tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30559098291278340392024-03-05T15:26:37.043+07:00DonnaMy Sharing PageMaria Donna Mirandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15854781710677330655noreply@blogger.comBlogger153125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3055909829127834039.post-65591637286350006132021-11-29T20:24:00.000+07:002021-11-29T20:24:39.929+07:00The Nanny of Dog Noble Houses<p>A little background story and disclaimer: </p><p>- This is just a fun fiction writing, so I apologize if it's all over the place and messy as I'm a bit tired of writing perfectly for now. Feedbacks are welcome though! </p><p>- Millenium Star is the name of the kennel where my chihuahua, Speedy, came from. A kennel has various meanings; in this case it's the name of Speedy's chihuahua breeding establishment. As Speedy is adopted, I tried to find his kennel and parents out of curiosity, but the latest update I got about them is that they have discontinued breeding chihuahuas. I don't know who his mother is, his father has died before I adopted him, and I know nothing of Speedy's siblings or half-siblings. So in this story I assumed him to be the last descendent of Millenium Star :)</p><p><br />- I enjoyed watching Game of Thrones so this post is inspired by it. House of ____ means that that family is a noble, or in other words, a high-born. <br /><br />Alright let's get to it!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGrZ8_yFK5r_d72KBBnTWIM7HaFvC2r-Ad4ZNxDnC0U0C7N4AmPl6aN5VkzFJ_0oFklIGQ8eiO6GyzdtWnApbFF-BpdE8mfZsw2s1YyZ4LcRBgIM9GFlfGaAUxpdluJEfHZjwiFW_Y4do/s971/pid+royal.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="971" data-original-width="953" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGrZ8_yFK5r_d72KBBnTWIM7HaFvC2r-Ad4ZNxDnC0U0C7N4AmPl6aN5VkzFJ_0oFklIGQ8eiO6GyzdtWnApbFF-BpdE8mfZsw2s1YyZ4LcRBgIM9GFlfGaAUxpdluJEfHZjwiFW_Y4do/s320/pid+royal.jpeg" width="314" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Lord Speedy of House Millenium Star</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Last descendant of his house<br />Carried by Junior Nanny Donna</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I am Donna.<br />The newest person to join<br />The Nannies of the Noble.<br />I have been here for several months</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And this is my diary.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />Basically the Nannies of the Noble<br />Is a group of elite nannies<br />Trained to care for young nobles<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Who would like to live<br />The life of an ordinary citizen.<br />They are still treated like a noble though<br />Even though they aren't living as one.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">We receive our funds</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">From the nobles' families.</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The Nannies of the Noble<br />Also care for the low-born<br />Who receive donations from <br />These high-born families.</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">A little bit of history.<br />The Nannies of the Noble<br />Began when Ms. Ratna,<br />The oldest of us,<br />Took in the late Lady Agnes Snowy of House Milan.<br />She lived the life of a noble<br />Full of abundance and luxury.<br />But she yearned for adventure<br />And when she saw a young handsome dog called Hazel</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">A street dog, but with a commanding aura,<br />She slipped out and followed him at the slightest chance.<br /><br />But Lady Snowy's antics, <br />Shall be continued in another section.<br />This writing is about another dog.<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">A dog named Pid.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The third dog to be taken in by the Nannies of the Noble<br />And Lady Snowy's adoptive younger brother.<br />He's not just any dog though.<br />He's Lord Speedy of House Millenium Star.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The last descendant of his house.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This house </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Takes pride in their education.<br />Philosophy, the arts, and maths<br />Are extremely important for them.<br />Looks? It's the last thing on their mind<br />Your brain is what determines your qualities.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Maybe it's because </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The House of Millenium Star are chihuahuas<br />Tiny compared to many other dogs.<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The tiny cannot defeat the large<br />Unless they use their brains.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">However, however,<br />The House of Millenium Star<br />Is blessed with good looks<br />Gorgeous, stunning, proportionate<br />Are the praises that follow them <br />Wherever they go.<br />Even Lord Speedy's father was a dog show champion. <br />Oh, but didn't I say that the House of Millenium Star <br />Didn't care about looks?<br />Well, Lord Speedy's father is an exception.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Lord Speedy obviously<br />Inherited these good qualites.<br />Intelligent and good-looking<br />Lord Speedy became proud and arrogant<br />Other dogs were never of his concern</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Now, my relationship with Lord Speedy</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Is a love and hate relationship.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Lord Speedy hates XOXOs</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">But I love to give him that!<br />He receives at least 10 of them a day!<br />To the point he looks so done</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So done</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Super, duper, done.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Every time he receives XOXOs</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">His face is emotionless <br />With a straight line for a mouth.<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This noble called Lord Speedy</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Has a lot of nicknames.<br />He is commonly known as Pid.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The latest one is Tuyul. :)<br />A nickname from his dogwalker.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Oh and by the way<br />Lord Pid is currently residing with two adopted brothers.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">They receive donations from the House of Millenium Star.<br />His older brother is called Sir Chiko Kong Xi <span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 25.6px;">∞</span>,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Commonly known as Kong.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">What's with the infinite?<br />You'll see in another section.<br />While the younger one is Sir Goldie Longbody Mao Ching Ching,<br />Commonly known as Goldie.<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">His intelligence</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Prompted House Millenium Star to pay for his high education.<br />He has grown up to be a wise sage.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Oh I have a notice<br />Lord Speedy and Sir Kong <br />Has lost their winter coats</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Lord Speedy doesn't really care about it<br />But Sir Kong is especially fond of it<br />As I'm writing this,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">He is whining about it<br />If found please return it ASAP<br />Most probably can be found in a garbage</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This is what it looks like:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkwUczngiCMZpdWz67SC3NtCcwJsjNJ6iW-RlXutgOLGXoLY4UGOLgnqPXQM-mpGLPUa-UFKyiPwMhkt60EtIbTmW5PFAyqswmhyphenhyphenNKJiYWg-hvPbo__Pc5Foee_R8IkpAYmqFerEJLFwU/s2048/IMG_8351.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkwUczngiCMZpdWz67SC3NtCcwJsjNJ6iW-RlXutgOLGXoLY4UGOLgnqPXQM-mpGLPUa-UFKyiPwMhkt60EtIbTmW5PFAyqswmhyphenhyphenNKJiYWg-hvPbo__Pc5Foee_R8IkpAYmqFerEJLFwU/s320/IMG_8351.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQNYfSwyRihejIUWDH8McVV_aAUWA0peyJOk_1FFDhBXoQnZ1lPy3MLT9ayafCuH5SNv-IWhN2_o1hPJXS_-nDVVf86WX5aRhkWiiOyericrlnbyAJryUVb1Sy3dXbeNKVl4nA2myCOlc/s2048/IMG_8357.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQNYfSwyRihejIUWDH8McVV_aAUWA0peyJOk_1FFDhBXoQnZ1lPy3MLT9ayafCuH5SNv-IWhN2_o1hPJXS_-nDVVf86WX5aRhkWiiOyericrlnbyAJryUVb1Sy3dXbeNKVl4nA2myCOlc/s320/IMG_8357.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Sir Kong is feeling pretty naked right now<br />If found, please return his winter coat ASAP</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Ciao!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Maria Donna Mirandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15854781710677330655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3055909829127834039.post-21162664240028432372021-09-08T18:28:00.003+07:002021-09-09T17:24:23.275+07:00 A Journey to UGM<p> </p><p><span id="docs-internal-guid-85e58b62-7fff-46f4-ba6a-970fb980877d"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 207px; overflow: hidden; width: 198px;"><img height="207" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/zZnrC1sGspxCL6yY5G0jvrEswaR06Q-4IfUMakkEbCAfkHdh--yZ3_FmOFGUl7Z0LurjRRDDH2PvInKS2MM2WqCJFYLT3l911YRGWJMDj3daIUASxY6z2IYQLbXAoQZbSZ-Nne-X=s0" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="198" /></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do you see the logo above?
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s the UGM logo
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">So what?
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">You may say
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Come next month,
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">it’ll be on MY varsity jacket</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-dc1cad3a-7fff-41d5-ab34-9f536c1d06d8"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You might be wondering how, </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">just a </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">homeschooler</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">got into a public university</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Well, actually, I’m just the -nth homeschooler</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To the Unknown, whom I met on the tennis court,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Who said:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">that it’s impossible for homeschoolers to achieve anything,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">much less, entering a public university</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am sure you are now wrecking your brain,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">trying to discover how the impossible was achieved</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do not fret, </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">explanations provided below</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let’s rewind time</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Back to my childhood</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was thought that I would pursue my university studies overseas</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Therefore most of my education was based on an international curriculum</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Turning point: It turns out that Indonesia’s local universities </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">possess excellent education and networks nowadays</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In addition to that, there’s fierce competition to enter one</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I love some competition!</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The top 3 local universities became my latest academic goal!</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As Bahasa Indonesia will be the main language used</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I switched to the national curriculum in the 11th grade</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was difficult at first!</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The switch from English to Bahasa is not easy</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is a language barrier</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Scientific languages are especially tricky and difficult to understand</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In addition to that, the order of topics vary between curriculums </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Which meant that I haven’t learned some of them</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The advantage of homeschooling could also be its disadvantage</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Homeschooling allows students to learn at their own pace</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While some </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">do </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">take tests, some others don’t</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now, I was the latter</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So I could take as much time as I needed until I entirely understand the topic</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and was able to finish the practise questions and evaluations correctly</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">However, an exam is the opposite</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I must speed up my pace to finish the tasks within the time limit</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To help me with this adjustment, I used Zenius</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Zenius is a type of MOOC or a Massive Open Online Course</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In simpler words: a website that has various online courses</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you have followed my blog since its early days</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">you would know that I have enrolled in several MOOCs,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">such as Coursera, Edx, Futurelearn, etc.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In these MOOCs, I learned specific subjects, such as archaeology and paleontology</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But Zenius is different </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s an online paid educational platform that teaches most academic subjects from all grades.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It also has worksheets; thousands of them</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">from Primary 1 worksheets to matriculation tryouts</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was also sent to a learning center</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">that provides academic enrichment for school students,</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">but they also have a programme for matriculation preparations</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As I was only in the 11th grade, attendance was only 2x a week</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">End-of-year exam tryouts were held once every 3 months</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The environment was also competitive as our tryout results are ranked</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bonus: some new friends!</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My classmates and I don’t usually take photos and videos of each other</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But on this particular day, some of them said “let’s make a tiktok!”</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Several others said, “okay!”</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tiktok isn’t really my style, so I declined</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But I recorded behind the scenes!</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I still laugh whenever I watch the videos</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Little did we know,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">that it was the last day of offline classes</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Towards the end of the 11th grade, </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The PANDEMIC CAME</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and everything became online</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then came 12th grade</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The pandemic continued on</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All the studying were still done online</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For 12th graders, lessons increased to 3x a week</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While the new academic materials took up one semester,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the other semester was used for reviewing past K-12 materials</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you think about it, online tutoring is just like a MOOC</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But unlike other MOOCs, like Coursera and Edx</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">which I greatly enjoyed,</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">online tutoring wasn’t much fun</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This was probably because I couldn’t selectively choose the subjects that I like</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In addition to that, I lost the competitive environment</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">However, I still thank my stars to this day</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">that I don’t have to commute </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">to the course </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">every day</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The last few months of my 12th grade’s life</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">were filled with drills for matriculation exams</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Everything got brutal</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Full Spartan mode on!</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3x went up to 6x a week</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tryouts that were once held every 3 months,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">became once a month</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">From previously having no homeworks,</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">we now received homeworks from all the subjects</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">to be submitted the next day</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The questions were also really difficult :’(</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It took me hours to finish one</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">During those last few months of preparations</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ambitious mode was on! </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I declared to myself that I shall master all of my lessons! </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">However, I struggled</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I wasn’t the most disciplined student back then</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I skipped out on a lot of enrichment practise questions</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I didn’t fully understand the concept being taught</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This resulted in my brain getting overwhelmed by my own ambitions</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The materials and questions were harder and more complicated than expected</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In addition to that, there were so many subjects to study at one time</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So I move to Plan B! </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In this plan, I only studied the subjects that I’ll really need in my major:</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Biology, chemistry, and math.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My original plan was to study those 3 vigorously and learn just a little of physics</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think this is quite a good move, as</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">many suggest only mastering a few lessons per week</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After trying it for some time</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">there's a significant improvement in my biology and chemistry</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Especially chemistry!</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m finally able to finish plenty of questions</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Regarding maths….</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My skills didn’t improve much</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tryout questions are much much harder than the practise ones!</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So in the end, I kind of ditched it ahaha</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Oh and about physics</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I didn’t manage my time that well,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">so the existence of a subject called physics was ignored</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Oh but hang on, Donna, you haven’t told us your major</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ahh… you’ll find that out later</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Perhaps you could try to guess it first :)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Towards the day of the examinations</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I only studied during my tutoring hours</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For the rest of the day</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I just memorized some facts and equations from my notebook</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">By the time my exams came around</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I wasn’t ready</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But I don’t think I’ll ever be</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m not that bad though</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I mean, even though I’m not ready for the exam,</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">at least I made sure I registered correctly for it.