What makes us different

What makes different? education? economical life? ethnic? face? parents?Many people asked about my life. They thought that my parents earn a good money so i can be like this. But basically, people know nothing.

i grew up in a normal family, not rich, just grateful of what we have. When i was in elementary kids, my parents were a small medicine seller. We dont have much. My mom was a lecturer but she stopped and start to be a merchant, like a Minang suppose to be.lol. I went to regular school near by my house. Until 6th grade, i wanted to have a Smart Book (buku pintar). But i don't have money to buy it, nor my parents. Well they have money but they just have to reconsider everything in order to buy something cause there might be something else more important than a that book to buy. All my friends have the book, i don't. But i don't wanna ask my parents either. Cause i know what their condition were like. So i just borrowed my friend's book and start reading it.Then it continued till i my junior high. Things are getting better with our economy. My parents started to have the 2nd (small) store in different place. For a merchant, it's good cause you'll have a second 'money' from other place. But for merchant, the money is not like when you work to a company. But it's like when you're having a business. You gotta pay for check, credits, and other stuff that you have to sell back at the end. So it's basically a 'circle' money. You still have to manage everything so you wont get broke.

On junior high, i was a kinda nerd girl who didn't have a lot friends. To be honest, i sometimes got jealous with them. They could go shopping, went to the mall, watched movies whenever they like. I was actually tried to be fitted in by been someone else, which at the end, it didn't work. I started to be fake. Pretend that i had money and could buy anything. It's a shame, i know. But it was me, a 13 years old girl who tried to fit in girls click.Going to high school, it was pretty good. i started to realize that there's no use of being someone else that we don't wanted to. i started to being just myself. i wasn't smart. My family economy was settled. we're not rich, but we had enough. Being with my family makes me realize that i have to understand about the situation. Be grateful of what i have and stop pretending to be anything. it teaches me, if i wanna get something, then i have to try to get it with my own efforts. i knew my parents worked really hard to make my brother and i feel enough. For me, i don't like to ask money for my parents. I would worked if i could, but i was thinking, what can i do in this 15 years old age?

Then there was a selection to be an exchange student. Then Alhamdulillah i got the scholarship. Then my life changed after that. I got a full scholarship to go to USA. I paid nothing. Even the scholarship paid for Visa, plane tickets, and the government even gave me money every month. But of course i had job there, to tell Americans what Indonesia is and what Islam is. I did many presentations in every school in USA and they even sent me to Disney World, Florida to be in a world conference :) For a year, i didn't ask my parents to send me some money. i worked as a cleaning service in there so i could buy my own laptop without asking my parents to buy me one. All i want is just buy things with my own money, which i finally did. I bought my own laptop, my own clothes, shoes, dresses, and alhamdulillah i could sent my families some stuff. but of course my lovely host parents helped me to do that. That was my biggest happiness, to make my parents happy and proud :')

When i got back to Indonesia, everything's changed. My life changed. i became more mature and i think that i could make change. I worked as a English private teacher when i was in 3rd grade Senior High School. And Alhamdulillah i got a full scholarship again in University when i am in now and working as a course consultant in English First Pejaten.
What i want to tell you is not a story about my life. But i want to tell you that we can do everything that we wanna do. I went to a Pesantren in Pondok Cabe for doing some community service. I talked with the kids in there and they said,

"Kak, you're so lucky for being you. Look at us, we're poor, we cant do much things like you did. We don't have that much money to do that"

Then i said, "Dek, don't try to find any kind of excuses. The excuses that you just said were created because you think so. I have a friend, his mother is a tukang pecel keliling which just earned a small amount of money, it's not enough to feed him and his sisters and brothers. Because of his efforts and his brain, he got scholarship to USA with me and now he became the smartest student in his college and got another scholarship for that"

Mingling with Pesantren kids :')

YES Students doing community services in Pesantren

After Iftar with US Embassy and unprivileged children.

Appreciation after Ramadan Outreach 2010

Better World for Better Future Conference, Disney World, FL

IYAA Indonesia Conference, Jogjakarta, Indonesia



Presentation about Islam in Southern Columbia Area High School, PA, USA

Sometimes i think that people poor because they just don't have money to pay education. But in fact, it's not true. Yes we do need some money to go to school in order to have a high education. But if the person do have a willingness to be in the school and to be success, it will all come towards the goal. There are so many people in our country becoming poor because they think so. they think they can't do much because of the excuses that they create by themselves. Those excuses are just going to create boundaries in life. It will stop you from getting your dreams.
Any people with any kind of economy, ethnics, and education will get their dream if they stop to make excuses in life. I believe there's nothing we can't do (except God's will).
Pray and effort will do some much in this life.

Stop whining, stop making excuses, start working and do the best we can do while we can. If we combine those things, it will create a huge thing that coming up next in our life. We'll see.

I start on nothing, running everything. If i can, i'm sure you can too :)