Prepared Adult
by Ms. Nurhidayati
Do you remember anyone asking you what you want to be when you grow up? I do, and I also remember when my friends and I discussed our hopes and dreams about our adult life. Most of us were excited about growing up. We all looked forward to dreams come true: such as having a big paycheck, meet our soulmate, build a family, have kids and live happily ever after. We all imagined storybook ending growing up. Then reality sets in and adulting is simply not as pretty as those fairy tales. Honestly, we are probably not ready to become adult. What is an adult? Ask anyone you know, some of them would probably answer with the same fairy tale expectations: being successful in your career, getting a big paycheck, etc.
I too had pursued those fairy tale expectations: career and big paycheck. And surprised because the ending did not make me happy. At that time, I had a pretty good job and salary but would come home crying after work, up to a point that I had to re-think about what job is suitable for me. So I tried different jobs and different cities, however I still couldn’t find anything suitable for me. On the other hand, time keeps running ahead and other pressures set in: “it’s just a job,” “big paycheck is enough.” All of these pressure were stressing me out. “What am I supposed to do with my life?” At Playtics, there was workshop presented by Pak Gani, and he said that it is okay to jump from one job to another to find what you like. There isn’t such thing as a perfect job/idea job. But we need to know what are the things that can give us fulfillment. It also needs to be hand in hand with our passion, abilities and marketplace. But first, we need to sort our priority, what things are most important for you? How do you want to spend your life(designing your life)?
My reflection after that workshop is that I realize I find fulfillment in helping others, when I can share my knowledge and also learn something new. I think that will be my ideal life. But to fulfill and design one like that means I still have a long journey. And I realize that teaching maybe one of the ways to achieve it, as one of my passion is to share my knowledge. I wish that I knew about this sooner, but we are never too late to learn. As long as we are still alive, it means that we still have the opportunity to grow. So Hopefully, this paper can help others to find their true priority that can fulfill them.