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are several ways to enroll in local universities</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I decided to go through the nation-wide matriculation exam</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The exams are held from the middle of April to early May</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">in universities and schools all over Indonesia</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The test is an online one, so it’s done in computer labs</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">First, I registered for the exams</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I must put in the location where I want to have my exam</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I chose UNJ, as it’s the closest</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After the registrations, they will assign a date and our exam venue</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I didn’t get my preferred choice, </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But I got a public high school near the university</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A few days before the exam, I went to check out the area</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The school was tucked between </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">warungs </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">in a narrow street</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">so one must park further away and walk to the area</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then finally came the day of the examinations</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My carefree personality that I had attained until H-1 </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Slowly turned into a nervous one as I got closer to the examination room</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Well children, that’s what will happen if you’re not ready</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But I did expect everything to go smoothly</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To sit nicely in the waiting room and let my mind relax</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The universe didn’t seem to be on my side though</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There was a notice in the school</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It says that all students must be tested for Covid prior to entering</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For those who haven’t had their test, there’s a free one in UNJ</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Well, it wasn’t there last time!</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Or I didn’t see it</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s a good thing my father drove me to the exam venue</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">so off we went to UNJ</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">with very little time left</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My mom was irritated</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There’s only 30 minutes left towards the exam!</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and a test will take at least 10 minutes</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There’s also the time needed to get to UNJ</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My parents were racing against time</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">as we rushed past cars and motorbikes</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With the help of online maps,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">we managed to find it quickly</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Too bad, we couldn’t find the entrance!</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So down I got out of the car with my mom. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We walked around the university’s fence </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">asking for the entrance.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Several people pointed out the way</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But we still couldn’t find it!</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then we saw an opening among the fences</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s actually an entrance for motorbikes, but we entered anyway</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A security guard asked us about our business</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We’re going to the Covid tests for the matriculation exams! </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s only 15 minutes away!</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Oh of course</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Please turn to the left, then right, then etc etc</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thank you, sir!</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After quite a long walk,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">more of a half-run actually,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I noticed</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">that I wasn’t nervous anymore!</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Instead, it was replaced with a rush of adrenaline</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A feeling of winning a race</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yes, that’s what I felt</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My mother, on the other hand,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">was panicking and started to get irritated with all these hassle</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Well, that’s understandable</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She hasn’t run these past 10 years and she’s over 50 :)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When we </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">finally </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">reached the test area, </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I completed all my registrations</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">finally </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">found myself in the test area</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The test is an antigen test</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In my humble opinion, I think that</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">it’s a horrid test</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was super painful!</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I hope I never need an antigen test again in my life!</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was then asked to wait for around 10 minutes to get the result</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I thought about how I’m pretty doomed for the exams</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ll never make it in time</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But luck’s on my side!</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The antigen test results came out in 5 minutes</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I went to take the results, the person asked:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“May I see your ID card?”</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ahaha….haha....</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s downstairs, I said</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Let me fetch it!”</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Okay”, she said</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In reality, my card was tucked away in my backpack, in my dad’s car</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I called my dad to come over</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In a few minutes, the car swung around the corner,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and my dad appeared with the backpack!</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hurrah for daddy!</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He got out of the car and ran with my bag</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Oops</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My bag was unzipped and all the contents fell out :)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Books, documents, sanitizers, all were on the floor</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No worries, we tidied it up immediately</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s a good thing my ID card was still there</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I dashed into the test room and showed my ID card</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then yes! I got my results</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My dad zoomed the car into the school</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At long last, I found myself in the waiting room</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I somehow managed to arrive with plenty of time left</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Just because of the locals' general habit of being late</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I spent the remaining time reading good luck messages from my friends</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As this exam took place in the middle of a pandemic,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">every student was asked to put on plastic gloves</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Which was extremely annoying</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">They’re slippery! </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How am I supposed to write all my workings for math, chems, and physics?</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But a rule is a rule </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not negotiable</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Finally, we’re called into the exam room,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And I finally saw the exams that I’ve been studying for these past months</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This online exam would be held for 3 hours and 15 minutes, </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">with no breaks in between</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nervous? No</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Intimidated? Yes</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">First of all, in my opinion</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the positioning of the computer was uncomfortable</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The monitor was too close to my eyes</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Second of all, this seemingly harmless online exam</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">shall determine my future</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Well, then maybe not so harmless after all</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The exam has two parts, which are called TPS and TKA</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">TPS tests our cognitive abilities, while TKA tests our academic skills</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For TKA, those who chose Social Studies would be tested on</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Geography, History, Sociology, and Economics</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For those who chose Science (like me) would be tested on</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Refer back to the top if you do not remember</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The order of the exam subjects are as below:</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">TPS, Maths, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For each subject, students only have to answer 15 questions!</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sounds simple right?</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Eh, not so fast</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When you click “Start”, a timer will start</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We got only around 1½ minutes for each question</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When time's up, the questions will immediately disappear</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Next subject!</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and the cycle continues</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When the supervisors said “You may start”</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The race is on!</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was focused! </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I started tackling the first question that popped into the monitor</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The well-oiled gears in my brain turned with great speed!</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As if a greatly powered motor is moving them </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I read the questions with careful eyes,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and thought over all the options </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">as quick as I could!</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then my hands started to get sweaty inside the plastic gloves</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Slowly but surely,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I took off the right hand gloves.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Phew, it’s free!</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No one noticed yet, so it’s safe.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I glanced around,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I saw that many did the same thing</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and no one was caught!</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A few hours later….</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There was a voice behind me</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Please put on your gloves”</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Okay”</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Long story short, it didn’t work </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So it’s off again! :)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What a nuisance!</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Aside from that small bump,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m happy to report that everything went smoothly</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Even though I had to guess a lot of the answers</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I guessed luck comes into play too</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Time went on so quickly </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">By the time the last timer went off</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Donna is free!!</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not so fast though</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We had to wait for our supervisor’s signal to leave</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Examinees had to go out in groups of five to avoid a crowd</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I happened to be near the supervisor</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So I was picked to go first with 4 others</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yayy!!</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Donna is </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">finally </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">free….!!!!</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I felt like I’m at the top of the world!</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I rambled all night long to my friends about the exam</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I fully rested the next day, just enjoying life to the fullest</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">However, this isn't the end of my studies </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As all roads lead to Rome<br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The one above is called UTBK</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another one is university’s individual exams</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Many students register for this
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">just in case they aren’t accepted through UTBK
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">As they can be expensive
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">I only enrolled in the ones I'm interested in: UI and UGM
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Studying for individual exams are also included in my tutoring’s special programme It wasn’t as brutal as the preparations for UTBK,
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">but it was still quite difficult </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The UTBK results would be posted on June 14th at 15:00
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">On that day, time passed excruciatingly slow
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">While our heart pounded abnormally fast
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Turning to friends for support and comfort
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">did not yield good results
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">The level of tension hit the roof instead
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ahhh I’m so scared!”
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Me too!”
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I tried to sleep to make the hours go faster, but it didn’t work.”
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">We excelled at being cheerleaders
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">We’re pros at encouraging each others’ fears
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hahaha</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m terrified</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I started thinking of my backup plan, just in case I’m not accepted through SBMPTN</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My tutoring company has a program for those who want to repeat the SBMPTN</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Should I join that? Or should I just study on my own? </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I already have the notes and worksheets, anyway</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Or should I just start working on other things? Like individual projects?</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Open a small business? Work part-time? </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">University isn’t always the way to success right?</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and so on, and on and on and on until…...</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It's </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">finally </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">15:00</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was too nervous in checking out my scores</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are several ways we can check our results</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">First, through the official UTBK site</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are also mirror webs</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m shaking</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I decided to use the mirror web,
as I’m sure the official one is super crowded</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was so nervous
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">I accidently inserted the wrong data in confirming my identity
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">And even the mirror web crashed :)
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">After waiting for a few minutes..
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">In agony…
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">The web is finally okay!
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">And I finally inserted the correct data!
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Drum rolls please….</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 339px; overflow: hidden; width: 602px;"><img height="360" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/ZPZv_P2eYqrcCIprVlc_HZCXp3P6HyqkGCdJKkvy8SIyAQRTbtM6ogcgyn-1nXx1DIS0cg-GPkxSB-k4QBlXf9Ho418t2rVQg-4LtHz4VP58uH3FvHzC2is11ovujKRFNFF1diot=w640-h360" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="640" /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Yayyyyy!!!</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I felt so proud</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Of my hard work (aka overcoming procrastination and laziness)</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And because my father graduated from that university too :)</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m glad I didn’t disappoint</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All thoughts of gap years and other stuff disappeared as I </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">leapt from my chair </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">swung from a swing </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">then hurt my legs :) </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was a really exciting day.... </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ah I can even still feel the excitement while writing this! </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sincere thank yous were sent immediately to all my teachers for all their help</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I also celebrated with others who got accepted </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">However, it was also a sorrowful day </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are friends who aren't accepted</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I felt guilty when I asked them about their results....
