Stranger in the Street

"What's wrong with you, Adyl? Come on...don't stop. We must go on." I talked to my motorcycle when I went home from work.

My motorcycle ran more and more slowly...and finally stopped. Uh...it was a silly mistake not to check the fuel before you went out by motorcycle. My motorcycle ran out of gasoline. The sun shone so brightly in the middle of the day, and I had to walk and push my motorcycle.

Suddenly, a young man on his motorcycle came closer from behind. Seeing what he was bringing on his motorcycle, I guessed he worked as a delivery man. I thought I never had a friend with that job. I didn't know who he was.

"Do you run out of gas? Where will you go? Still far from here?" he asked me.

"Umm...yes. I wanna go home. Not too far," I replied.

"Let me help you push your motorcycle," he said.

"Oh...thanks," I didn't have time to think further.

Then he pushed my motorcycle by his foot while he was riding his.

After about a kilometer, at the T-junction we turned right, and after we turned right we found a mini gas station. If I walked, I could reach it in about fifteen minutes with much sweat, while with that stranger pushing my motorcycle, we could reach it in only one minute.

"Just stop here. I can buy the gas here. You can leave me," I told him.

"Are you sure?" He asked.

"Yes," I replied.

"Ok, I'm going," he said.

"Thank you so much," I said.

Then he turned around and went to the other direction, and I realized that he turned right just for helping me.

Who was he? He was really stranger whom I had never known before. He was mysterious.

Nooo...he wasn't a stranger! It was God's work.
He was the angel that God sent to help me. 

Help me to reach the gas station easily? No!

God didn't send His angel to help me when I got trouble, but He sent him to remind me to help others...even strangers.

Sometimes we prefer choosing whom we want to help, but God always reminds us to help those who need help.

HOLDIN' ON

Aaahh...again and again...try-out and try-out again....

That girl was ready in the computer room. Yes, she was ready to have some try-out. She and her schoolmates were ready to take an online try-out. 

As ninth grade students, exams are our daily meals. To prepare for the exams, several try-outs are our breakfast.

Today they are taking Bahasa Indonesia Try-Out. As usual, they've got 120 minutes to do the test. For these students, they can finish the test on non-counting subject, such as Civics, Bahasa Indonesia and English, in much less than 120 minutes. And I can see it now, some students have finished their Bahasa Indonesia test before the 70th minute. Unfortunately, they cannot go out of the room before the time ends. This is the problem they have to face: boredom.

The students have to wait silently, or doing silent activities to kill their boredom. The most enjoyable activity is going to the toilet...maybe because it makes them refresh as they can go out of the examination room. Yet, sometimes they are unlucky, because the teacher in their examination room doesn't allow them to go to the toilet, so that they can only do anything -useful or useless - at their table. 

This is the real exam: waiting patiently. 
You must defeat your boredom. Don't let the boredom defeat you.

In my view, you have practiced facing this situation when your teacher doesn't allow you to go out from the exam room when you have finished your test...and you have to hold on inside the room.
Sometimes when your surroundings cannot comfort you, and the situation becomes boring, you'll defeat this situation...and you won't escape easily....
Or when your boyfriend or girlfriend doesn't act as you expect, and the situation becomes uncomfortable, you won't leave him/her...you will hold on.

I'm always trying to answer my own question: Why does the teacher allow the students to go to the toilet during the exam? 
My answer ( I hope it's true): Because the teacher allows himself/herself to go out of the room, he/she cannot give example how to stay in the exam room when he/she feels bored. Maybe the teacher doesn't know if there is a hidden lesson in such situation.

Hold on...don't escape easily...but wait patiently....

Taken but Uneaten

To celebrate Independence Day, we usually have a special flag ceremony. It is special...because we don't hold it in our own unit only, but four units from kindergarten to high schools attend the ceremony. In the last four years, our school has been in charge of being the flag raisers. This year is different. We are in charge of being the choir to accompany the ceremony. 

Since the ceremony would be held in the football court, I think about the bigger choir...not only 20 to 30 singers...but I have also set the limit...not more than 60. For a week, I opened the registration for those who wanted to join the choir. Some students who were the flag raisers before asked me if they could join the choir..and I said yes. After reaching 60 students joining the choir, I closed the registration although there were still some students who wanted to. 

My team and I had planned the schedule of the rehearsal. We had only 7 times rehearsal...and we had to leave the classes for it. At the first day of the rehearsal, a group of students quitted the choir. They told me they couldn't attend the rehearsals. I explained to them that they had taken the seats and left them while other students who wanted to get the seats had lost them. Finally, after seeing the value that I explained, some of them took the responsibility to join the choir, but the ones who had joined the flag raisers before went on quitting. 

Now the choir has less singers than it should be. No problem...when the singers are all responsible for what they have chosen. 
Don't ever take the food and leave it uneaten while others hunger for it.

