Alternative Cities

Pertama kali saya pindah ke Jakarta itu tahun 1993. Waktu itu saya kelas 2 SD. Kalau dihitung-hitung berarti sudah hampir 20 tahun saya di kota ini (yaiks, I am old!). Sejak kecil saya selalu berpikir bahwa nantinya ketika saya sudah dewasa dan mulai membangun karir serta keluarga, ya saya akan tetap di kota ini. Dan kenapa tidak, ya kan?

Pertama, Jakarta ini pusatnya perputaran uang. Peluang karir disini jauh lebih banyak daripada di kota lain. Kedua, apapun ada di Jakarta ini. Mal dimana-mana, tempat makan enak di setiap sudut kota, pokoknya segala macam fasilitas ada disini. Ketiga, kualitas pendidikan disini cenderung lebih baik daripada kota lain. Setidaknya pilihan sekolah dari A sampai Z ada. Keempat, orang tua saya disini. Saya bahkan beberapa kali bercerita tentang bagaimana cintanya saya dengan kota ini disini dan disini.

Intinya, tinggal di Jakarta adalah sebuah kepastian dan tidak perlu lagi saya pertanyakan.

...Sampai dua tahun terakhir ini.

Seperti yang pernah saya ceritakan disini, untuk mencapai kantor di Senayan saya butuh menyisihkan waktu kira-kira dua jam di jalan. Lalu dua jam lagi untuk pulang dari Senayan ke rumah. Mungkin karena saya pernah merasakan empat tahun di Bandung, rasanya agak sulit buat saya menerima keadaan ini. Empat jam mameeeeen!!

Sementara orang-orang lain meskipun kesal tapi tampaknya bisa menerima. Suatu kali saya terpikir untuk ngekos saya dekat kantor. Akan tetapi, pertama, harga kosan yang decent di pusat Jakarta itu mahal bo. Kedua, sedih amat sih sampai ngekos. Nanti pulang kantor ga ketemu adik-adik saya dong. Maka pikiran ngekos itu saya bubarkan.

Nah itu weekdays nya. Tapi siksaan kemacetan yang sesungguhnya adalah pada akhir minggu terutama Jumat malam dan Sabtu malam. Catat!
Di Jumat malam, waktu perjalanan bisa sampai tiga sampai tiga setengah jam.

Semakin saya pikirkan rasanya semakin tidak mungkin buat saya untuk tetap tinggal disini. Entahlah bagaimana orang-orang lain yang bisa bertahan hidup di Jakarta dengan pola hidup seperti itu. Ibu saya termasuk orang yang senang bertahan di Jakarta, tapi itu karena tempat kerjanya ke arah Bekasi dan Halim paling pol juga satu setengah jam. Kalau normal kurang dari satu jam.

Pada orang-orang yang seperti saya dulu, saya bertanya-tanya apakah Anda yakin yang Anda jalani sekarang ini adalah hidup yang baik? Apa iya tidak ada alternatif yang lebih baik di kota lain?

Saya sih sudah menyerah. Tak mau saya selamanya terjebak di kota ini. Dan ketika saya memutuskan ini, saya menemukan ada kota-kota lain di luar Jakarta yang sebenarnya potensial.

Solo, misalnya. Ini adalah kota asal Ibu saya maka saya sudah cukup familiar dengan kota ini. Paling tidak setahun sekali saya mudik kesana. Solo beberapa tahun terakhir ini semakin menjanjikan. Kotanya masih kultural, tapi kalau Anda jalan-jalan bisa dilihat ada banyak usaha-usaha kecil dan besar yang berkembang. Kotanya pun cukup tertib dengan jalan utama yang cukup besar. Terakhir saya kesana lebaran tahun lalu, saya jadi makin jatuh cinta.

