until you know for sure, that you are his center of attention.

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Don’t let yourself fall so easy to the gentle man.

The one who holds the door for you.

Who gives up his seats for you.

Who never lets you carry those heavy stuffs.

Who always makes you feel like a queen.

Maybe it’s true that he’s a gentle man, he’s a good man.

He’s harder to find these days.

But that’s it

Maybe he’s just being who he really is.

Maybe he’s just being used to be polite.

Maybe that’s just the way he was raised, to be a gentle man.

So girls, don’t fall for him, until you know for sure, that you’re indeed the queen of his heart.

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Finally girls, don’t fall for a guy just because he’s always there when you’re in need.

Don’t let your heart melted when you saw him trying so hard just to help you out.

Don’t get him wrong when he’s being such a great listener for you.

Don’t think too much when you find he’s always around.

Because maybe, he’s just trying to be a good friend for you.

Yes, a good friend.

He may only does the things that the best friends usually do.

He helps you.

He cares about you.

He always listens while you speak.

Because that’s what a friendship is all about.

So don’t fall for him, until you know for sure, that he wants you to be his girl.

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Again girls, at some point, you may want to stop wasting your times for the wrong ones.

However sometimes, it’s not about the wrong ones, it’s the wrong decisions instead.

It’s our own wrong decision instead.

We fall too fast.

We fall too easy.

We fall before knowing what we’re running into.

We are blinded with so many ideas in our heads.

We keep making the same mistakes, over and over again.

We keep making the same ending, for ourselves, over and over again.

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In the beginning, it’s the mistake which made us learn.

It’s the wrong ones who made us know what we’re looking for in the right one.

However, at the end of the day, we’ve got to stop.

When it’s frustrating to feel a pain inside our heart.

When it’s exhausting to pick up the pieces for the hundreds times.

When we’ve started wondering what we always did wrong.

Then it’s the time for us to stop making obvious mistakes for ourselves.

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We are too valuable to feel rejected.

Life is too valuable to be wasted for more broken hearts all over again.

Learn from our past.

Learn from our mistakes.

And when we are about to fall for another wrong one.

When we are about to fall so quickly.

Just remember one of those days when a broken heart knocked us down.

Just remember that we are a grown-up, who have a total control of ourselves.

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Don’t fall too fast, until you know for sure, that you are running to your final stop.

My New Wish List: Local Travel Destinations!

Kata siapa gue cuma mau jalan-jalan ke luar negeri? Gue juga punya kok, daftar local destinations yang kepengen gue datengin. Berikut ini daftar lengkapnya, dimulai dari yang paling dekat sampai dengan yang paling jauh.

Hutan Mangrove PIK – Jakarta Utara

Gue setengah enggak percaya saat pertama tahu ada tempat seperti ini di Jakarta Utara – enggak jauh dari kantor gue sebelum ini. Seriously… in the middle of this city? Padahal sebelumnya, gue udah pernah lihat foto pre-wedding yang berlokasi di sini. Tapi waktu itu, dengan polosnya gue berpikiran, “Ini pasti lokasi fotonya di luar negeri!”

mangrove1

Ya emang sih, hutan bakau di PIK ini bukan hutan bakau yang paling lebat dan paling keren yang bisa kita temukan gambarnya dengan cara nge-Google. Tapi maksud gue, hutan bakau ini deket banget dengat tempat tinggal gue! I want to be there, soon!

Kampung Sampireun – Garut

Gue pertama kali denger nama Kampung Sampireun itu dari senior-senior di EY dulu. Mereka pernah outing di sana dan sepertinya berkesan banget. Secara gue belum pernah ngerasain wisata danau, jadi kepengen dan penasaran aja gitu. Dan lagi-lagi, sepertinya ini pilihan terdekat yang dari gambarnya pun, udah kelihatan cantik dan fotogenik.

sampierun

Sempet kepikiran mau ngajakin temen-temen sekantor buat outing ke sini aja, tapiii, sepertinya untuk tahun ini, budget kita cuma cukup buat sampe ke Pulau Macan saja, huhuhuhu.

