Dream is what makes us feel more alive. Dream a little bigger than your fears. Life could make you feel hopelessness but having a dream that will make you living in a hopeful way. I was a coward for dreaming something unreachable but looking back to how far I’ve come, I am so aware that my current life has been one of my teenage dreams that came true but Yogyakarta was the unplanned one. It turned out to be the best decision though. Once in a while, you have to believe in the power of your dreams, put some consistent efforts and prayers in it even if it sounds so improbable, full of doubts and thoughts of giving up at first.
I used to think I could never belong to any places I’ve been to until I came to Yogyakarta. I didn’t have a clue why I never thought twice to pick this town as my study destination. It took less than a year to adjust myself to be here. I felt no place could be safe and fit for me to be my true self and to be fully honest with myself. I’ve been living here with two of my sisters. None of us could guess two of us ended up studying in one of top 3 universities of this country. It was unbelievable because we played a lot during our childhood and we was never courageous to depict how life could look like outside of our hometown. Maybe the stars would look brighter out there. That was what I conceived at that time. According to me, not everyone needs higher education degree to be successful. The meaning of success is so diverse for every person and the purpose of education itself is just to educate people but you’ll get more education outside of schools and universities. I just like studying and doing the assignments is a fun thing for me. I am not as nerd as I was but I liked more who I am today. I am so blessed of having my hard working sisters who always push me to do better based on my interests. Their endless supports made me stronger to change to be a better person every single day. We came from a small place for big dreams. I’ll never want to trade my sisters for anything in this world. We agreed that Yogyakarta is gonna be the most impressive and favorite place along our journey of growth through ups and downs in our twenties. I could say we were shamelessly being so depressed in this town. We will always bring the stories of sweats and tears we had all these years. I still keep in my mind one fun thing my older sister said to me when she was so stressed out and drained emotionally “I am not interested in sleeping.” and then she slept with her tiring face eventually.
Two things that shocked me to be a part of this place are Javanese as its local language and the sweetness of its local food. I used to joke with my sisters if people who are originally from this town would cook using sugar in everything they’d serve. Then, I remember the fact is 2 of 3 my older brothers in law are Javanese. I cannot handle too much sweetness on food or beverage because it can sicken my tongue and my brain cannot proceed it for long time also it’s bad for health. I did grow up around most of Javanese environment and my dad can speak Javanese fluently but none of his children can use it actively. It wasn’t for I couldn’t understand nothing but I found it hard to communicate with the elderly people who prefer to use the soft version of Javanese as known as Kromo and they avoid the use of official language. My comprehension is only for the rude version of Javanese with people around my age. I never even had Javanese class in my high schools too. I made some friends with different home languages from different cities with me but mostly they speak in Javanese and I am so fascinated by watching them talking to their parents on phone in Javanese with their own accents. I can say I am not relatable with people from my hometown from their mindset and lifestyle, so that’s why I don’t really have a friend with same language with me. I could be quite peculiar because I could get culture shock anytime I visit my hometown as if I was never born and meant to be part of that town.
Year after year, I got used to the local language and I was so mesmerized of the friendliness of society on this town to the outsider like me. I’ve never felt so welcomed with this treat all my life. They never even think twice to help strangers who don’t speak their language. I will never forget about that. The uniqueness about this town is it is ruled by kingdom but it has the lowest salary system of all cities. In fact, this is one of famous touristic places and student city. I just wonder how it could happen and I’ve seen how happy people who live here with the truth of their financial situation depends on the existence of students and tourists. I can spot many beggars and homeless people here. That scenery I’ve never seen in my hometown. Money is not everything but everyone needs money to survive and to fullfil necessities. I feel sad seeing kids who are under 10 should sacrifice their childhood living in the road for making money to help their parents who cannot provide them a decent life. I might not have a perfect life but I might have a life I should be always grateful for. Here I couldn’t count how many schools and universities. I just know that I shouldn’t worry a lot for finding books and everything I need for academics and hobbies. This town provides more than what I needed the most.
As long as I am still here, I’ll always get new things to learn. This place had given my very first time to use public transportation by myself and from the start I felt so excited about that. Ever since I feel secure anytime I go out alone because I never find this secure and safe feelings whenever I am in the province of my hometown. Most of older men and younger men will treat me like shit as an object of catfishing and catcalling in the place I was born and raised. I liked how younger or older men and women in Yogyakarta will definitely call me as “Mbak” which sounds so polite to treat me as a woman regardless of my actual age and name. This is one thing that my older sister missed so much hearing “Mbak” from people in this place once she moved back to our hometown. Aside from that, I cannot handle how strong tradition in this town. As someone who doesn’t adore a tradition or doesn’t care about a culture, I cannot accept about the myths that people still believe, praise and they even make it as part of their life especially to make a decision about the date for their kids to hold marriage ceremony. I will prevent myself from dealing with that thing in my life. I myself will always rethink the relation between religion and tradition because my rationality will defeat the tradition lastly.
I have daily conversation with my little sister about Yogyakarta and the people in it because in the end we would make this place just as our second home to revisit anytime eventhough we’ll live somewhere else we don’t know exactly where it is. What we only know, we are living under our name here. That’s the good thing for now. That’s the best start for every uncertainty we will confront. I am not a big fan of living in a bigger town as Jakarta because I hate its traffic jams, pollutions, crimes, politics, modern and freedom lifestyle. Although it offers so many doors to get paid with highest salary than other cities and it’s known as a land of opportunities. Though, maybe one day I should move to Jakarta or bigger town, I should try to accept new challenges for the better version of myself. Yogyakarta is more tolerable and strict for its lifestyle because it has strong culture that the society keeps it very well from generation to generation. Eventhough I like modernization and freedom but I still need some restrictions in my life. This town is really good for self discovery but to live in a big population as crowd as this place for long period of time for example, I wouldn’t recommend it even to myself.
Two things I disliked about Yogyakarta are the earthquake and the interracial conflict can happen anytime until they could kill one another for a simple reason. I grew up from a place that will never give me nerves because there is only flat land and mostly there are no severe conflicts unless demonstrations toward governments. I still remember when my friend who is originally from Yogyakarta laughed at how panic I was in my first year dealing with the earthquake that frequently happened in unexpected time. The plausible thing about the earthquake is this place is very close to the volcano and the ocean. I missed the cold weather as my first impression of this town but I still can handle the heat of the climate change. My contention about moving out is everyone will need time to get used to something and being in a new place will give new astonishments. Despite I’ve spent several years here. It’s alright to be startled by a new situation. It will be worth your time and energy later on.