Something Sweet

The final tests were over. The academic year would end soon. All students were curious to see the result. But they couldn't see the result of their work through the year so soon. The teachers were processing the scores of all tests and assignments.

As usual, after the final tests, before the students received the report card, they didn't have any class. They spent the days by doing non-academic activities, such as social activities and sports competition.

In this year-end, they almost forgot something. They remembered that they still kept some class-cash. They were confused how to spend the money because they only had two days left to meet their classmates. They discussed...they had arguments about what they will do with the money.
Finally, most of them agreed to buy some food or drink, and enjoy it together in a small party with their classmates.

That day I entered the teachers' room. I saw some nice boxes on the table in the corner of the room. What's this? Boxes of donuts! For me, donut was something sweet...so it led me to think that it must be a sweet gift. Eventually, I found that the donuts were from the students of 8A.... They spent their class-cash to buy donuts for the teachers...so wow!

When others thought about spending the class-cash for themselves, they thought about devoting it to their teachers. 
When others focus on themselves, you focus on sharing what you have to others. 
Thanks a lot...you're the winners...you've won our hearts. 
It's something sweet!

Fast Track

It was a nice Sunday in April. We - especially the children - had waited that Sunday for a few weeks. We were excited. We were going together...to the adventure theme park. Yes...we would have an adventure.

We set off from school and had about 2 hours travelling by bus until we arrived at the adventure theme park. We were really happy and curious about what rides we could enjoy. After we got the ticket, we entered the park. The children wanted to ride many kinds of rides. 

Yet, it was Sunday, there were so many people going there. As a result, to enjoy the Snake-Coaster the children had to queue up for about 30 minutes. Then we moved to Mega-Drop. There was a long queue at the gate. We tried to be patient. Suddenly, there were some children who went through a different gate. The park management called it 'Fast Track'. What happened there? Some children went through the Fast Track gate and they didn't need to queue up as long as the other visitors. They just waited for about 5 minutes and then they could enjoy the ride soon. After wondering for a while, we found that there was an additional ticket sold as Fast Track ticket, so that those who held the ticket could go without queuing up. We found Fast Track Gate in almost all rides. 
If you've got more money, you can buy Fast Track ticket...if you've got no more money, you queue up!

Is this a kind of bribery??
Teachers and parents, why don't you use this opportunity to teach your children how to fight and survive? 
I still believe that there are noble values in queuing up....

School Monsters

Monsters are everywhere. In the jungles, in the mountains, in the countries, in the cities...and even at the schools.

In the last six months, the students in this school have been talking about some monsters. They have been scared. They can't do anything when the monsters come. The monsters can do anything they want. Some of the students have even been so stressed for this horrible situation. 

The students had given up as they couldn't beat the monsters. They couldn't understand what the monsters wanted. Their marks drastically dropped. They couldn't change the monsters into kind and friendly creatures. They gave up. Eventually, they reported about the monsters to their parents...and then...the parents came to this school, seeing the principal and the homeroom teachers to report the fear that the monsters had caused. 

The 'principal' said, "A few years ago, those monsters came to this school. They applied to make a living here. Then we accepted some of them. We have trained them well. But the results are not exactly the same since they came from different habitats and backgrounds."

Then the 'principal' told he students, "You are lucky. You're in a good school now. At home, your parents spoil you. Every problem you face is solved by your parents. Now..here in this school...the monsters train you how to survive and be tough. The monsters have different characteristics. Some of them like to treat you as you wish...give you what you like. On the other side, you cannot drive other monsters as you want. They make you taste the difficulties in life. If you can't change the monsters, change yourself...change your manner...change your way of thinking about these monsters." 
The monsters won't kill you...and everything that makes you feel difficult but it doesn't kill you, it will make you stronger.

Culicidae

It was hot that night. It was dry. We had no rain for a few months. I was working on my laptop. I had some work to do and I needed to focus on my work. The weather was not friendly to me. I felt like diving into the swimming pool was a need instead of working on the laptop.

Hot weather that night annoyed me perfectly because it was supported by a troop of mosquitoes (Culicidae). I didn't know when they came and started to bite any parts of my body. I had to wave my hands and move my body to prevent them biting me. They were all female. You know, only female mosquitoes bite us as the female ones require meals of blood in order to develop and lay eggs. They attacked me brutally and I had to defend. I couldn't do my work quickly because of the disturbers.

After working uncomfortably for a few minutes, I slowly focused more and more on my work than on the disturbers. And finally, I could finish my work more quickly than I thought since I had decided not to care too much about the hot weather and mosquitoes.

In life, we often care too much about the distractors. We often blame anything that disturbs our work or goal. And we forget our goal. But being annoyed or not is our choice. So choose. Being annoyed...or focus on our goal.