Persis di seberang hotel tempat saya menginap, Best Western, ada yang namanya PGS (mungkin kepanjangan dari Pusat Grosir Solo). Di PGS ini isinya mirip ITC tapi yang dijual batik. Dari hasil bertanya-tanya, sebagian batik-batik ini dibuat di workshop-workshop yang ada di sekitar Solo. PGS hanya buka sampai sore, karena malamnya, di bagian luarnya dijadikan semacam pusat lesehan, dimana berbagai macam masakan khas bisa ditemukan.
Oh ya, Solo juga punya bandara international, yang artinya kota ini terbuka dari mancanegara.

Lalu ada juga Yogya. Saya menghabiskan 7 tahun pertama hidup saya di kota ini. Dulu sih seingat saya kotanya dingin sekali, apalagi saya tinggal di Kaliurang km 6,6. Sekarang sudah tidak sedingin dulu dan sudah lebih ramai oleh, terutama, motor. Bagusnya kota ini juga punya bandara international dan sudah lebih berkembang kalau dibandingkan Solo. Di kota ini juga ada UGM yang menyediakan fasilitas pendidikan yang baik.

Dan tentu ada Bandung. Tidak ada bandara international disini, tapi untungnya dia tidak jauh dari Jakarta. Biaya hidup di Bandung ini sayangnya lebih tinggi daripada di Solo atau Yogya tapi untuk tempat-tempat hiburan modern memang lebih banyak disini. Lalu ada ITB dan Unpad untuk alternatif tempat pendidikan. Yang saya khawatirkan hanya kepadatannya. Akhir-akhir ini sepertinya tingkat kepadatan di Bandung makin meninggi. Saya tidak yakin 25 tahun dari sekarang Bandung tidak akan menjadi seperti Jakarta.

Selain tiga kota tadi, rasanya masih banyak yang lain yang belum saya tilik. Intinya, kehidupan tidak hanya berputar di Jakarta. Mungkin tinggal di Jakarta berarti penghasilan lebih besar, tapi toh pengeluaran juga lebih besar, dan yang paling penting, waktu yang terbuang di jalan juga lebih besar. Uang bisa dicari tapi kalau waktu dimana bisa dibeli?


Ralat. 
Bandara di Bandung itu international juga ternyata. Thanks to Bat untuk ralatnya :)

School

It's been two weeks since I started my master study. Even though I had known for long that one day I would take my master, still it was quite a long way to go for me.

For starter, my parents always push me to go for master. Even before I started my undergraduate study, I had already known that I wouldn't stop at bachelor degree. For me it was just simply something that I had to do. I didn't put much thought into it. Although, as time went by I could feel that I truly wanted it. Part of it maybe because I am not very satisfied with my previous study. I feel like I am not excel at anything yet and I want to be an expert of something.

After I graduated, as I had already planned, I gained some work experiences first before going back to school. I desired to continue my study overseas so I applied for several scholarships, but didn't get any. I was in Erasmus Mundus' reserves list but in the end I couldn't get through, though they offered me a regular spot but it was very expensive. Still I couldn't help to consider that I might should just take the chance anyway.

At that time a friend of mine asked me, why do you insist to study overseas?

Because they have great programs, I replied.

What do you want to study anyway? You can't find a good school that has the program that you want here?

I was thinking to take either Supply Chain or Marketing and I was offered Innovation Management, which is equally interesting. But I couldn't ignore what my friend said because he got a point there. I didn't intend to study nuclear power or whatever things that haven't been developed here anyway. Surely money was the biggest issue but it was not only that. Surely if I had got the scholarship I would've not even blinked before I packed my things. But then that was not what happened. Finally, after some sleepless nights, I decided to take my master here, in Jakarta.

Now I've been a master student for two weeks and am enjoying it. I am grateful that I insisted to take Marketing Management instead of Finance. The latter of course a very important thing to be learned and some people advised me to take that major and I did consider it for some time. But what can I say, I guess it's like dating with a guy. When there's no chemistry, even though he is one high qualified gentleman, you can't feel the excitement.