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">to the point that I stopped asking
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">UI's individual matriculation exam
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">is held a few days after UTBK announcements
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was pretty lazy about it
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">because I've already been accepted into UGM
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">My mom encouraged me though
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">because they have already paid for it
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Like an annoying teenager,
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">I moped around and complained everyday about it
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Long story short, I didn't get in
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Oh well, that’s a bummer
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">I still thank my mom though
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">for pushing me to do it
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Coz hey, at least I didn't waste my chance</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now we have come to the end of my "journey" to UGM </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Phew! I'm glad that everything is over now </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">People have said that studying for UTBK
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">is difficult and challenging
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">I agree with this
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">However, challenging is a subjective term
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">For me, it isn't really about the subjects
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yes the subjects can be difficult,
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">but they’re not impossible
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not if I work on them </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My real enemy here is just my inner voice</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">that stems from my desire to enjoy life</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Being lazy is nice</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Just relax</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Well, now that the Queen of Procrastination</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is finally accepted into a prestigious university</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She’s actively working hard to escape the pandora box </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As luck cannot always be by her side</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Luck has to accompany many others too!</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">P.s I’m writing this when I already have classes from UGM. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Good to say, I’m much much better at handling procrastination now :)</span></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>Maria Donna Mirandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15854781710677330655noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3055909829127834039.post-58345241541198133212021-06-22T12:45:00.004+07:002021-06-22T12:51:07.475+07:00Nyamuk Dimakan Pisang<p>Hii! It has been a long time since I updated my life on this blog, hasn't it? Well, if you bother to count my age (which I have stated a few times in previous years), I'm currently at the age when teens prepare and take their university entrance exams, which is called SBMPTN in Indonesia. Thus, I didn't really have a lot of activities other than studying and watching <i>lots </i>of videos for my study breaks. I took the test in April and the SBMPTN results were released last week! I'm extremely <i>glad</i> to say that I got accepted into one of my dream universities but.... I won't give you any details as that's a story for another day :) This week, I only want to share a GIF I made for fun when I was tired with all the SBMPTN preparations.</p><p>If you dear readers didn't know, I have a special needs older sister. She likes to talk about her favourite songs and words that she heard over the years, but due to her disability, some words get jumbled up. In the last few weeks, my sister kept on saying "nyamuk dimakan pisang", which confused us immensely. If we translate the phrase to English, it means that a mosquito (nyamuk) is eaten by (dimakan) a banana (pisang). Now we all know that bananas are producers in the food chain, so where could she have heard this illogical yet funny phrase? After some thinking, my family figured out that she actually wanted to say "nyamuk dimakan cicak", which means that a mosquito is eaten by a gecko (cicak). However, I think she misheard the words "cicak" and "pisang" as they sound similar. This phrase still sticks to my mind to this day and this results in: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKks25Z-LdzbrCvJv0d_8LaFRckDzGSjyz15PoXD5LallSxMBzQJvFf0ZcAm_85b0C-QntNO1uCkjf2MLM4cOvxoUUQGgHKkDU1e8FVu6-2MMps2y_b2V5lBRaepjOoa9qrlWgFrDoqhs/s480/Nyamuk+dimakan+pisang+gif.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKks25Z-LdzbrCvJv0d_8LaFRckDzGSjyz15PoXD5LallSxMBzQJvFf0ZcAm_85b0C-QntNO1uCkjf2MLM4cOvxoUUQGgHKkDU1e8FVu6-2MMps2y_b2V5lBRaepjOoa9qrlWgFrDoqhs/s320/Nyamuk+dimakan+pisang+gif.gif" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In an alternate reality: Mr. Banana here is a type of carnivorous fruit which acts very much like a carnivorous plant. Unlike the plants, Mr. Banana only eats mosquitos and doesn't produce scents to attract them. Instead, he just sits and waits with his mouth open with the hopes that a stray mosquito will land on his mouth. Once a mosquito is at his vermilion border, he will snap his mouth shut and gobble it up! His love for mosquito and lack of scent makes him the perfect choice as a home decoration and mosquitocide! (Is there even a word like that)?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I'm really sorry for jumping around from one topic to another in this post as this is just a really quick and fun post. Next week, I will talk about my SBMPTN preparations and results which will be a much more <i>serious </i>post. </div><br /><p><br /></p>Maria Donna Mirandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15854781710677330655noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3055909829127834039.post-90306934169943827592021-05-16T18:28:00.005+07:002021-05-16T18:30:23.279+07:00The Three Old Ladies<div style="text-align: center;">As I was walking down the street </div><div><div style="text-align: center;">With a morsel of meat </div><div style="text-align: center;">I bowed down to greet </div><div style="text-align: center;">Three old ladies </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Three old ladies </div><div style="text-align: center;">Walking down the the street </div><div style="text-align: center;">Together side by side </div><div style="text-align: center;">Carrying a morsel of meat, too! </div><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;">One’s Madam Hess </div><div style="text-align: center;">A lover of chess </div><div style="text-align: center;">The other’s Madam Bess </div><div style="text-align: center;">Who used to play brass </div><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;">Last but not least </div><div style="text-align: center;">Prepare yer curtsy, ladies </div><div style="text-align: center;">The only living descendant…. </div><div style="text-align: center;">Prepare yer bows, gentlemen </div><div style="text-align: center;">Of the House of Yeast! </div><div style="text-align: center;">She’s the only person who can claim </div><div style="text-align: center;">The House of Yeast’s </div><div style="text-align: center;">White and blue crest </div><div style="text-align: center;">Lady Le’Jess! </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">And so here ends </div><div style="text-align: center;">My introduction of our new friends </div><div style="text-align: center;">The three old ladies </div><div style="text-align: center;">That we met down the street </div><div style="text-align: center;">With a morsel of meat </div><div style="text-align: center;">Madam Hess, Madam Bess, and Lady Le’Jess! </div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhju6u3KJ6mFIq-jhd4aJ0cIC9ITENJL7i2dIhestNU_sgxJquigZmtyV16ZTZVzanfVu11c-1GQNd6kdlEw1FbV97uacPFVj-YsbtKiDlGN63Ao8NHT-_tcuuduylceg_dE5rINYsLeoI/s2048/3+wmn.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1410" data-original-width="2048" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhju6u3KJ6mFIq-jhd4aJ0cIC9ITENJL7i2dIhestNU_sgxJquigZmtyV16ZTZVzanfVu11c-1GQNd6kdlEw1FbV97uacPFVj-YsbtKiDlGN63Ao8NHT-_tcuuduylceg_dE5rINYsLeoI/w400-h276/3+wmn.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Maria Donna Mirandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15854781710677330655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3055909829127834039.post-14920778510832151092021-05-12T20:52:00.002+07:002021-05-12T20:52:35.265+07:00Global Warming, Influencers, and Social Scientists.<p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Global warming. A topic heard almost everyday and found everywhere. It is the gradual but quick heat up of Earth because of the greenhouse gases that we produce. This is a problem that has been going on for years but was just brought to public awareness in the late 90s. The problem snowballed in the last 10 years and scientists have been warning the world that immediate actions must be taken to tackle it. However, we don’t see much progress. More innovative ways are needed to influence individuals to be more active to reduce their carbon emissions as the call to slow down climate change is so far ineffective in Indonesia.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-a1acda30-7fff-d47a-3c68-e09add807099"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Environmental activists and scientists have stepped up their efforts to bring awareness to the public about the peril of climate change. However, sadly, their efforts are futile. One of the reasons for that is because it’s very difficult to change people’s habits and lifestyles. Modern lifestyles are full of convenience and comfort, mostly due to the advancement of science and technology. Electronic appliances have made our lives so much easier. We use washing machines to wash our dirty clothes, refrigerators to keep our food fresh, and AC to keep ourselves cool during hot summer. These are essentials that we can’t live without, but they are also one of the major contributors to greenhouse gases. Knowing this, we should attempt to do something about it. It may be daunting to change lifestyles, but everyone can start small. We can start by reducing the amount of electricity we use. Only using electricity when necessary, such as turning on ACs after a certain temperature and humidity and purchasing energy-saving electronics are a few ways to save energy. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A change of lifestyle is a difficult one to make, especially when it’s about the usage of electronics and vehicles. To help encourage the change into a greener lifestyle, I think the government and scientists can work together with influencers and social scientists, like psychologists and sociologists, to influence the public. They can create a movement or trend that subconsciously influences people’s lifestyles into a greener one. Social scientists will then analyze the results of their experiment to create better methods in influencing people. An example would be an experiment that was conducted in an apartment complex. Three different stickers are prepared and each symbolises the amount of energy used by the residents. These stickers are put on each resident’s door to represent the amount of energy used by each housing. A red sticker for residents with the most energy usage, a green one for those improving, and a golden star for those who used the least amount of energy. This type of social competition evokes every person’s competitive side and each tries their best to reduce the amount of energy used. Perhaps through this experiment, social scientists could analyze how our competitive nature increases our efforts to create better results. This experiment might be more popular if influencers take part in these competitions and broadcast how each and every of them are trying to live an eco-friendly lifestyle.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To encourage this eco-friendly lifestyle movement, governments could also pay influencers to create the image that the eco-friendly life is the new elite. Eco-friendly products are usually more expensive than others, so this fits the image of a high-class person. Governments could buy and distribute to the influencers the eco-friendly products from the many eco-friendly entrepreneurs in Jakarta. Or perhaps they could give an eco-friendly house to the influencers to live in. An example of an eco-friendly lifestyle is the VSCO girls/boys. VSCO defines the lifestyle of a middle class teenager. They are well known to promote the use of metal straws and bring their own hydro flasks, with “Save the sea turtles” as one of their slogans. In a kind of way, this brought the public’s attention on how plastic garbage is harming turtles. If VSCO teens are a thing in Jakarta, then perhaps the government could fund the influencers’ VSCO life with all their eco-friendly products and lifestyle. As the public, especially the young generation, tends to follow and idolize influencers, they might follow whatever the influencers do. Sociologists can then be brought in to analyze the public’s response to this new trend and give new ideas for the influencers and governments to try out.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">However, as much as influencers and social scientists can affect people to change their lifestyle, many might not be able to follow them due to the lack of infrastructure in Jakarta. Infrastructures are one of the main pillars of a person’s lifestyle. There is a lack of eco-friendly infrastructure to support an eco-friendly lifestyle. One thing that almost everyone in Jakarta owns, from the poor to the elite, is a type of private vehicle. Almost everyone uses private vehicles to the point that it has become Jakarta’s lifestyle. Affordable vehicles and lack of access to comfortable and safe public transportation results in a lot of people owning private vehicles. In addition to that, many of Jakarta’s roads are not improved or built, with many roads already outstripping the space capacity for all of Jakarta’s vehicles. This causes traffic jams to be frequently found in Jakarta’s roads. Large amounts of diesel is wasted and carbon dioxide produced more than necessary due to these traffic jams. As roads could take a long time to build, some people might think of switching to electric vehicles. However, they might have second thoughts due to the lack of electric stations to recharge their vehicles. Even if there are electric stations, most of Jakarta’s electricity is powered by fossil fuels. While the list of problems goes on, these are just some of the problems Jakarta experiences with their infrastructure. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Even though Jakarta’s progress in infrastructure is slowly improving, Jakarta needs drastic changes if it wants to speed up their reduction of greenhouse gases. I think that the government should first and foremost replace diesel powered plants to nature-powered ones. We are a tropical country with lots of water and sunlight, so surely we are able to maximize our usage of them. In this way, the use of household appliances won’t contribute any greenhouse gases. Secondly, governments should replace gas stations with electric charging ones. Before the replacement, the government could ask all private transportation owners to switch to electric ones before a certain date. They could offer incentives and affordable prices to encourage the public with this change. Influencers may also play a big role in this by promoting their electric vehicles. Perhaps with this collaboration, we can create massive transformations in our use of private vehicles. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Teamwork makes the dream works, and if governments, influencers, and social scientists work together, they can create a huge movement in the rapidly changing Jakarta. Every person in Jakarta is aware of global warming, but we need an extra push from governments and the media to create massive change. People are encouraged to change their lifestyles, but as changing habits isn't easy, influencers can influence the public to change while social experiments can be held to analyze factors that cause people to improve themselves. Infrastructures also need a massive and quick upgrade by the government to support the change of lifestyle. To create change amongst a large number of people, not only do we need scientists now, we will need the help of sociologists and others that specialize in human behavior. </span></p><br /><br /></span>Maria Donna Mirandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15854781710677330655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3055909829127834039.post-59270522750596649682021-03-06T12:30:00.012+07:002021-03-06T12:30:01.955+07:00A Picture to Describe 2020I chose this image as the image that represents 2020 the most for me. It is the logo of a video-telephone software programme called Zoom. 2020 was the year that the Covid-19 virus took over the whole world, killing more than 2 million people and infecting much more in a short amount of time. As a vaccine for the virus hasn't been made, lockdowns are imposed nearly everywhere to avoid more people getting infected. Zoom has suddenly become very crucial in everybody’s life. Teachers use them to teach students; businessmen use them for meetings; and housewives use them for cooking lessons. I'm sure that if you ask any random person if they knew this program, I'm 99% sure they'll say yes. <div><br /></div><div>If historians or archaeologists 100 or 1000 years from now study the visual culture of 2020 and 2021, I think that they'll mark 2020 as the year when everything went online.