Batu – Malang

Ada ex-colleague yang udah sering banget ngajakin gue liburan ke sini tiap kali gue ada office visit ke Surabaya. Malang-Surabaya kan jaraknya masih relatif dekat tuh. Tapi sayangnya, sampai akhirnya gue resign dari kantor itu, masih belum kesampean buat liburan ke Malang 😦

Apa yang kepengen gue kunjungi di Batu Malang? Banyak! Daerah ini memang sengaja dikembangkan oleh pemerintah setempat sebagai pusat wisata di Jawa Timur. Yang paling bikin penasaran sih udah pasti Jatim Park-nya itu. Kenapa? Yang pertama karena teman teman gue itu mempromosikan tempat ini sebagai sesuatu yang, “Worth it banget!”. Lalu yang ke dua, apa lagi kalo bukan karena gue ini amusement park freak? 🙂

Ora Beach – Maluku

Untuk yang satu ini gue masih norak-noraknya, secara gue baru tau soal keberadaan pantai ini. Jadi awalnya, gue lihat foto pre-wedding di Instagram-nya Axioo yang langsung bikin gue mikir, “This is one of the most beautiful beach pre-wedding picture I’ve ever seen!” Gue pun langsung heboh baca semua comments di foto itu hanya untuk cari tahu di mana lokasi fotonya. My heart was jumping to know it was still in Indonesia!

PANTAI-ORA karang ora beach HP_Sofitel+Moorea+Ia+Ora+Beach+Resort-849

Sebenernya masih banyak sih ya, pantai-pantai cantik lainnya di Indonesia. Tapi gue bener-bener ‘terbius’ aja gitu sama fotonya Axioo itu. Jadi sempet berpikiran, “Kalo foto pre-wed di luar negeri itu kemahalan, foto di Ora beach juga boleh lah, hehehehe.” 😉

Raja Ampat – Papua

Ya ya ya, I know… pergi liburan ke sini mahalnya setengah mati. Apalagi buat tipikal traveler yang enggak betah sama penginapan ala homestay kayak gue ini… Tapi gimana dong, this place is just too beautiful to be missed!

Kepulauan-Raja-Ampat

Katanya sih, rugi banget ke sini kalo enggak nyobain diving-nya. Tapi gue enggak berani ah, diving. Snorkeling aja baru berani setelah umur gue seperempat abad, hehehehe.

Ada yang punya ide tempat wisata lainnya? Please let me know!

15 Habits to Make Your Life Easier at Work

Learning from my own experiences, I’ve noted down 15 things which have significantly helped me to get things done at work. If it works for me, who knows it will work for you too?

  1. Tell people exactly how you feel. Put on that grumpy face or saying “I’m pissed” will never work to make people understand what they did wrong;
  2. Use “we” instead of “I”;
  3. Ask one same question to more than one people to get complete pictures accurately. But of course, make sure you don’t get caught, hehehehe;
  4. Asking is always better than assuming;
  5. Teach your team, make them as knowledgeable as you. The smarter they are, the more they’re capable to help you out;
  6. Learn to delegate to your team. Doing stuffs alone will only make you get overwhelmed;
  7. If your team makes mistakes, teach them how to do it right instead of correcting the mistakes on your own. They will never learn and it will only put more burdens on your shoulders;
  8. Be brave enough to say ‘yes’ and ‘no’
  9. Reduce manual work. Spend some times to do research about how to apply technology into your works;
  10. Manage your files (both of softcopy and hardcopy) properly so that you won’t spend too much times searching for your old files;
  11. Take a note, write down every knowledge you’ve just earned at work;
  12. Reread your e-mails before you send it out as well as rethink your words before you speak it up;
  13. Read carefully and reply your e-mails as soon as possible;
  14. Put off the fire when it’s still small. It’s much easier to solve small problems rather than waiting until it gets bigger; and
  15. As long as it’s not an urgent matter, try to finish one task before you jump to another one.

AADC 2014 – Will You Ever Wait THAT Long?

imagesJadi awalnya, gue rada-rada bingung kenapa beberapa orang temen di Path bikin posting tentang AADC. Awalnya cuma lihat-lihat sepintas, secara kerjaan di kantor lagi banyak-banyaknya. Tapi begitu tadi sampe di rumah, gue baru sadar… ceritanya LINE baru aja bikin short movie tentang kelanjutan kisah Rangga dan Cinta, 12 tahun kemudian.