Right on my first day, I was convinced that I have made the right decision. I do like this stuffs of getting into people heads and pursue them to think or act certain things. I've been busier since then but I'm hanging here. :)

Cupcakes at Cupcakes Company

You know I've been craving for cupcakes for like... 3 weeks, I think.. I blame DC Cupcakes reality show for this. The show is not that good but the cupcakes surely look yum.
At one point I dragged my sister and cousins to Holycow Steak in Senopati so we can have steaks and.. cupcakes. I was unlucky, when we got our table (after waited for about an hour), they had already run out of cupcakes. I swear I almost got it, I saw the last cupcake in the refrigerator right before I ordered. And right when I told the waiter that I wanted the cupcake, another waiter came to the refrigerator, took out that cute cupcake and delivered it to other table. Shoot!

So I did what I usually do when I don't get what I want: obsess even more about it.
I found out that the cupcakes are provided by Cupcakes Company. I was excited!
Unfortunately, the minimum order is one dozen. 12 cupcakes. Who's gonna eat 12 cupcakes??
You need a good reason to order a dozen cupcakes. Like birthday or bachelorette party. Ha, it crossed my mind to hold a bachelorette party just so I can have one good reason to order 12 cupcakes. I must have been insane.

I was disappointed. But then, AHA! They have pre-special order!
So they accept small order (at least 2 cupcakes) that should be ready every Tuesday and Thursday. However the flavor choices is limited. As for today's special order, the available flavors are Moonwalker, Charlie Brown, and Greenie Camelia. The cupcakes can be delivered (which of course costs more) or picked up at their office in Pondok Indah.
I, of course, chose the second option. The bright side of studying in Depok campus (suck it Salemba!).

I ordered 4 cupcakes: 2 Charlie Browns, 1 Greenie Camelia, and 1 Moonwalker. Each costs Rp 15.000. Quite pricey.
This afternoon, after class I headed to Pondok Indah. I had the address but the the house numbering in Metro Pondok Indah street is messed up. After some time I finally found the right house. Yes, it is a house and I litterally had to ring the bell because the gate was closed. You won't find any "Cupcakes Company" writing whatsoever outside the wall (and probably inside too). I picked my 4 nice-looking cupcakes and took off.

I tried Charlie Brown first. This one is my favorite. The cake is stuffed with choco chips while the topping is peanut butter. It really tastes like Skippy.
Greenie Camelia is sweet with green-tea scent which is nice. But it's a bit too sweet for me.
Moonwalker is the my least favorite. It's good, but compared with the other two I am not very impressed with this one. It has oreo on top of it.

I don't finish them all. I only finished one Charlie Brown, and got one bit of the others.

Ripping Off a Bandage

"On Monday we'll get rid of the small comics", I decided and told the assistant last Friday. Small comics means the Japanese comics (or Korean, whatever). We will only keep special comics, I was so sure. Special comics means comics like Tintin, etc.

Frankly, ReadingWalk is running out of space. I need to make sure we use it as efficient as possible. Small comics take quite much space and for now is not as profitable as the other categories. So I was certain, they all have to go (at least for now).

Then Monday came. As the assistant was preparing the boxes, I was frozen between the shelfs. I looked at the comics and surprised that it was a somewhat emotional moment for me. Most of them were our first collections. I remember my partner and I walked around dusty book shops, tried to find some comics that were still in good condition. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack. We picked some then we discussed, debated, argued, which ones should we bought. After we agreed then we begged for discounts. After some fake tears, we dragged the 10 kg comics to the car. And it's always a very hot day. I always felt like I was dried to the bones.

So this morning I felt the urge to keep them there. For old time sake!

But I need space, I told myself.

Well you can get rid some and keep some, myself replied back.

That's a good idea, I agreed.

So I started to divide them: STAY and LEAVE. But then it got harder. I couldn't keep some and throw the others. What are the criteria to make a comic stays or leaves? What makes one better than the other? I was shattered.

I took a deep breath and retold myself the decision I had made last week: they all have to go.