</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmgVy4GNUuShOF0cdr15KocF2yIZy9xiz5U9o5M_FixsYsiyXpFAcj-B7OzuUxb5siFztNRoVAE5HalnhRb6HuxrbY3GZuNEkqWDbvCXOUM1ICvScJzuOhw5DguGMsWP2NO1pHfo3m2ho/s1280/Zoom+logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmgVy4GNUuShOF0cdr15KocF2yIZy9xiz5U9o5M_FixsYsiyXpFAcj-B7OzuUxb5siFztNRoVAE5HalnhRb6HuxrbY3GZuNEkqWDbvCXOUM1ICvScJzuOhw5DguGMsWP2NO1pHfo3m2ho/s320/Zoom+logo.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWvSJqB3Q3Y</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Maria Donna Mirandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15854781710677330655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3055909829127834039.post-78338091430144915822021-02-06T20:15:00.010+07:002021-02-06T20:31:39.372+07:00Sesame Street's Newest Muppets for Rohingya ChildrenThe Rohingya is a stateless ethnic group from Myanmar. They are persecuted by the Myanmar Government as the government considers them to be illegal foreigners from Bangladesh. However, Rohingya claimed to be descendants of Arab traders who had settled in Rakhine in around 7th century. The conflict grew worse in 2019 and around 750 000 Rohingya fled from Myanmar to other ASEAN countries such as Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Indonesia; more than half are children. These children suffered emotional trauma and led a very impoverished life in the refugee camp. Sesame Street attempts to help these children with some new initiatives, but more assistance from international organization will be needed to ensure that these children will have a future. <div><br /></div><div>Working together with several other charity foundations, Sesame Street, an educational TV series from the US, created a special TV program with two new Rohingya muppets, Noor and Aziz, for the Rohingya children. Noor and Aziz are twins and share many similarities with the Rohingya children, allowing the children to identify themselves with and thus learning from the muppets. They have similar features, speak Rohingya’s native language and share similar backgrounds with them. For example, Aziz is steeped in the Rohingya tradition of storytelling and Noor is afraid of loud noises as they reminded her of gunfire, much like many Rohingya children. The cartoon shows how Noor and Aziz handled their trauma and deal with their emotions, thus allowing the Rohingya children to apply those solutions in their own life too. Sesame Street hopes that this would provide psychological and emotional support for them. </div><div><br /></div><div>Another idea featured in the show is gender equality. Aziz helps with household chores and Noor loves to study. This might be unusual in a Rohingya household as girls usually do the house chores, received very little education, and are married off at quite a young age. With Noor as an example, Rohingya girls emulate her and see that there's nothing wrong in getting an education and having high dreams. Sesame Street hopes to show Rohingya children that both genders are equal in every aspect of life and deserves to be regarded as such.<div><br /><div>However, these empowerment and modernization of children, could put the children, especially girls, at risk. Some of the ideas taught by Sesame Street, like gender equality, might go against the norms of a traditional Rohingya community. This might cause conflicts and estrangement from their family and community. There have been cases of violence towards young adults for breaking a traditional norm. If the Rohingya finds Sesame Street as a threat to their customs, the programme might be banned among them. The younger generation won't learn the same ideas the older generation did. In this way, many wouldn't be able to improve themselves in certain aspects due to the limitations put on them by the customs of the community. </div><div><br /></div><div>Not only do children need to be taught to be open minded, I think adults in the community need to be educated to be open minded too.
I think that this is where social welfare organizations can step in. NGOs like Gugah Nurani Indonesia and SHINE provide seminars and workshops for parents. These organizations usually teach both children and adults new skills and ideas of the 21st century. My mom and her team are invited by Gugah Nurani Indonesia to teach teachers on how to teach story writing and illustration to children and the importance of creativity to both Indonesian children and parents. She will also help out in their parent seminar on using technology in a productive way. I used to participate in SHINE and the organization has taught new skills such as making organic soaps to both parents and children. Through these kinds of social welfare organizations parents in poverty can broaden their minds and improve their living standards. </div><div><br /></div><div>In my opinion, Sesame Street's Rohingya programme is very beneficial to the Rohingya children. They provide not only entertainment and fun, but also attempts to educate and empower them. However, it can also be a double-edged sword as the modernization could bring more harm than good. If all these charity foundations work together, these displaced children will be able to have a better quality of life and brighter future.</div></div></div>Maria Donna Mirandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15854781710677330655noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3055909829127834039.post-24844514482579823692021-01-17T18:14:00.003+07:002021-01-17T19:00:25.821+07:00The Covid-19 Vaccine<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">As we come
to the end of 2020, people are seeing hope for the end of the pandemic as various
Covid19 vaccines are in their final clinical testing stage. The Pfizer vaccine
is one of them and it has now been approved for emergency usage in several
countries such as the United Kingdom and Canada. Despite announced to having a
90% efficacy, it still receives mixed opinions from the public. With the launch
of several Covid-19 vaccines around the world, we will now need to weigh the
pros and cons of taking the vaccine to make a crucial decision that will affect
not only our individual lives but the global community.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Vaccines are
crucial to combat Covid-19 and enable us all to return to a semblance of normal
life before the pandemic. Vaccines will help us achieve herd immunity. Herd
immunity will only happen when a half or a third of a population has the
immunity to defend themselves from the virus. It’s estimated that an infected
person can spread the virus to at least two or three people. If a lot of people
are already immune to the virus, then the spread of the virus will be
contained. Thus, this is where the role of vaccine becomes very important.
Vaccine can provide Covid-19 immunity in a safer way. When 75% of the community
has been vaccinated, the risk of a person getting the virus will be lower. Therefore,
we will all be able to go outside again, back to our daily activities.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Even though
we all know the benefit of being vaccinated, the short time it took to test the
vaccine is one of the main reasons people are hesitant to take the vaccine. Countries
are rushing to be one of the first to have a viable vaccine. US Government even
set up a program called the Operation Warp Speed. It offered large amounts of
money to companies that can produce a vaccine by a certain deadline. People
worry that the drug companies might be pressured to deliver the vaccines
according to the demand of the operation, affecting how they conduct the
clinical trials. Normally, before a vaccine can be distributed to the public,
it is required to go through multiple tests and trials. These can take many years
to ensure the vaccine's safety. When the trials are rushed, there are great
possibilities that there might be mistakes or inaccuracies.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Vaccine
development usually ranges from 4 to 10 years. So when drug companies announced
successful Covid-19 vaccine in less than a year, I was really sceptical. There
must have been some mistakes. After further research, I discovered that one of
the reasons researchers were able to speed up the vaccine development was due
to past researches of SARS and MERS. Both viruses are a type of coronavirus. In
addition to that, the massive amount of funding made it possible for drug
companies to run parallel tests. These 2 combined are the ultimate formula in
the race to fight Covid-19.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a name="_GoBack"></a><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">As countries around the world are rolling out the vaccines, all
eyes are watching closely for the effect and result of the vaccination. I am
fairly certain that drug companies would not be so careless and risk their
reputation in creating vaccines that are not safe for the public. Therefore, I
think that when the vaccine is available for me, I will choose to be
vaccinated. At least I would have done my duty as a responsible citizen and contributed
to returning the world back on track. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>Maria Donna Mirandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15854781710677330655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3055909829127834039.post-75218685385755574752020-12-18T12:00:00.007+07:002020-12-18T14:02:12.758+07:00The Mau Mau Uprising<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">On June 11
1920, Kenya was colonized by the British for their fertile land. They became
part of British Africa with little to no advantages on their sides and
experienced an unjust period for around 42 years. Their lands robbed, taxed
heavily, and the people forced into labor work. Needless to say, it created
resentment between the British and Kenyans. Many revolted, with the most
significant one the Mau Mau Uprising. While they are regarded as terrorists, it
was this uprising that ultimately led to the independence of Kenya.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The Mau Mau first
started as a nationalist group dominated by Kikuyu people. The Kikuyu is the
largest ethnic tribe in the colony and they suffered the most in the hands of
the British. They pressed the British for their lands back, but with little to
no results. As time progressed, radical members of the Mau Mau created a
splinter militant group which used violence to drive away British authority. To
be a part of that group, the native African had to take an oath. It was
believed that if one break that oath, the repercussion would be death. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">As the
British didn't want the world to know that they were the reason for the war,
they portrayed the Mau Mau as the culprits. In British news and media, they
represented the Mau Mau as a barbaric and cult-like group who made it their job
to raid both English settlers and local people alike. Meanwhile, they portrayed
themselves as "saviors" and claimed to help the locals against the
Mau Mau with weapons and soldiers. They labelled the locals that worked with
them as loyalists, so it sounded like the war is between the Mau Mau and
loyalists. They showed the British's compassion towards the locals in the
broadcasts, such as British troops honoring a fallen local tribe leader, and predicting
the Mau Mau's positions with Kenyan locals. In these broadcasts, there were no
words about the British coming to Kenya to claim the lands. Now that we're able
to gain more information about what really happened, we can see who the real
culprit is. It was the British who was the real perpetrator of violence in
Kenya. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">It was true
that Mau Mau killed thousands of their own tribe, those who are loyal to the
British. However, the British also caused a great deal of deaths that they
didn’t report. Many Kikuyu men were rounded up and sent to concentration camps
with little food and poor sanitation and some were killed without trials, just
because they were suspected to be part of the Mau Mau group. I think it’s a
pity that so many lives were lost in the Mau Mau uprising, but at least the
movement freed the Kenyans from the rule of the British.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Thus, I
consider the Mau Mau as heroes of their country. Their determination for
independence brought more troubles to the British than its worth. Even when the
British had caught the Mau Mau's leader, Dedan Kimathi, the Mau Mau did not
dwindle and continued to fight. While the British came for fertile land to
plant crops, all they'd done is waste money on these wars. This results in the
British granting them independence 3 years later. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">If I were a
Kikuyu, I would feel upset to be framed as a villain. I fought for my
independence, then why would I be the "bad guy"? However, it is also
difficult to judge an organization in times of war, as information may be hard
to achieve. If the whole world listened to the British news during the time of
war, I think many people would <a name="_GoBack">believe that the Mau Mau are
terrorists. I am pleased that more information about </a>the Mau Mau were
discovered after the war and we can see their point of views about the event. It’s
interesting to see that historical perspectives about a historical event could
change greatly in years after. It’s always crucial to keep this in mind and be