Penasaran, gue langsung buka Youtube. Dan bener aja… video AADC 2014 itu langsung muncul di layar laptop. Tanpa pikir panjang, gue tekan “Play“.

Nonton dulu video-nya, di sini.

Hal pertama yang gue suka dari video ini adalah saat muncul tulisan “Ada Apa Dengan Cinta” diikuti angka “2002” yang lalu berganti menjadi “2014”. Gue jadi sadar… sudah 12 tahun berlalu sejak pertama kali gue nonton drama yang kemudian membangkitkan dunia perfilman Indonesia itu. Jadi ingat masa-masa SMA. Harus ngantri panjang demi dapat tiket nontonnya. Jaman-jaman ngikutin gaya bicara ala Cinta dan kawan-kawan. Dan tentunya, jadi ingat betapa cute-nya cinta monyet ala SMA dulu 😉

Hal ke dua yang melintas di benak gue… Seriously? Jadi setelah ending film itu, mereka 12 tahun enggak ketemu??? Rangga nggak pernah pulang lagi ke Jakarta selama itu? Dia ngelupain Cinta begitu aja tanpa ada kabar berita? No wonder kalo awalnya Cinta enggak mau bales LINE-nya Rangga! Saat lagi kesel-keselnya nonton short movie ini, gue lalu kepikiran. “Lho… bukannya dulu itu pernah ada kelanjutan AADC versi sinetron? Rangga-nya pulang lagi ke Indonesia bukan?” Tapi sudahlah. Anggap aja sinetron itu enggak pernah ada, hehehehe.

Hal selanjutnya yang bikin gue mengerutkan kening… Jadi cuma segitu aja, usaha Rangga buat dapetin lagi Cinta yang udah dia ‘terlantarkan’ selama 12 tahun lamanya? Hanya sekedar 2 baris LINE buat ngajakin ketemuan? Kesannya kok, kayak iseng-iseng berhadiah yah? Itu lho… kayak cowok-cowok galau yang kalo galaunya lagi kumat, suka iseng-iseng texting ngajakin ketemuan. Kalo mau ya syukur, enggak mau juga nggak papa.

Saat beranjak ke ending short movie di bandara, gue makin gemes aja. Again??? Cinta yang ngejar-ngejar ke bandara? Emang efek emansipasi kali yah… Jadi malah si cewek yang harus lebih usaha buat mulai suatu hubungan… Kenapa juga bukan si Rangga yang usaha ketemuan sama Cinta, face to face? Kenapa harus Cinta, lagi, yang usaha buat cari-cari jadwal penerbangan si Rangga lalu nyusul ke bandara?

Hal terakhir yang melintas di benak gue… Will you ever wait that long? Dan kenapa juga mereka berdua masih sama-sama single saat usia mereka udah masuk kepala 3? Apa iya karena emang mereka udah sebegitu berjodohnya gitu? And will you ever give someone a second chance after 12 years passed you by? A second chance for someone who terribly failed you 12 years ago?

Well... terlepas dari isi kepala gue yang nggak penting-penting amat itu, gue tetep lebih suka ending versi short movie ini daripada versi sinetron yang gue bahkan udah lupa gimana ending-nya itu. Senang rasanya melihat bagian dari masa remaja kita itu muncul kembali di depan mata, di saat semua pemainnya sudah beranjak dewasa. Bukan hanya reuni untuk para pemainnya, tapi juga reuni untuk semua penggemar setia 🙂

Sekali lagi pertanyaannya; will you ever wait that long?

Kalian pernah nggak sih… jatuh cinta sama seseorang yang lebih memilih untuk pergi? Sedih campur benci kenapa malah ditinggal gitu aja… Ngerasa nggak dikasih kesempatan… Kangen tapi gengsi kalo harus cari-cari dia duluan… Harap-harap cemas bakal dia duluan yang nyariin kita… Makin lama nggak ada kabar, mau move on tapi masih nyimpen harapan someday dia akan balik lagi… Mau move on tapi selalu ada aja yang ngingetin kita sama dia… Terus begitu, sampai lama-lama, harapan itu memudar dengan sendirinya.