Quickly I took them all out. Quick quick quick, before I changed my mind. Luckily I only needed to take them out. The assistant did the rest. Now they're all packed in boxes. Happily. I hope.

Sometimes, it's not difficult to decide. The tricky part is in the execution. I knew the decision was right yet I was reluctant to execute. I tried to re-decide. In this case I think the best way to do it is to do it as quickly as possible and don't give emotion a chance to response. Like ripping off a bandage.

Working Life

Back when I was a college student, I thought I had got the picture of how working life would be. After I graduated, I spent some time to establish ReadingWalk first. Then after some time I started sending my resumes to some companies. Ready to experience being a part of a multinational industry.

My first office job after I graduated was in food and beverage industry. I was posted in the Corporate Planning department. It didn't go very well for me. I don't know how to explain it without making you confuse, but shortly short, I wasn't challenged. I was a fresh grad fully motivated to show the world how good I was but, at that time, I didn't think my job could get me there. When I imagined myself in the next 5 years, I didn't like the picture. I decided to move.

I joined steel industry. Again, Planning department. The first two months I did nothing except read my e-learning materials. Sure I got bored at some point, but because I knew what was waiting for me next, I hung on. Then gradually I started to do the real work. My need of challenge was fulfilled and I kinda like the picture of me in the next 5 years. Though, I had known that I wouldn't be there for so long. I still need to do my master and I wanted to do some business on my own. However, that nice picture of me could get me motivated enough to do my work.

Though I was eager to live the corporate life I was still taken by surprise of how things were going and how strong my job affected my life. I'm not talking about the work itself, but this:

The official working hour was 9 AM - 6 PM. To get there by 9 AM, I had to leave home at least at 7.15. Considering I took 15 minutes to have breakfast and another 60 minutes to take shower, pick the outfit, and put on some light make up, so I have to wake up at 6 AM.

Then I finished at 6 PM. I had to pray first so I left the building at 6.15. Considering that I had to walk a little and wait for the bus or omprengan to arrived, I arrived at home at around 8.15 PM. After I cleaned myself and had dinner, I watched TV. Because I was exhausted, 30 minutes later I was fallen asleep in front of the TV. That would be around 10 PM.

The next morning I woke up and the routine started all over again.

That was the good scenario. Often I had to leave the office after 7 PM. If you think the traffic is nicer at night, think again. There was also the very good scenario, when I could reach home before 7.30 PM. Not very often, though.

At first I refused to leave home before 7.30 AM. I insisted that I need to do something beside working in my life and the only time I had was in the morning. But the traffic was (and is) bloody awful. I would stuck longer in the traffic if I left later.

Then I registered myself to a gym so I could do some work out before I went home. Something for myself.

What amazed me is how people are okay with this. While I felt awful dedicating my life to make a company survives (the one that is not mine). I had 24 hours everyday and I gave at least 12 hours (including travel time) to the company. If I live for another 40 years, it means I only have 20 years to sleep and do whatever other things I want to do. It kinda hurt when I thought about it.

Don't get me wrong, I liked my job. It was often stressful but I still liked it. However, I just didn't feel that was enough. Doing the job that I like did not compensate the 12 hours, half of my lifetime. I felt I need to have greater reason for doing it.

A very close friend of mine, he is working for a state-owned company, from 7 AM to 4 PM. Once in a while he has to work 24 hours for several days, in some remote area. He is transfered from one location to another every couples years. But he has faith in himself that what he does is for the benefit of the people. He believes that the company he works for could provide better life for others.

I thought, I need to have that kind of reason. It had to be larger than paying my bills, shopping some shoes, or proofing to others whatever I need to prove. I felt I miss that reason. And I couldn't force myself to grow a faith within me that what I was doing was for greater good. So I resigned.

I might be too naive or dumb or cocky, but if I have 40 more years to live I wish to make it meaningful. I know myself quite well and how my ego can drives me to do something I am not going to be proud of in the future. What scares me is that if my ego leads me living a life that I choose only because other people choose it.