15 Things I Did In My 15th Year

The 15th year of my life has been a very interesting and life-changing one filled with a lot of very high ups and very low downs. I must say, it has been one of the best years of my life so far (but I dare not say best yet). However, I must say though, if AYC 2010 happened after my 14th birthday, or even on my birthday instead of just before it, I think I would have labeled this year the best one. So, I've chosen the 15 things which I feel were the best things I have done or achieved from the day I turned 14 to the day I turned 15. So, in chronological order, here it goes...

1. Gold Medal in Mathematics Division at the Indonesian Young Scientist Competition 2010 (InaYS 2010) in Bandung, Indonesia together with my dear Science Club partner Toby.

2. Organizing the ASEAN & Youth Empowerment Day event for the entire Junior High Unit of Santa Laurensia School. It was like bullying the entire school for a whole day!

3. Published the VieR School Magazine with the team under my leadership (=D)!

4. On top of number 3, my Cerpen (Short Story) in Bahasa Indonesia was chosen to be published in VieR!

5. I was awarded the scholarship in Singapore! (See previous posts)

6. I endured my first surgery which was to remove my appendix.

7. I hit the American continent for the first time in Houston, Texas, USA after taking the longest flight of my life (16.5 hours from Dubai to Houston)

8. Bronze Medal in the Energy Category for the International Sustainable World Energy, Engineering and Environment Project Olympiad (I-SWEEEP) 2011 in Houston, Texas, USA! Met with people from 70 different countries.

9. I climbed up the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, UAE, and second tallest building, the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada.

10. I braved the Leap Of Faith water slide in Aquaventure at the Atlantis Resort on The Palm in Dubai, UAE. An almost vertical drop that catapults through a Shark Lagoon.

11. Passed my UAN (National Exams) with unbelievable results (both in good and bad ways)!

12. I had the opportunity to meet and work with many students from the 16th cohort of Santa Laurensia Junior High School and we inspired each other!

13. Junior High School Graduation. Graduated in a toga for the first time!

14. The Most Proactive Student Award at Graduation! Unexpected but at the same time very expected!

15. First time hang out with a Laurensian, and the hang out was in the form of a Productive Hang-out (LOL).

So there you go, 15 things I did in the past year that I will always remember for the rest of my life. I know some may find my life a bit boring, but hey, some of these are really big things for me!

There Is No Hiding A Birthday From A Laurensian

First of all, for those of you who I told that my birthday is on 29 February, which means that my birthday comes only once in four years, and believed it, you fell for my trick. My birthday was indeed a few days ago.

It has become a bit of our tradition that we would have a meeting, or a productive hang-out as we like to call it sometimes, the second weekend after the return of a GYCi Delegation. So we did have our AYC + GYF + AYC Productive Hang-out, which happened to fall on my birthday...

I have never really liked celebrating birthdays, especially with other people. To me, a birthday is just like ending the financial year where you count all your profits and losses. I treat my birthdays as a time to review what went wrong, what I could have done that I didn't do and all the things that went well. To me, it's more of a personal time.

Therefore, with the objective of making sure that the meeting was focused to productive stuff and not my birthday. So I decided not to tell anyone that the event would fall on my birthday and for those who insisted days before the event that I treat everyone to lunch, I came up with the silly scheme about my birthday being on 29 February.

But unfortunately, that morning, I was awoken to a text greeting me "Happy Birthday". Somehow, the whole world found out and denied all information that it was not my birthday. So, when I got to Living World (it's a mall in Alam Sutera Complex where my ex school is), the whole Laurensian WORLD that was there seemed to know what day it was. I had so many Laurensians who I don't know the names of come up to me and give me a signature AYC hug (nothing really signature about it really, just a hug). Text messages also kept pouring in till my phone hanged (no kidding). Including the most shocking yet meaningful of the texts saying "HAPPY BIRTHDAY WORLD LEADER!" and the text from someone who was right there in front of me but just had to SMS his/her birthday wishes. Thanks for the texts guys! Sorry if I didn't reply any of them because I either overlooked them or missed them and sorry to those people who got replied many times because I did not remember replying them. (=D)

I'll be honest, I have lately come to realize and accept the harsh fact that throughout my time in Santa Laurensia Junior High School, at least in my final 9th Grade year, every student in the school at least knows who I am one way or another (as if I'm Student Body President or something) but I don't know everyone. I do recognise the faces of every Junior High Laurensian in 14h to 16th generation, but I don't think I would know all the names, all the more have saved their phone numbers on my phone and know who's is this text from. I would not really say that I am a "popular" student. I don't even know if people associate their knowledge of me to good things. But my point is, it just feels weird. In PSB, everyone knew who I was, but that was because it was such a small school and everyone knew everyone else anyways. But here in Laurensia, it's all different. Whatever it is, I don't like this concept of being "known".