Orang yang menjawab “iya” untuk pertanyaan gue di paragraf sebelumnya, mestinya bisa mengerti, kenapa pada akhirnya, Cinta memberikan kesempatan ke dua buat Rangga. Umumnya kita bisa mengerti, cinta yang tidak pernah diberi kesempatan untuk tumbuh, adalah cinta yang tidak akan pernah benar-benar mati. Bisa saja ada cinta-cinta selanjutnya, tapi cinta terpendam yang dulu pernah dipaksa mati itu, akan tetap tersimpan dalam lubuk hati yang paling dalam.

Dia akan selalu jadi cerita masa muda favorit kita. Dia akan selalu tersimpan sebagai impian yang terpendam. Dan dia… akan selalu menjadi bagian dari andai-andai yang melintas di benak kita. Sebuah andai-andai, yang hanya akan berakhir jika diberi kesempatan untuk mewujudkannya.

Untuk menutup tulisan ini, gue ingin mengutip satu quote yang gue dapat dari Pinterest: “It might take a day, it might take a year, but what’s mean to be will always find its way.”

Selamat 12 tahun Ada Apa Dengan Cinta!

P.S.: Nicely done for LINE Indonesia! I love love it! The best advertisement ever! Anyway, Dian Sastro makin cantik ajaa. Jadi iri, hehehehe.

The Chances

There’s a recent event which made me think about chances. About chances that we never give to the people we know. To the people who might be the best thing in our life, if only we ever gave them a chance to be a part of it.

Sometimes, we shut people down in the first place. When the first impression becomes everything to us, we don’t give them a chance to show us how good they can be. We divide people to ‘yes’ and ‘no’ right in the first sight. We just don’t care about the fact that it takes times for people to show their true colors. It takes times for us to see their true colors.

Or maybe… we do give them a chance to be a part of our life. As our friends. As our favorite colleagues. BUT… we never give them a chance to be more of it. We keep trying to convince ourselves that it’s not worthy. That we don’t really want them to be more than who they already are to us. We keep making excuses while in fact, we’re just scared. We’re just scared of the risk that we need to take just to be with them. We just don’t care about the possibility that they may be the best thing that ever happens to our life.

This thought finally reminds me to the people whom I pushed away. The people who sincerely wanted me to be a part of their lives. The people whom I easily judged as the wrong ones. I just realized that some of them, a few years later, have proven me that I was wrong. I was wrong to be afraid just to be with them. I was wrong for telling myself not to fight for them, fight for their presence in my own future.

Life is made up of choices. Somehow I still believe, even the wrong choices happened for a reason. It’s the wrong choices which finally lead me to learn how to do it right. Hence I know that I shouldn’t be drowning in regrets. Hence I know that all I need to do is starting to do it right: I should learn how to give people a chance. I should understand that when I give people a chance, I give myself a chance to get the best possible things to come.

Have you ever heard a quote that says, “If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try.” And you will never know how good it can be unless you give it a try. It may work, it may never work, but one thing for sure… at the end of the day, you will only regret the chances that you never take.

Give people a chance, take chances, and see how different your life will ever be.

10 Things I Love About November

November is always my most favorite month every year. Here are the reasons:

  1. I got the best, the sweetest, and the most touching surprises in Novembers;
  2. I got a lot of gifts!
  3. It gives me an excuse to buy myself a lot of presents! To spoil myself 😉
  4. I had the most memorable parties in this month;
  5. This month is so much fun. A perfect opportunity to meet up some old friends;
  6. So many old friends texted me or posted to my social media accounts;
  7. I had so many best wishes from families and friends;
  8. Many things happened which made me feel closer to the beloved ones;
  9. It’s always a right time to evaluate myself; and
  10. Why did I get all of those great things? Because November was my birth month 🙂 The best part of it, every year when I look back for the ages I’ve passed by, I always feel more and more grateful with my own life.

Can’t wait for my birthday this year! 😀