critical for new evidence and facts. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWc4A7t85s5SQWQcQHmJ22bPiuigXIWTK_zq5t2TqG7pDCVVwytfj7-7ZTwOzdoiKqPM2wAJwHOdzz7nsH_ZkGxi9JsOkjeFfWIU9HFgFlz0kklwQqNxoUQLvdc-fruV-YPU_7oZ6Lyko/s300/Mau+Mau+uprising+pic.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="231" data-original-width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWc4A7t85s5SQWQcQHmJ22bPiuigXIWTK_zq5t2TqG7pDCVVwytfj7-7ZTwOzdoiKqPM2wAJwHOdzz7nsH_ZkGxi9JsOkjeFfWIU9HFgFlz0kklwQqNxoUQLvdc-fruV-YPU_7oZ6Lyko/s0/Mau+Mau+uprising+pic.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mau_Mau_Uprising</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span><p></p>Maria Donna Mirandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15854781710677330655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3055909829127834039.post-10690237045270965122020-12-01T14:21:00.006+07:002020-12-04T09:15:09.132+07:00Friends In My Drinking BottleDoing chores is a bore for most people, including me! As they're no fun, I always try to find a way to reduce them. One of the things I did to avoid washing my large water bottle was by using it for 2 whole weeks. Can you imagine all the germs and organisms collected there? Ewww. Speaking of gross, I decided to check the water with a USB digital microscope in the hopes of seeing the little friends I had cultured over the past 2 weeks. I predicted that I will find many microorganisms and immediately wash my water bottle after the observation. Please do keep in mind that this was just a fun observation so there aren't things like hypothesis and variables. That being said, come and have a look at them:<div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzloST9WZCB-YtZLadNpaUIzjsGF86OYZb5joTIcHXb6fr9xoWxxhyfMmT_4ODxBYuawSvc3jhJYPciybb2nQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Please pardon my Dad's voice :D</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: left;">The first thing I did was setting up the microscope. The one I own uses the computer screen to see the results, as it doesn't have an ocular lens. Next I used an acrylic tent card holder as a glass slide with a pencil case underneath to make it horizontal. This was a bit difficult as I tend to nudge the pencil case around with my elbow, making the card stand diagonal again. Last of all I put a white sheet of paper under it to get clear results. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I observed that there were microorganisms and cat fur in my water! The latter was unexpected, because I never saw or felt a thing when drinking it. I also observed that the microorganisms moved away from the light of the microscope, seeking a darker area. However, the microscope is only able to magnify until 500x (half of the common optical common microscope) so I can't identify their species. If anyone has any idea what they are, please do tell me! As for the cat fur, it must be the effect of me kissing my cat too much, but it won't stop me from continuing to do so! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7ksG5lMEZKCaDzArzE7-2enTv20iihdI3LhoyomPv4XthN5MVCDQ_dDroMgX1Lbo0PiAonPODDqsfwCaHLsyoyzbnp5oz_cQMhzUiFSvFkbQRJHhXh7mdck0Io0KVLKVEon31pKhmIww/s2048/IMG_9533.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7ksG5lMEZKCaDzArzE7-2enTv20iihdI3LhoyomPv4XthN5MVCDQ_dDroMgX1Lbo0PiAonPODDqsfwCaHLsyoyzbnp5oz_cQMhzUiFSvFkbQRJHhXh7mdck0Io0KVLKVEon31pKhmIww/s320/IMG_9533.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div>Located on the side of the microscope is a button to take pictures of the things we see under the microscope, but I couldn't snap a photo with it. Pressing the button will make the microscope shake, which will result in a blurry photo. So, I used my cell phone to capture my computer screen for a clearer photo. I know that the photo quality would've been better if I used the microscope camera, so please do pardon the lines you can see in the picture.</div><div><br /></div><div>After I had a laugh at my disgusting behaviour, I immediately brought that water bottle to the kitchen and scrubbed and cleaned it like I've never before! In conclusion, whenever I feel afraid when I'm alone at home, all I have to do is remember that I have little tiny friends to company me! Nah just kidding.</div><div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div><br /></div><div><div><br /></div><div> <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /><div><br /><div><br /></div><div> </div></div></div></div></div>Maria Donna Mirandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15854781710677330655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3055909829127834039.post-20779102868310181412020-11-23T18:17:00.004+07:002020-11-23T18:17:44.981+07:00Was Abraham Lincoln a White Supremacist?<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixQ4pfuGh5mDjFyN51mgFBcadUmOXvfXrZe9i8hyphenhyphenjeJyOV0mvVok0LgpADsjj-iw_CFqv4a5SVkEO0exuHAwkx3IbF-9OGfK6QtgJaXnuZfRoSK7SqcEigHNHuWnCO6AtaUBU_iwVtw6A/s400/Screen+Shot+2020-09-11+at+14.31.49+%25281%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixQ4pfuGh5mDjFyN51mgFBcadUmOXvfXrZe9i8hyphenhyphenjeJyOV0mvVok0LgpADsjj-iw_CFqv4a5SVkEO0exuHAwkx3IbF-9OGfK6QtgJaXnuZfRoSK7SqcEigHNHuWnCO6AtaUBU_iwVtw6A/s320/Screen+Shot+2020-09-11+at+14.31.49+%25281%2529.png" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Abraham
Lincoln is considered one of the greatest presidents of the United States. He
is most well-known for abolishing slavery and is considered a hero who fought
for the freedom of slaves. This resulted in his assassination by a confederate
loyalist. His death was mourned as "the darkest hour in history",
with around 7 million people mourning his funeral train when it made the 13-day
journey to Springfield, Illinois. However, when we look back at his actions
from a modern perspective, he might not seem to be such an advocate of human
rights and equality after all.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">North and South
America were on rough terms with their political differences, especially about
slavery. While the Unions (North) disagreed with slavery, it was the main asset
and source of income for the Confederates (South). When Lincoln took office in
1861, he had the ultimate goal of uniting the North and the South. In his
famous speech, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” It was his
opinion that the country must choose to either support or abolish slavery.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In the early
period of the civil war, I think Lincoln took a more passive aggressive stance
towards the issue of slavery. While Lincoln disagreed with slavery, he wasn't
sure about what to do with the slaves if they were emancipated. He thought
about just sending them back to their native country but decided against it
because they might not be able to survive there. However, he was also
conflicted about the slaves’ status and role in society if they were to remain
in the US. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Finally,
Lincoln was forced to make a decision when the war was going badly for the
Union. A sure way for them to win was to destroy the South's main economic
centre, which was slavery. This pushed Lincoln to sign the 13th amendment,
making it illegal to own slave and punishable by law. Most of the freed slaves
joined the Union Army and this helped defeat the Confederate. We can see that
Lincoln’s grand action to abolish slavery was based on a very tactical decision
to win the war. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Some modern
historian considered Lincoln racist and a white supremacist. They based this on
his indecisiveness to immediately abolish slavery and his belief that black
people cannot be equal to white people. In his own words: ”</span> <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What next? Free them, and make them
politically and socially our equals? My own feelings will not admit of this;”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Lincoln's
words are straight down racist and they might sound like something a racist
person like Trump might say. That means he doesn't deserve to be called as one
of the greatest president of America. However, we should also consider the time
period. Human rights for black people have improved so much in the 21st
century, while there were no human rights for them in the time of Lincoln.
Whatever he said, we must acknowledge that black people's rights are started by
Lincoln. In addition to that, we also must acknowledge his change of perception
towards blacks' rights. Lincoln proclaimed that he will improve their lives if
he gets re-elected for the next 4 years. If that really happened, black
people's lives will be one step ahead of today. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The history
of Abraham Lincoln is a good example of the words "history is made by
those who created it." Lincoln is noted only for his great achievements,
which I understand, as it shaped today's world history. I was pretty
disappointed though when I learned that he took his time in abolishing slavery
as he was my inspiration. However, after more research and reading into primary
sources, I think that it’s not fair to label him as a white supremacist because
we are judging his actions from a modern perspective. We must keep in mind that
during that time, the human rights movement was just at its bud. After a couple
of centuries, understandably, the human rights movement has matured
significantly. So our modern understanding of it would be very different from
Lincoln’s time. Now that I know better, he has become much more than just an
inspiration. He is proof that world-changing actions take process. It also shows
that it's never too late to change yourself. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>Maria Donna Mirandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15854781710677330655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3055909829127834039.post-72189144883212564252020-08-07T14:13:00.005+07:002020-08-07T18:10:08.192+07:00Tante Grey's Infographic Course<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Hey guys! I'm extremely sorry for not updating in a really long
time. I have been busy studying in the first half of 2020 and I just finished
Grade 11 a few months ago. With my main focus on academics, I didn’t find any
interesting topics to write for my blog, thus the lack of updates. Now that I
am on a short holiday from academics, I have time to join some interesting
online events.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">One of the online events that I joined was an online infographic design
course brought by Tante Greysia Susilo, a design lecturer at Pradita University.
I don't know whether she has been planning to open this course for some time or
did she open this course because of something that happened in instagram. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">There were mean comments from ignorant people about homeschoolers
in an IG’s post and comment section. There were a lot of different kinds
of negative comments, belittling homeschoolers’ mentality, lifestyle, and
social life. What annoyed me was the fact that they were all untrue and it was
posted publicly on social media. A lot of people could get the wrong image
about us! This made me momentarily thought about arguing with them online with
my homeschooler friends. Luckily, I knocked some common sense into myself just
in time. The decision to argue was a foolish impulse and it would definitely
make things worse. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">However, we felt all pent up. My friends and I, were <b>at loss for what to do</b>. We definitely
couldn't leave this alone. Luckily for us, we got an advice from Tante Grey
that the medicine to ignorance is education. By educating,we not only help them
understand, but also channel our negative energy into something positive! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">One of the ways of educating others is through infographics. Thus,
Tante Grey offered to teach us to make infographics. Our final project
would be making infographics which debunk misconceptions about homeschooler.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The online course took place in zoomland and lasted around 2
months. We met once a week, with a total of 18 homeschool teenage participants.
We were taught the basics of making a clear and interesting infographic: from
collecting ideas to clustering information. After every meeting, the students
were given a task to finish. Those who have finished the task would have their
results discussed in the next meeting. There weren't any strict deadlines, but
we were expected to finish them at a certain time, otherwise we would be left
behind! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">First, Tante Grey taught us
the basics. There were a lot of simple details that could be easily overlooked
when making infographics, such as data placing. We often forget that we should
place our data according to how people usually read, which is from left to
right and up to down. Instead, we tend to put our data in areas where we think
they might look nice. Another thing about infographics is that there shouldn’t
be too many words. It should be quick and easy to read.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Then we were given our first task! Tante Grey started by creating a
mindmap with “Critiques Homeschoolers receive from the public” as the main
theme. The participants were asked to continue it with all the critiques we
know. Next,we were asked to pick a specific critique to focus on and make a
mind map of the solutions. We were advised to pick the critique that we receive
the most, as we would have more to say about it. I picked the topic of socialization.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">It took me half of the day to create the mindmap, as I used google
drawings in google doc. I’m not familiar with it, so it took me a while to get
used to it. In addition to that, I made my mindmap with a lot of pictures.
These are proofs that I socialize with a lot of kids my age. As the pictures
are scattered in many different electronic files, it also took a long time to
find them. I was pretty happy that I advanced to the next step without much
critiques.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></p><p style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Once our mindmaps are done, the next task is to cluster or group
all the data we made in the mindmap. Sometimes the topic is too broad and we
had to narrow it down or choose a specific aspect of it to write about. While
clustering, we also had to design our infographic. These two must be done at
the same time to decide which data are the most important and choose the
appropriate positions to put them on the infographic. I didn’t have any idea of
how I should cluster all my data, so Tante Grey lent me a hand. She first asked
me to divide my data into several categories, such as my academic and
non-academic activities, my variety of activities or the frequency of my
socialization. </span><b style="font-size: 13.5pt;">I originally chose to focus
on analyzing the latter.</b></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">She then gave me examples of how I could divide my frequencies
into more categories, such as once a week, once a month, and once a year. She
also gave me a format of how my categories would look like in the infographic. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Once I have categorized all my data, all I had to do was put them
together. I used Canva, a free programme specifically for graphic design. I experienced
some difficulty while making the infographic. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">First of all, I rarely make infographics and had little experience
in using programmes like Canva. Thus, I had some difficulty getting around.