So, long story short. The conclusion: the whole world found out it was my birthday, despite that I still forced everyone to work (actually, it was kind of the other way around at the beginning) and my parents decided to treat everyone for dinner (which was still mostly a work-based session) and it turned into a birthday party when there was a cake (damn birthday cakes!). But despite my frustrations that I didn't pull off my trick, it was an awesome day, as any AYC + GYF day is. It was my last birthday spent in Jakarta for at least the next few years and I'm glad that in my last year in PSB, I spent a birthday with my PSB pals and now I have one birthday with my fellow Laurensians as well.

But the thing is, I don't want to think of that day as a celebration of my birthday. I prefer to regard the festivities as a celebration of my relationship with these Laurensians. The people who came were all AYC or GYF or the 2 people who inspired me to end up in Houston. They are kind of the perfect representatives of the group of people who have shaped my Laurensian Journey (ok, not perfect, certain people were not there and those people would have perfected the day, but it's ok). It's a celebration of our journey together and at the same time, the perfect time for me to close the book and let go of them to continue on without me.

So what was the lesson learnt on that day? There is no hiding a birthday from a Laurensian!

Be A Communicator, Not A Speaker

Today, work begins. As we entered the room, we came into our first session. To be a world leader, you have to be able to get the people you are leading to have the same vision as you do. Nothing can be achieved if your people have no intention of reaching the same goals as you. To do that, you need to be able to persuade them and there is really only one skill you need to master, Public Speaking!


We were asked to give a 1-2 minute speech on the topic "Your Most Embarrassing Moment" and I must say that I was very surprised to hear 2 stories that had something to do with me (thanks a lot guys *sarcastic mode on*) but hey, it was part of the fun. Long story short, we had a great time and I want to thank Yu Li for the very interesting session!

We then moved on to the Icebreaking session where we got to know the other Youth Delegation Leaders (YDLs) from Singapore and Vietnam. It was nice to get to know them better, especially the Vietnamese YDLs who we were staying in the same hotel with.

I came the time to do a Mock-up of the things that would be happening at the actual convention. We each presented about ideas on the problems in ASEAN and how we could fix them.

As the presentations went by, we started to learn about how the problems each country was facing was very different from one another. For example, the Singapore Delegation talked about Youth Empathy. From an Indonesian's point of view, and I guess the Vietnamese also felt the same way, there are problems in our countries far more serious than Youth Empathy such as Poverty. The Vietnamese talked about how Youth Empowerment is a very hard thing to achive in Vietnam and the best place for them to start taking action is by improving the educational system. According to them, 98% of the school curriculum is dedicated to sciences.

Through the presentations I learnt how different the problems facing each country could be. However, at the same time, two or all of the countries could be facing one common problem but at different levels. Two issues that we found were common to all three countries were the Education System and the Environment.

Tomorrow we will be meeting with Ambassador Ong Keng Yong at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Ong is the former secretary of ASEAN.

On Friday we have to present on the topic "Can Indonesians Think?" Can Indonesian people think and get creative and innovative? Can they think as well as people in the US or in the EU? We will be very strongly considering your comments since we were asked to get the opinions of the people back home. This is you first and one of the best chances for you to make a difference. So come on people of Indonesia, Can Indonesians Think???

What You Say, What You Do, Can CHANGE The WORLD

Over 300 Youth Delegates from 10 countries from all over South-East Asia will come together in the bustling city-state of Singapore for one reason, to build the future of ASEAN. As we get closer to the ASEAN Youth Convention (AYC), I wonder if I will be able to make my mark on this world. I mean, who am I? I'm only a "kid"! Am I actually going to be able to do something for the better of ASEAN?

The Preparatory Day on Sunday was coming to an end. We were all reminded about our flights. Then, it was my turn to lead an exercises that to me, explains everything.

We form a circle, holding hands with the people beside us. Toby turned off the lights, then, we closed our eyes. "Imagine you are on a field, where not a wall is in sight." I began. I for one, kept my eyes open, just to make sure that nobody was fooling around. The main idea of the activity was to get them to imagine what was on the line. When I did a way less "dramatic" version of this when I had the Copenhagen Gala Dinner, it really made me realize that what I did there and then could make a difference, for better or for worse.

I then went on. "There are 70 million Youths in Indonesia, and there are 20 Indonesian delegates standing in this circle. Now turn you head and look behind you. Standing behind each of you are 3.5 million youths, youths of Indonesia, youths that you represent. What you say, what you do, what you achieve in Singapore, could make a difference in their lives!"  Then, I went on to telling them that we don't just represent the Youths, we represent all the people in Indonesia. That's 10 million people standing behind each of us. On that field, all 200 million Indonesians stand united as one.

As I began to picture that, I kind of started to realize how big a responsibility I had. I could make a difference in this country, and ultimately the world.

So, what is it actually that is so special about Youths that we can actually have a say in the future development of ASEAN? What can YOUTH Empowerment do?