Well, I have.
After I graduated from college, I found myself stuck on the intersection. I don’t know what way which I should take for my future. I didn’t know which industries that fit with my passion. Should I go to FMCG? Banking? Fashion? Media? Or oil and gas which will give me better salaries to pay my bill? At that time, Ifelt I just lost and scared about my future. In bahasa we called it “galau”. I am afraid that if I make a wrong decision now, it will affect my whole future life and waste my time. It’s getting worse by seeing my peer group who already found their passion and started to chase it for example working in prestigious company, taking certain certification etc.
I was starting to lose my confidence and questioning my ability to success. I wasn’t sure whether I have good enough skill and achievement to be offered. Then, I have to face the people who like to judge me as I haven’t found any “proper job”. One of my family member even said “why would you graduate as cum laud in 3, 5 years, if you haven’t worked yet?” At that time I stunted and shocked that there is aperson who’s really that rude which made me feel worse.
In the darkness, fortunately i bumped in with a great gentleman whom I respect to. He is a president director in one of biggest multinational company in Indonesia. He asked me to explain myself and told him about my dream, and what I want to be in the future. Hence he told me “Raisa, I think you are really great. You have positive attitude, smart brain, fast learner and high adaptability. I believe that you will be a successful woman.” He remained me the positive sides of me and made me believe that there’s positive thing in me. It boosts up my self-confidence. Then, I started to leave negative people who only drag me down and surround myself with someone who could support me
.
After that, I usually compare myself with my great friends whom I usually hangout with and doing stupid thing together. During college, many of them were participating in competition or being delegates from Indonesia for international competition. However, after graduation, everything changed. While I was still figured out about what I was going to do with my life, my friends started to chase their passions by working in prestigious investment bank or business consultant, or continue their study abroad. Compare to them, my achievements were almost nothing. I felt my life was empty and worthless. Then, I shared my feeling, my emptiness, to one of my good friend. She just smile and said “Eh Raisa, Many people are dying to be in your shoes. if you said that your life is empty, what about mine? Garbage? Your life is full of color and very dynamic if you compare it with mine. Let alone to win like you, I have never been participated on any competition during college. My GPA is lower than you, also with my family’s financial condition. Is it makes me down? No! Because I knew that every person is unique and has their own strength and weakness. The thing is you need to stop comparing yourself with others and starting to be happy with your own”. And that’s what I did.
Then, I read many articles about successful figure i.e. Michael Jordan, Steve Jobs, Thomas Alfaedison .
Many of them had been failed for thousand times, million times, before they could taste the success.
The thing is they never give up and they realize when they faced the failure, they have to step up their
game. It is okay to make mistake. It’s not wasting our time. Failure will give us learning how to be a
better person.
After passed all of things, I felt more relax and comfortable with my situation. I am more open to opportunities in my life. Then, I took the opportunity to work in marketing research industry as researcher. Well, we never know, maybe, I could be the best market researcher in Indonesia.
In life, we may are in the position where everything is dark. Where we are not sure about where to go and afraid of the darkness of the uncertainty. Based on my experience, we may want to take these steps for facing the darkness. First, have in faith in ourselves that we are able to be success and we have enough to be offered. Second, stop looking up and comparing ourselves with others. We need to realize that we are unique in our own way. Third, accept our own humanity. Accept that sometimes human are making mistakes and that’s okay. Because we are only human who’s not perfect. We need realize that there’s no such thing as certainty, the only certainty is uncertainty. So, just keep on going and trust ourselves.