Next, I couldn’t fit all the pictures using my format. Therefore, I decided to
change the format. I think I did a pretty good job at it, <i>but Tante Grey said that I had to review my data placement again.</i> I
told her my problem with the pictures, which she replied with an infographic of
her own XD. She used the same format with the same amount of pictures, thus
proving that it’s possible. Following the examples of the placement of her picture, I finally managed to finish my
infographic.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Next we had to ask for feedback. We had to show our infographic to
2 kinds of people: those that are familiar with homeschool and those who aren’t. I chose my parents for the first and my ex-school friends for the second. When asking for feedback, I had to
first tell them the message I wanted to send through this infographic. Next, I
had to ask if they received the message. Unfortunately, one of the reviewers
didn’t get it, but instead she thought I was telling about the variety of
activities I did for my socialization.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">When I talked about this with Tante Grey, she agreed with my
reviewer’s point of view that my infographic seemed to lean towards the
variation more. She then showed me an infographic made by one of my coursemates, Vyel. I saw how his infographic
leans more to the frequency of socialization with the bar graph he put in his
infographic. Seeing the difference I decided to just change my title from
“Frequency of socialization” to “Variation of Activities for Socialization” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">When most of us had finished our infographics, they are posted in
the instagram of my teen group @Teenspower.squad. As the infographics are
posted on social media, we hope that more people will be able to understand more
about homeschoolers. I think this infographic is also really useful when facing
ignorant people --- all we have to do is share these infographics as a reply to
their negative comments. As a person who isn't really into graphic design, I
found this course overall interesting. When I first started the course, I
thought that making an infographic is only about gathering information and
designing an aesthetically interesting charts. I never gave thought as what
made them enjoyable to read and look at. Through this course, <b>I learned that there is more than just
pasting information on a template</b>.<a name="_GoBack"></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">These are the end projects of mine and some others!</span></p><p style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin: 0cm;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgigifgc3xkD_1BkXLGyo4YGBrJu-F32_knkEU1HZzSCXdSbTeQ4TDRRUZi5trCmWnwvvpdE3N-bvEw_77iuz3UFSjOp3Z_LL8_0fiZ5niGSCPlHOF7UssnV08scqJCu0PtI7LTrvRMw18/s938/Screenshot+%2528240%2529.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="523" data-original-width="938" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgigifgc3xkD_1BkXLGyo4YGBrJu-F32_knkEU1HZzSCXdSbTeQ4TDRRUZi5trCmWnwvvpdE3N-bvEw_77iuz3UFSjOp3Z_LL8_0fiZ5niGSCPlHOF7UssnV08scqJCu0PtI7LTrvRMw18/s640/Screenshot+%2528240%2529.png" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p style="margin: 0cm;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFTEfEKCuifuMjTBlgpX23gQsdWP06nNj75jyRY5J8N6pa-JZrfu7JzsAY3TTWzGzoOpXSdKyS38pXFvlM02E2-FR40qHX_9f5CMtZD76IxwnS-b2KbVZ750dYVR9XqZ8AwrTDvnr860M/s1890/infografis.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1890" data-original-width="1417" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFTEfEKCuifuMjTBlgpX23gQsdWP06nNj75jyRY5J8N6pa-JZrfu7JzsAY3TTWzGzoOpXSdKyS38pXFvlM02E2-FR40qHX_9f5CMtZD76IxwnS-b2KbVZ750dYVR9XqZ8AwrTDvnr860M/s640/infografis.png" /></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoXDHgNNNuCKC95w0koX5fkQjgN4EVoP5XLOgI4-47uoAQRhjcpqvetjH_oKVqYynlSypkWSV5NxMWeS7YcwS4StoxeuUrLZCdH2TrL710NrDQYcBnLF5jJvRXu_WTFlXRak5XZOLgW4w/s900/statistik.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="900" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoXDHgNNNuCKC95w0koX5fkQjgN4EVoP5XLOgI4-47uoAQRhjcpqvetjH_oKVqYynlSypkWSV5NxMWeS7YcwS4StoxeuUrLZCdH2TrL710NrDQYcBnLF5jJvRXu_WTFlXRak5XZOLgW4w/w400-h267/statistik.png" width="400" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoXDHgNNNuCKC95w0koX5fkQjgN4EVoP5XLOgI4-47uoAQRhjcpqvetjH_oKVqYynlSypkWSV5NxMWeS7YcwS4StoxeuUrLZCdH2TrL710NrDQYcBnLF5jJvRXu_WTFlXRak5XZOLgW4w/s900/statistik.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px;"><span style="color: black;">This infographic is made by Vyel. The statistic he puts in his infographic clearly showed how frequently he makes friends.</span></a></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJwANipcNjFX6eX08gFYkic4cdaHn3eaKuMH60vyi3CHJUUlBFPchsqtddkqojyY-OrlmtsWIjB8CXDKncW6YC_51Xe-XZlPO7xqsHMpfdCOJWhdzaVMkTK7p1Byq8o3rwIGAM_4XWcUg/s2048/infografis+final+design-ver+3.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJwANipcNjFX6eX08gFYkic4cdaHn3eaKuMH60vyi3CHJUUlBFPchsqtddkqojyY-OrlmtsWIjB8CXDKncW6YC_51Xe-XZlPO7xqsHMpfdCOJWhdzaVMkTK7p1Byq8o3rwIGAM_4XWcUg/s640/infografis+final+design-ver+3.jpg" width="640" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJwANipcNjFX6eX08gFYkic4cdaHn3eaKuMH60vyi3CHJUUlBFPchsqtddkqojyY-OrlmtsWIjB8CXDKncW6YC_51Xe-XZlPO7xqsHMpfdCOJWhdzaVMkTK7p1Byq8o3rwIGAM_4XWcUg/s2048/infografis+final+design-ver+3.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px;"><span style="color: black;">An interesting infographic by Yla!</span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWeHzEPIY62sGNLboer-vxriNFQFES_OfpzfTF3YgWvyVn-ttJpA-v6aALhozEOGTc78VMQSs7n0dqhknQ2ML20Rl7rmGqgS-UryyRsAI8kgQ2qj6k4_w5pNNXgr4xi0oZC9MQFd7BuMc/s2048/20200709_193836_0000.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWeHzEPIY62sGNLboer-vxriNFQFES_OfpzfTF3YgWvyVn-ttJpA-v6aALhozEOGTc78VMQSs7n0dqhknQ2ML20Rl7rmGqgS-UryyRsAI8kgQ2qj6k4_w5pNNXgr4xi0oZC9MQFd7BuMc/s640/20200709_193836_0000.png" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWeHzEPIY62sGNLboer-vxriNFQFES_OfpzfTF3YgWvyVn-ttJpA-v6aALhozEOGTc78VMQSs7n0dqhknQ2ML20Rl7rmGqgS-UryyRsAI8kgQ2qj6k4_w5pNNXgr4xi0oZC9MQFd7BuMc/s2048/20200709_193836_0000.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px;"><span style="color: black;">A very informative infographic by Nuala!</span></a></div><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="IN"> </span></p>
Maria Donna Mirandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15854781710677330655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3055909829127834039.post-55927109948008652222020-01-29T20:18:00.002+07:002020-01-29T21:08:06.268+07:00My Pets' NicknamesNenek! Engkong! Mpid! Kucing gendud! You will hear me say those words at least once a day. They are just some of the nicknames I have for my dogs and cat, and the nicknames that I use more often than the rest.
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"Nenek" is the nickname for my oldest dog, Snowy. In Bahasa Indonesia, nenek means granny. She got this nickname for being 13 years old, which is pretty old for a dog's age, and will turn 14 this year. In addition to that, she's the oldest among the dogs. Another version of this nickname is "Nenek Centil". The term "Centil" in Bahasa Indonesia is usually used for a girl who likes to play with boys, like the girl version of a playboy. I like to call her this because she likes to act playful and flirty around male dogs such as licking their faces and showing her butt to them several times.<br />
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"Engkong" is the nickname for my second dog, Chiko. "Engkong" is the Hokkian version for grandpa. This is because he's 8 or 9 years old, which is also considered old for a dog's age. He also has coughs; more frequently than Snowy. This shows that his physical health is worse than Snowy, making him "older" than Snowy.<br />
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Next is Mpid. This is just a shortened version of my youngest dog, Speedy. It started from only Pidy, to Pid, to Mpid. I added the M in the front because it just sounds more comfortable for me. Also, when I feel as if I want to squeeze him because of his cuteness, I like to emphasize and say the M longer.<br />
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Last but not least, is my cat, the "kucing gendud". Those are the Indonesian words for fat cat. When we adopted him, he was really skinny and bony, making him a walking skeleton. But after a few months, he became a really fat cat. He looks a lot like a character in my sister's storybook. They're both fat, orange, and stripy. The cat in my sister's storybook is called "Kucing Gendut".
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Out of all the nicknames I had given them, these are the ones that make the most sense. Not all of them react to these nicknames. Snowy doesn’t respond to anything, including her own real name, so there’s no point in calling her. Chiko sometimes responds to “Engkong”, as he starts to get used to being called that. Speedy always responds, as that’s just the shortened version of his real name, which he responds to too. As for my cat Goldie, he only responds to his real name or the shortened version of his real name, Odie.
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My pets will continue to receive numerous, senseless nicknames as long as they live, as I will always find something new and funny about them. It’s a good thing that they all put up with their owner’s quirkiness and took all the nicknames good-naturedly.
Maria Donna Mirandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15854781710677330655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3055909829127834039.post-55244984097493845802020-01-21T12:37:00.001+07:002020-01-21T12:41:15.207+07:00Who Do I Turn To In My Most Difficult Times?It is said that teenagers are awkward and I’m living proof of that. As I enter the dreaded teenage year, I suddenly discovered many situations that made me feel self-conscious and at loss about what to do. The person who I turn to to help me deal with difficult social situations is my mom.
One of the most frequent and unavoidable tricky situations was walking my dogs in my neighborhood. It’s always full of people, like a park! There are kids and teens playing, adults out to talk with their neighbors, people exercising, vehicles, and other dog walkers. When walking my dogs, I just want to have a quiet me time with them. However, my all-white dogs are a constant attraction to passersby, and we often get disturbed by both positive or negative reactions. With people who like dogs, they would stop us and some would pet or play with my dogs. Some would even follow us. I only have a limited time to walk my dogs and I don’t appreciate being stopped every 5 minutes or so. People who don’t like dogs give us askew looks, a wide breadth, and I’ve even heard mean comments as they pass by. This results in me turning away from people I know to avoid having to stop and chit chat with them. I may appear rude and unneighborly, supporting the stigma that teenagers are difficult. As I often feel drained and agitated after taking my dogs for their walk, I usually talk to my mom.
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My mom isn’t a counselor or a psychologist; in fact, she graduated from civil engineering. But being a middle-aged mother of a special needs child, my mother has an abundant of good and bad experiences. From her experience, she discovered that keeping bad feelings only made her feel worse. Instead, she sought out alternative ways to deal with them. A method which worked best for her was to release her negative emotions by breathing in and out. While breathing out, she imagined that her negative emotions went out with her breath. In other words: “pushing” them out mentally.
She then would analyze what just happened and found out that she could learn some lessons from the experience.
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My mom also taught that method to me. When I’m in one of my tempers, my mom always asked me to calm down first by “pushing” them away, as thinking with heavy emotions often lead to stupid decisions. When I was younger, she helped analyze the situation with paper and pen. It usually ended with her telling me the reasons of why people acted that way, and how I could react to them in a better way than what I did before. The reasons and factors sometimes surprised me. Sometimes, it’s just their habit to lose their tempers. Sometimes, it’s just because of the environment that they live in. I was also taught that my energy could be put into a better use for the greater good to help change the world into a better place. :)
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Now that I’m older, I could analyze the difficult situations on my own and think of ways to handle them in a better way. Still, with an occasional help from my mom. As the person who raises me and helps me deal with my problems, she knows every little details about me. When retelling my bad experiences, I don’t have to explain myself, why I did what I did, because she already knows why. She would also know just the right words to say to me. I don’t think I would ever find someone else more perfect than her to guide me and help me through difficult situations.
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<br />Maria Donna Mirandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15854781710677330655noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3055909829127834039.post-5288456786502750162019-12-20T14:23:00.002+07:002019-12-20T14:25:22.563+07:00A Tale of DisciplineHello everyone! It's been a long time since I updated about myself, hasn't it?
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With all my recent book analysis posts, I hoped that you all didn’t think that my blog has become a book review and analysis blog. It hasn’t. It’s still just a platform for me to share my life-views and activities with you all. I am an avid reader. So I have recently been busy reading and analysing different books, which I found to be quite interesting and educating. But, I get that if you get the same type of posts every few weeks, it would tend to get boring. So I will try to insert other types of writing in between.
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To be honest, I only posted my study analyses because I had difficulties in thinking up topics to write in my personal entries. I didn’t participate in too many events recently. I didn't want to add more activities to my schedule, as there's this voice behind my head saying that I still have lots of things to do. During the holidays, I also couldn't hang out with friends because I had to catch up with my studies.
I have an allotted study time of seven hours a day. However, I don’t seem to be getting any studying done. What a mystery! I even used to think that one of the reasons I'm unable to get things done was because of my extracurricular activities; and was about to cut them all down. After examining every possible clue, I finally discovered the culprit! D-I-S-T-R-A-C-T-I-O-N-S. Objects of crime: mobile phone, books, pets, daydreams, computer, and Internet access. Perhaps no further explanation is needed. :)
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Thinking back, this culprit has been my constant companion for as long as I can remember; ever since my parents decided to trust me to study on my own. This culprit always succeeded in persuading me to trick my parents, and this obviously bore rotten fruits. The academic deadlines I set for myself always seemed to run away from me and I had to constantly chase them. Unfortunately, I acted like a snail and when I finally reached the finished line, I have another or actually many other races to complete. I seemed to be stuck in never-ending races.
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In order to persuade myself to change, I had to find motivations. Unexpectedly, I found my motivations in my friends. I have a friend who goes to a prestigious school known for its rigorous and challenging activities. I wanted to experience similar challenges, but as you know, I have many incomplete lessons. Therefore, I felt the urgency to finish my studies so that I can pursue more challenging and exciting activities.
