A high school student that loves her family, friends, books, and piano <3
Hari Pertama – Proses Refleksi Berkelanjutan untuk Peningkatan Kualitas Belajar
Bila video tidak bisa muncul, silahkan klik link berikut: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vboylWevD8c&t=2851s atau search AKEM1023.
Hari Kedua – Dokumenter Pendek: Covid-19 and Its Impact on Teenagers’ Mental Health
Bila video tidak bisa muncul, silahkan klik link berikut: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNOCEOWHq9k atau search BKEM2068.
As much as YouTube is usually used for entertainment purposes, there has been a new subgenre in the YouTube community that defies from that stereotype, called StudyTube. Just like the name suggested, these StudyTubers exclusively make content related to studying and education.
Within this genre, you may expect an abundance of study tips and methods videos, alongside ‘study with me’ videos, which is a long video (some reach 4 / 5 hours or more) of people studying, and stationary hauls, ‘journal with me’ videos, and many more. These are basically the types of video StudyTubers makes over and over again, or perhaps with some variation of vlogs and routines videos. Whatever it is, videos they make not only attempt to encourage productivity, they also romanticize and make studying as a part of their identity.
The movie; “Dead Poets Society”, is a must watch classic. The story is about Mr. Keating, a literature teacher, who taught his students about how important it is to ‘seize the day’ and think for themselves. Although they’re in a conservative highschool that defy those kinds of mindset.
Personally I discovered this movie several months ago. And I was immediately attracted to the fact that the story feels very relatable and honest in portraying the truth behind our education system. Even when I’m watching this years after its release.
Before I continue, I will warn you that there will be major spoilers of the movie. So unless you’re fine with it, I think it is better for you to watch it first.
“It’s all a question of imagination. Our responsibility begins with the power to imagine. It’s just like Yeats said: In dreams begin responsibilities.”
Through this book, Haruki Murakami explores the theme of consciousness and unconsciousness. It’s very interesting, since the book follows 2 storylines simultaneously. For every odd numbered chapter, it is about a boy named Kafka Tamura, who lives with his dad; a famous sculptor, in Tokyo. On his 15th birthday, he makes up his mind to run away from home with hope to break the Oedipus curse that his father made about him. Meaning that based on the curse, Kafka will kill his own father and sleep with his mother and sister.
Even if you don’t get sick, the choices you make about where you go could be the difference between life and death for someone else.
– Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus,
Director-General of the World Health Organization
During these uncertain times, it’s not a rare sight for us to see tons of news about the Coronavirus pandemic regularly. We see hundreds of people getting infected. We see countries that are forced to do a lockdown. Added with the large amount of schools, offices, and other public spaces that are continuously shutting down.
These significant changes everyone is facing can feel somewhat surreal. In result, almost everyone began to panic over the pandemic. Which I don’t necessarily blame by itself. But sometimes, these uncontrolled panic may cause a whole new set of problems.
“Sometimes you need to scorch everything to the ground, and start over. After the burning the soil is richer, and new things can grow. People are like that, too. They start over. They find a way.”
– page 324
Celeste Ng’s book has once again amazed me by the way she portrays her characters and the unpredictable plot in the story. This time, it was ‘Little Fires Everywhere’. A bestselling book published in 2017 that receives a high rating on online bookstores and other social media platforms.
“You don’t feel like smiling? Then what? Force yourself to smile. Act as if you were already happy, and that will tend to make you happy.”
This debut novel by Celeste Ng tells the story of an Asian-American parents; Marilyn and James Lee, and their three teenage children. There’s Nath, the oldest son who is undeniably talented, and Hannah, the youngest daughter of the family. But whatever they’re doing, it’s often put aside by their parents because of Lydia, the middle child. Though she never asked for it, Lydia’s described as the golden child of the family who’s holding up all of the expectations from her parents. From the expectation to be a successful doctor in the future, expectation to have a good social skill, up to the hinted expectation for her to always follow what Marilyn and James say. Without realizing how Lydia is mentally and emotionally exhausted because of it.
To realize one’s destiny is a person’s only obligation
Last time on my blog, I wrote about my trip in the United States. And I mentioned the books I bought in the Coop Bookstore at Harvard. One of it being The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.
In the shortest description possible, the whole story is a beautiful enactment of one’s journey to reach their dream. The story itself focuses on Santiago, a young Andalusian shepherd who had a strong connection with his sheep. The only companion in his life which its simplicity taught the boy (Santiago) about important life lessons. One day, he got dreams about a treasure in the pyramid. And his devotion in reaching this dream is shown throughout the book.
Following the previous notes about the Tournament of Champions, I made this notes which focus about the art galleries, museums, and other tourist attractions I visited while in the US. Hope you enjoy!
*A Short Visit to Boston*
I had a chance to go to Boston with my friends on the free day during the WSC program. We then decided and went for a stroll around the Harvard campus area, before we were freezing because of the weather and entered Harvard Museum of Natural History.
To sum it up, the museum is full of things like stones, minerals, as well as collections of ancient animal skulls, bugs, and some traditional items from around the world. Although the bug and animal skull collections are not necessarily the things I would enjoy to see, it’s pretty interesting to go around and find out what other kinds of collections they have.
It was just two months ago, when I found out that my team in the World Scholars Cup was qualified to enter the final of this competition; the Tournament of Champions in Yale University, which also marks the end of this year’s season. So after many consideration, I think it’s best for me to write down my 2 weeks trip in the United States by dividing it into two posts due to the amount of experiences I’ve gained there. And I think it’s best if I start this series of posts with a notes about the Tournament of Champions itself.
Since the end of the Manila Global Round I had in September, my team tried our best to manage our time so that we could fit in a fair amount of practices within 2 months. Because after we committed to join the ToC (Tournament of Champions), we knew that the competition was not something to be taken lightly. It really came with full dedication as well as large enthusiasm to learn and be much better than we were before.
Ayunda Damai 