D-1

I opened my eyes this morning at around 7.30AM, then i recognized that i only had about five hours of sleep. Last night, i went out with few best friends from high school to a movie to watch Pelham 123 then continued with some late night conversations.

I will depart by tomorrow. And by the time i woke up this morning, i realized how much i love my current life. For sure, my life isn't perfect. Though, i can say that i really enjoy every single pieces of my life recently. Then i realized how lovely it feels to have a loving-although-not-perfect family. A superb mother, really hard working father, unique siblings, great-and-supportive friends, challenging-and-dynamic study environment of FEUI, relatively cheap living expense in Depok, and not necessarily say the decent facilities given. I think it is save for me to say that i feel content with my life and i think it's enough for now. It is my comfort zone.

Then the question raised is that, "why bother to move, brother ?". Sometimes i also rose this basic question to my self. Why bother to leave if you already contented with your current life condition ? sometimes, i had no answer. but most of the time i answered it with "to be better".

Therefore, the definition on "be better" may vary from person to person. We could be better in any aspects of our life. Then, let's scrutinize it to the phrase of "a better future". How do you define "a better future" ? does it means being wealthier, smarter, happier or what ?

With no intentions of being cocky (although it still sounds cocky), Faculty of Economics - University of Indonesia already promised me more than just a decent future of life. And i thought it already offered me more than what does it takes to succeed in the jungle of Indonesian economic and business community. It's like a passport to excel for some reason.

It's a mini Harvard of Indonesia.

Not necessarily saying the magical-and-somehow-collusive connections of the yellow jackets thingy. But yes, it really works, fellas. To be more cocky, let me share you some potential highlights of FEUI. We have both international and national superb caliber of networks. You'll never know who the hell would standing in the front of your class as the lecturer.

He/she could be a minister, businessman, entrepreneur, economist, statistician, mathematician, or even a financial market bastard.

the same thing applies for your fellow friends. You'll never know who they would be in the next five years. So basically, FEUI is a perfect networking field for me.

Then most of you including me will ask, "hey fella, with those good damn things in ur life, aren't you should think that's enough ?". It maybe yes, maybe no. I don't want to stay in my comfort zone for too long. Since i believed that people who never leave their comfort zone would never succeed. So, it's all about leaving your comfort zone. Well, it is also a part of a bigger system malfunction that effect my life. Why ? maybe i can say that if Universitas Indonesia (UI) that almost every indonesian citizens be proud of is ranked among world's top 50 universities, then i don't have to bother to take off my ass abroad. As i cockily elaborated, FEUI already gives me more than what does it takes to succeed. at least, locally.

But most of the times, people are never satisfied. We were born with needs, wants, obsessions. And especially for me, i was born with dreams.

Yes dude, it's dreams that take me to where i've been right now. As Anis Baswedan PhD, said as his life philosophy, "I have a dream, and I share my dream". It perfectly suits me. Men are measures by what he dreams of. For me, dreaming is self-actualizing. There is no boundaries to dream.

To wrap up, i'm moving because of four reasons. First, i have to leave my comfort zone. Second, i am about to chase my dream. Third, i am actualizing my self. And fourth, yes, i am not enough, yet. Being competent locally is not enough for the prudent-and-cocky Arif Nindito. I want to compete globally. And the only way to do so is by going global.

Studying abroad will never promised you a happier life. Although maybe, just maybe, a more rewarding income. Being happy is not necessarily the same as being wealthy. It depends on what values you hold. So many people are damn rich but they are not happy.

Studying abroad, ideally, would gives you more holistic perspectives. It will shape the way you see things that finally leads to more knowledges. And believe it or not, knowledge leads to power. But once again it depends on the person. Only people who willing to learn will learn, otherwise, they will never actually learn although they seem like so.

In the end, as Uncle Ben in the spiderman said,

"With great power must come great responsibility"

Since knowledge leads to power, then come the responsibility. Knowledge demands for application. Having much knowledges without apply it to the society is useless. According to prophet Muhammad SAW, the greatest men ever is the men who could be useful for others. Then it's our call, with knowledge we can be useful for the society or be useless for them. We think, we act.

It's already more than lengthy as a blog post, but i just burst it off from my vigorous mind. I have to finish some immigration matters and more importantly finish to pack my luggage. That's it for this woke up blog post.

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For the people i care and love for the most,

Arif Nindito.