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A competitor can also be a great motivator. A few months ago, I joined an academic course, where periodically, there’s an academic assessment. The results would be shown to the whole class. For the first assessment, I ranked 1st in my class. Recently, a new classmate joined the course. He is a diligent and dedicated student. He studied tirelessly, even during break time! I’m very much motivated to maintain my 1st position and he has become a serious challenger. Therefore, I need to work more seriously and harder on my studies.
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I discovered that when I have more motivations, I have more drive to make changes, such as studying more and working hard. But motivations can only push me forward; it cannot help me to manage my time. So, I use a study method called Pomodoro Tomato. A pomodoro is to work with full concentration for 25 minutes then break for 5 minutes. Every 3rd pomodoro, I break for a longer time; usually for 15 minutes.
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With these to help me catch up my studies, I'm starting to get back on track. I managed to find time to explore my coordinating skills. I became the coordinator of a homeschool event. Coordinating the event is quite time consuming as I need to spend a lot of time managing people. Therefore, I’m still hesitant in trying a new hobby, as it also takes up time to practise the skills.
I still have subjects to catch up with, even though they're not as many as my previous years. I hope that these methods will help me for a long time. I’m very sure that at some point in my life in the future, I will be distracted again. Hopefully, I will find new motivations to help me get back on track!
Maria Donna Mirandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15854781710677330655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3055909829127834039.post-80238236507433605242019-12-10T22:06:00.003+07:002019-12-10T23:27:22.992+07:00Son: A Little Analysis on LoveThe power of love is a curious thing. It plays a significant part in people’s successes, as it could motivate them to conquer their fears and challenges to reach their goals. The love here is not limited to just romantic or parents’ love, but it’s all encompassing, including friends and teachers’ love.
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It is generally known that the greatest love is a parent's love. Claire sacrificed a lot to find her son Gabe. She left her home into the unknown, train hard physically to climb cliffs and traded her youth with Trademaster. Although Gabe never knew Claire, learning about her sacrifices for him made him felt wanted and loved. Before this, even though Gabe led a fairly peaceful life in the village, thanked to Jonas, who rescued him and became like a father-figure to him; he felt a void of not knowing his mother and origin. He agreed to fight Trademaster to save Claire.
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The journey to find Trademaster was a hard one, and he couldn't have done it without those who cared for him. The main weapon that Gabe brought with him, is a paddle. The paddle was carved with the signatures of his friends and Jonas. Feeling those signatures, which symbolises all those who mattered in his life, helped motivate him to continue his perilous journey, and later to defeat Trademaster.
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There's a saying that behind every man's success, there is a strong woman. I think it would be more precise to say several strong women and men. Many successful people in our world always had someone behind them, cheering them on. Some examples are Jack Ma and Barack Obama. When they made a big change in their career, their wives and families believed in them and supported them to just do it! Love and support from the people that care for us are the main recipes to success. No matter how big their roles are in our life, they help shape us into who we are today.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The fourth, and last book of The Giver quartet</td></tr>
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Maria Donna Mirandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15854781710677330655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3055909829127834039.post-14948382379636093222019-11-06T18:59:00.000+07:002019-12-10T23:26:33.658+07:00Messenger: What is Important In Our Lives?For our whole lives, we are constantly reminded and advised to be good. But somehow, without realizing it, we might have fallen victim to the devil's whisper. In the book Messenger, we are introduced to the community where Matty and Christopher, Kira's father, lived. It's a community built by outcasts, and they welcome everyone with kindness. They are considerate and sincere, and they always try to help anyone in need. Unfortunately, with the presence of the manipulative Trademaster, who was actually evil disguised as human, the people lost track of what’s the most valuable things in their lives.
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Matty and nearly everyone in the community was envious of Rowan and his family, who had traded for a gaming machine. They thought that they would be happier if they had it. What they didn't realize though, was that Rowan and his family became more and more unhealthy. It reminded me of the avid and addicted gamers. They spent hours playing their online games and some had become so addicted that they disregarded their health both physically, emotionally, and mentally.
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Mentor, the community’s school teacher, exchanged his kind self for a fit body and a handsome face so that he could marry Stocktender’s widow. He thought that he couldn’t win the widow without outward beauty. It’s also such a common notion nowadays, and we have this kind of “trade". Many people are insecure about their looks. Beauty clinics, weight loss programs, and plastic surgeons have mushroomed to help people with physical insecurities. Some people would even go into debt and ruin their health in order to be able to achieve their goals. All for the sake of feeling confident and appealing. The importance of inner beauty is forgotten.
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Evaluating what are the most important qualities in our lives and societies is very crucial. We should never give up our true selves for the sake of others and materialistic enjoyment. We might be too late when we realize that the results have corrupted ourselves. Matt had to sacrifice himself to heal all the corrupted souls in the Village. Don’t wait until you have to pay a very high cost for your ignorance. Do not lose sight of what matters most.
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The third book of The Giver quartet</td></tr>
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Maria Donna Mirandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15854781710677330655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3055909829127834039.post-62113983537368860702019-11-02T22:34:00.000+07:002019-12-10T23:27:47.707+07:00Gathering Blue: Is the Paved Path Always Right For Us?"Stay on the path, and you shall be safe!" That was what Jamison told Kira when she went into the woods, and so is the motto of a lot of people. We could think of the path as the norms and traditions we grew up with. They had been made by the people before us, and so they guaranteed a safe and expected result. Straying away from the path meant that there would be differences and changes. There would be consequences, and the results might be either good or bad.
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Life was not easy in Kira’s community. All members of the community were expected to be able to work and contribute. Those who were born with disabilities, would immediately be abandoned and left to die in the fields. When Kira was born a cripple, her mother, Katrina, fought to keep her. As a result, nearly all the other women in their community despised them. Katrina and Kira’s lives were lonely and hard. However, Katrina’s action would bring about a significant impact for the future of their community.
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Katrina’s a talented weaver. She once worked as a weaver to fix the Singer’s Robe. Every fall, the Singer would wear it when he sings the Song of Ruin, which tells their history. It was one of the most important events in the community. Future events needed to be added to the robe, and for that, the council needed a weaver. Kira's prodigious talents caught the eye of the council, and therefore, killed Katrina and took control of Kira so that they could use her talents for their benefits.
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At first Kira was grateful that she was given a chance to live and tried to live up to Jamison, her mentor's, expectations. However, she discovered the dark side of the authorities and the exploitation of talented children. Their talents were cherished, but they were not allowed to create their arts freely. They must follow Jamison’s instructions about what to create. Kira felt limited when asked to weave what Jamison wanted. After much struggle, Kira decided to go against her orders and weave her visions of the future onto the robe. Through this, Kira was able to make a better future for her community.
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One of Kira's roommates, Thomas, was also an orphan. Just like Kira, his prodigious talent in carving landed him a spot in the government's quarters after his parent's deaths. He became the Carver of the Singer's Staff, which helped the Singer remembered the parts of the song. He would also carve the future onto the staff. Thomas also felt limited when he carved under Jamison's orders, but unlike Kira, he didn't go against them. He carved the future they wanted.
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Even though both Kira and Thomas chose different paths, both ended up leading good lives. Following the societies’ expectations didn’t become a disadvantage for Thomas. However, he didnt make any improvements in his society, while Kira did. She reintroduced blue, which symbolizes love and compassion back into her society. An achievement that none other could do.
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In our modern socities, high academic achievements are the ultimate goals because many people think that they will help you get high paying jobs and succeed in life. However, I think that what’s even more important than that is to follow your own passion and be innovative. People who follow their true beliefs and not just adhere to the society’s standards will be inspirational to others. They are the one who will bring new innovations to their companies or societies. Look at some of the world’s greatest innovators, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, both of them didn’t complete their university studies but decided to pursue their passion and their creations changed the world.
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People go against the norm because of many reasons. Some don't intentionally go against it. Some aren't comfortable with it or disagree with the norms. Some just don't fit. Whatever the reasons are, as long as we follow our hearts and fight for what we believe in, we will make a difference.
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpkBwUNyOvXvfK9VGWbK4UsPa3ge53Q6dLruNss4iDe8l6i0jDwXYSnz9qZd6k6lkxiqQ5meEdZzasBloa3zhmGtSNoOw0FhQh6p9DFlvE8FpojmLJ-FXpBTtRerk2B3Pwf2tPZM46Lbc/s1600/blue.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="342" data-original-width="232" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpkBwUNyOvXvfK9VGWbK4UsPa3ge53Q6dLruNss4iDe8l6i0jDwXYSnz9qZd6k6lkxiqQ5meEdZzasBloa3zhmGtSNoOw0FhQh6p9DFlvE8FpojmLJ-FXpBTtRerk2B3Pwf2tPZM46Lbc/s640/blue.png" width="434" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The second book of The Giver quartet</td></tr>
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<br />Maria Donna Mirandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15854781710677330655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3055909829127834039.post-66819538758097027842019-10-09T18:43:00.001+07:002019-10-10T09:25:10.019+07:00The Giver: An Opinion on EmotionsTurn on the news, and you’ll find a long list of problems in the world. Higher divorce rates, suicides and fights among the streets are just a few of the many problems we have in this world. Nowadays, people are more vocal, thus, they are easily provoked and would react accordingly. Thus, we hear a lot more of conflicts. In The Giver, Jonas’s community tried to get rid of these problems by creating controlled and isolated communities; and alternating human’s character. However, their attempts weren’t permanent and eventually, their troubles resurfaced and they would still need to deal with the root of their problems.
In Jonas’s community, everyone’s emotions seemed to be watered down. They don’t display deep emotions. They are also educated to always use precise language to avoid misunderstandings that might result in problems. It’s very clear that they consider emotions as one of the cause of unrest, which is a valid point. People can’t always control their emotions. When there is a problem, sometimes emotions will get in the way of resolving it. Instead of discussing calmly, the involved parties lash out in anger, which resulted in fights.
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A very inventive method to understand and deal with emotions is to share and discuss them with others. It was a method that was implemented in Jonas’s community. It is required for every family to have a “Sharing of Feelings”. Everyone is encouraged to share their feelings, and all the members will help to resolve any problematic feelings. This is a good practice, as it helps us understand and deal with our own feelings. Inability to do so, might lead to an individual not being able to function properly. Thus in our world, would require counselling.
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Another way Jonas’s society use to control feelings is by a pill. All adults take it every day to suppress emotions. In real life, we also have our own kind of “pills”. They are drugs that psychiatrists use to calm their patients’ emotions. These drugs allow patients with depression and anxiety issues to be able to have a decent life.
Most importantly, in Jonas’s community, there is a role called The Receiver of Memory. That chosen one holds selected past memories and emotions, so that others won’t have to. War and starvation were just some of the most unpleasant memories, while some pleasant memories that might invoke vivid emotions were colour and parties. It could seem useful as the society didn’t need to face all those unpleasantness. But it’s only a temporary solution. If anything happens to the Receiver of Memories, all the memories and emotions he or she kept would return to the society, and they wouldn’t be able to cope and the society became chaotic.
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The real gist of the problem is that people don’t know how to handle and control emotions well. As we learned in the story, hiding or forgetting feelings and memories that might invoke those particular emotions don’t really work. It’s only a temporary solution. A more permanent and effective ways to deal with emotions is to identify, understand, and accept them. Others are there to help and support you. Nowadays we have counsellors and psychologists who can help guide you to explore your feelings. Unpleasant emotions will always exist. If you can resolve them, they will not cause negative impact on both individual life and the community.
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<img alt="Image result for the giver" src="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcTYitQtOvmSSZD5EmjNMfbqpZOqlFgwUO4_jCUsb3PFdoLZVYwp" />Maria Donna Mirandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15854781710677330655noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3055909829127834039.post-43942456950134161952019-09-20T14:10:00.003+07:002019-09-20T14:23:54.287+07:00The Wizard of Oz: Dorothy the HeroThe Wizard of Oz is a very popular children novel. It is not only popular with children though, but also adult. It has been adapted into movies, plays, and musicals. I think that it’s popular because not only it’s filled with adventures, interesting lands and characters, but it also provides hope and encouragement. It gives us hope that ordinary people like us could overcome challenges and be a hero.
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Dorothy is an ordinary girl, who had to face extreme challenges to go home after she was whisked away to the land of Oz. We probably wouldn’t consider her to have hero-materials. However, she brought great changes in the Land of Oz and to the people who live there. She liberated the citizen of Oz from evil witches and helped expose the fake ruler of the Emerald City. During her personal journey to go home to Kansas, she made friends with the Scarecrow, Tinman, and Cowardly Lion and while accompanying her, they learned and gained confidence. At the end of their journey, all three of them became rulers who were able to govern and help their subjects wisely.
Those are all the qualities of heroes. They brought changes and better lives for others. They encourage and inspire others for the better. They take actions and are determined to go through with their quests. These all bring hope to others and hope often brings changes. The famous heroes in history and today's world, such as Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and Malala Yousafzai; all have these traits.<br />
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I'm sure the heroes of the past, present, and future too have sometimes lost hope in their journey. We know this from the diaries or journals that some left behind. Mother Teresa may be one of the symbols of Christianity, but there were times when she had no faith for God. Based on her letters, she wrote that there were times when she felt empty and found nothing inspiring when helping the sick poor. She asked for support so that she could still continue on her work as she felt that she was left alone by God.
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Another example of someone whose hopes were often dashed is Malala Yousafzai. She campaigned hard for girls' rights to have an education, which was unsupported, and eventually banned by the Taliban. There were several times when she had to face danger of being attacked by the Taliban when she secretly went to school in Pakistan. She's also in great danger when she spoke out about it, which resulted in her getting shot by the Taliban. However, she persisted and refused to stop fighting for what she believe is right. Now, she has an organization dedicated to help and improve girls' life and education.
Dorothy had to face a lot of challenges that seemed too difficult for her to overcome. Although generally, she didn’t lose hope and persist on, there were times where she was discouraged. She got upset when the raft brought her away from the golden road to Oz and was upset when Oz's balloon left without her. However, she quickly gained hope when the guard of the Emerald Palace told her that Glinda the Witch of the South might be able to help her.
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From this story, it showed that anyone can be a hero, no matter your background. Dorothy brought significant changes to the people of Oz. Even though she's just an ordinary little girl from the boring plains of Kansas, she indirectly brought people hope, and hope often results in change. In a way, she's kind of a hero to the Land of Oz, and Dorothy left Oz as an honoured person.
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All these heroes, both real and fictional, had the choice of giving up or persist through their hardships. However, they chose the latter and were awarded with their achievements. As the saying goes, you have to suffer before you succeed.
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<br />Maria Donna Mirandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15854781710677330655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3055909829127834039.post-82827910020333181582019-08-30T21:29:00.000+07:002019-08-30T21:44:09.652+07:00Should We Defend a Bullied Victim Against Our Own Friends?When I was in primary school, there was this boy in my class named Jaden (not his real name). Unlike the other boys in my class, he often hanged around and played with the girls. From what I observed, Jaden didn't have any gender identity issues or anything like that. It's just that he didn't act like the norm of boys that age. This caused the whole class to call him a "girly boy", me included.
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I know that this was just meant as a joke and Jaden often laughed it off. From my point of view, Jaden didn’t seem to mind, and we still had a good relationship whether I tease him or not. In retrospect, I never really knew how he felt. Did our teasing ever made him uncomfortable or questioned himself? Did it made him feel frustrated and bullied? Did it affect his characters and actions in the future?
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Some bullied victims became a danger to the society and themselves. In the US, there had been many cases of school shooting that shocked the world. In Asia, such as Japan and Taiwan, there had also been cases of public stabbing. After investigations, a lot of these criminals, appeared to be children who had been bullied before. They generally become loners and have a lot of bottled up anger against the public inside.
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So the root of a lot of these problems is bullying. Some bullying were made without us realizing it, such as what I did to Jaden. I didn’t mean to cause him any harm and I thought it was all just good fun. But now, thinking about it, we were quite insensitive to what he was feeling.
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Children are often ignorant about all this. Growing up, children tend to seek stability and security. They feel safe being in familiar surrounding with familiar people. So it’s natural for children to be apprehensive or reject differences. Thus, respect and toleration should be hammered into children's minds starting from a very young age. They should also be taught to always think of the consequences of their actions, especially bullying.
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These must be implemented both at home and school. Unfortunately, some parents either don't care or deny that their children are bullies. Then there are those who don't know what they should do with their children's behaviours. Both parents and teachers must be taught how to deal with bullying and why they should do that. Children should also be taught how to have the guts to stand up for themselves and others.
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I wasn’t brave enough to go against my friends and acted that way due to peer pressure. If I stood up for him, my friends would talk behind my back about this and make fun of me. I try my best not to change my relationship with my friends, as I like to be part of the big group. After all, they're also my friends, and I wouldn't like to go against what most of them think.
I hope that our ignorance and harmless teasing didn’t affect Jaden negatively. I am grateful to know that now societies are more aware of this problem. Both children and teacher organisations are now trying their best to tackle this problem. Hopefully this will lead to less problems in the future.
</r>Maria Donna Mirandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15854781710677330655noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3055909829127834039.post-70965607141140780802019-08-15T11:09:00.000+07:002019-08-15T11:09:51.411+07:00The Wizard Of Oz: Is Hiding a Lie, a Crime?After finally defeating the Wicked Witch of the West, the four travellers went back to Oz to claim his promises. They got lost on the way back to Emerald City, but with the help of the Winged Monkeys, they finally reached the Emerald City.
No one expected the four to come back so soon -- and alive! Not even Oz. However, instead of being immediately summoned to meet the Wizard of Oz and received their rewards, Dorothy and her friends were left to wait for days. They finally got an audience with Oz after they threatened him with the winged monkeys. During this session, quite by accident, they discovered that the Wizard of Oz was just a humbug. He was not an all-powerful Wizard but an old man from Dorothy’s land.
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Dorothy and her friends felt deceived! They had put their life on the line by facing the Wicked Witch of the West, and it was all for nothing! They would never get what they wanted, because the Wizard of Oz wasn't a wizard at all. If I were in their position, I would have exposed him to his citizens. However, Dorothy and her friends had very simple mind and goals. They were only concerned about their own wishes. It had not occurred to them at all to expose him at all. Once their wishes were fulfilled, they were happy and forgave the Wizard for his lies. They also still treated him like a great powerful wizard up till the moment he left the Emerald City for his hometown.
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I think that a large percentage of the inhabitants of our world is actually just like Dorothy and her friends. The normal citizens are usually more simple and are just concern with individual or family’s needs. As long as those needs are fulfilled, generally, they won’t go find troubles. They won’t go exposing other authorities or politicians’ misdeeds and crimes just for the sake of justice.
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<br />Maria Donna Mirandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15854781710677330655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3055909829127834039.post-73372931053839665692019-08-03T23:32:00.001+07:002019-08-06T11:11:23.356+07:00The Wizard of Oz: Dorothy's Hidden Strengths In exchange to have their wishes granted, Dorothy and her friends were given the task to kill the Wicked Witch of the West by the Wizard of Oz. The friends were all horrified and crestfallen at first. However, as there were no other alternatives, they decided to give it a try. Surprisingly, with no plans, no armies, and no advantages; they succeeded.
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In real life, we sometimes felt as if we’ve reached the end of the line with no way to solve our problems. However, as long as we don’t give up and lose hope, we might discover more strengths in ourselves that we didn’t realize were there before. Dorothy didn’t know that she bore the mark of goodness, which protected her from any harm from evil. She’s also not afraid of water or darkness, which the Witch feared. She wore magical silver shoes that belonged to the Wicked Witch of the East, which were powerful, but Dorothy didn’t know that.
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As Dorothy didn’t know her strengths, she didn’t dare go against the Witch and obeyed all her orders. The Witch, seeing that Dorothy was so meek, she underestimated her. It’s true that Dorothy was an innocent child. However, she still had strengths that helped her win the battle with the Witch. She cared about her friend and smuggled food for the Lion. Thus the Witch’s plan to starve the Lion until he does what she wanted failed. The Witch saw that Dorothy didn’t know how to use her powers and strengths and therefore, the Witch dared to plot against her instead of running away. She thought that she had won when she successfully obtained one of the silver shoes. She was laughing triumphantly, when Dorothy threw a bucket of water at her and thus reverse the situation. Dorothy successfully defeated the Witch without meaning to.
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We sometimes have strengths that other people and ourselves might not know or consider as a strength. But these strengths unknowingly help us solve our problems and achieve our goals. If Dorothy had not been the innocent child that she was, the story might play out differently.
Maria Donna Mirandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15854781710677330655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3055909829127834039.post-41171526186845593092019-07-26T23:22:00.000+07:002019-08-15T11:18:07.966+07:00The Wizard of Oz: Dorothy and Her Friend's First Impression of Oz AnalysisIn her journey to the Emerald City to find the Wizard to help her go back to Kansas, Dorothy met The Scarecrow, Tinman, and Cowardly Lion. They became travel companions as each of them thought that they lacked something and wanted to ask the Wizard to give them what they lack. After facing a lot of obstacles and hardships, the company finally reached the gates of the Emerald City and gained an audience with the Wizard of Oz.
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The Wizard of Oz appeared in different facades to Dorothy and her companions. These facades threw them off-guard, thus all previous preparations to deal with Oz were ineffective. The different appearances of Oz also intimidated the citizens of Emerald City and elevated him as more superior and mysterious. No one knew who he really was and what he would do next. Therefore his power over the Emerald City was unchallengeable.
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This aspect of Oz showed us the effective use of image or persona in controlling the public. Public figures, such as politicians and celebrities, all use certain persona to influence the public to achieve their goals, whether it’s to sell music albums, products, or compete for presidential seats. Some of them even have marketing advisors to help package and sell their image to the public, with hopes that the target audience trust or like them enough to be willing to help them achieve their goals.
Oz’s goal was to keep the citizens submissive and afraid of him. He wanted to appear larger and more powerful than the public. However, he also didn’t want to appear evil like the Wicked Witch of the East and West. Thus he never allowed people to see him and rumours went around about his appearance. When Dorothy and friends appeared before him, he appeared to be both scary and good or beautiful at the same time.
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A person’s image can greatly help him to achieve his goal. In this era of advanced technology and communication, social media such as Facebook and Instagram become a platform to build up this image. Being able to effectively establish the persona that you want can really help you to achieve your goals or advance in your career. The chosen image might not be real, but if convincing enough, you can persuade the public to believe you. The Wizard of Oz didn’t really have magic powers, but he was able to fool the citizens of Oz by projecting a very powerful and authoritative image.
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<br />Maria Donna Mirandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15854781710677330655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3055909829127834039.post-54631219776422321102019-06-07T09:52:00.001+07:002019-06-07T09:56:05.969+07:00The Rise of Pet BusinessMore people are owning pets now compared to the past. Due to various reasons, a growing trend of millennials shun having children and prefer to keep pets for companions. Additionally, pets are starting to be seen more as family members than just as animals. Some people would even go to the point of pampering them. This has opened up a lot of opportunities for pet related businesses.
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As pet owners chase their pursue their careers and ambitions, they aren’t able to accompany or fully care for their pets. They rely on pet walkers, sitters, and daycares to attend to their pets. During the weekends, they want to spend quality times with their pets and thus public places that allow for pets have become very popular. One of the pet communities hangout spots is Central Park Mall, which has a large garden for pets to roam in. With large crowds as these, opportunists see dollar signs. Pop up pet stores “pop up” to offer a wide selection of pet products and services.
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As the millennials nowadays are more concern with health: selecting organic foods, non-paraben shampoo and fitnesses. The same attitudes are applied to their pets. So nowadays there are wider selection of pet food, pet clothing, and even pet-gym. Pet owners want the best they can afford for their pets.
All those pet products and services don’t come cheap. However, pet owners are more than willing to cough up the dough. In this era of social media, pets owners love to share about the new toys their pets have or the pampering they receive in the spa. This propel “followers” to also “follow” this trend. Thus, create a booming pet industry.
Maria Donna Mirandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15854781710677330655noreply@blogger.com0