The Little Women

As medical practitioners, we were often told that being a doctor means that we’re committing ourselves to be a lifelong learner and guess what? It doesn’t just end with us doctors. Everyone is a lifelong learner. “It’s never too late to learn” as it often said. No matter how old you are, there is never a time limit for those who want to learn. I think every child needs to view learning as a fun experience. Every single one of us has to. It makes us look forward to learn new things, it helps us view learning as a lifelong experience and feel no burden by it. The possibility of being one (a lifelong learner —red) might even excite us. When we’re already doing so, we’ll keep learning even though our study has ended. We even start to develop symptoms – we start to develop this itch, this hunger, we start to feel an immense desire to study. Then we begin to dive deeper into one particular subject or we find ourselves searching for any other interesting topics to swallow. Oh and spoiler...

For those loved ones whom I laid my heart upon, right from the start of my college ride up until we’re finally apart. I’ll keep you all safe in my mind always, I’ll hold you close to my heart. For nothing can ever do us part. Thank you for your love, thank you for all of those crazy journeys we’ve had, thank you for everything. It has been my greatest pride, it has been one hell of a ride.   Loves of my life   For those who got angry on my behalf.   I've met the loves of my life during college. And yes, you read it right. "Loves" as in plural form. The ones whom I literally can't live without. Those people whom I hold so dear, so deep in my heart, next to my soul.   There is not a single day has gone by without me being thankful to God for crossing our paths one to another. For bringing them to me.   Every single one of them are just so precious in their own way. And I love them precisely and solely because they are th...

  “But I know I’ll be alright With an open door, no matter what I do, what I do When I need a hand to hold Would it be okay if I came home to you? ” Sigrid – Home to You ( https://youtu.be/fvUmrVnqLV0 )   It wonders me how we’re able to have a Mother’s day, a Father’s day, but no day to celebrate both of them? Well, that curiosity led me into one incredible discovery: That we do have parents’ day! And some places around the world celebrate it already. It was May 8 th for South Korea, fourth Sunday of July in the United States and at the first Monday of December for the Philippines. The United Nations (UN) even proclaimed June 1 st as Global Day of Parents to celebrate parents’ in all parts of the world. Earlier this week I present a poem for you about parent, about how “perfectly imperfect” they are. You know, as a child, somehow we give ourselves justification to demand perfection from our parent, sometimes we even continue to do so up until adulthood. W...

Sebagai seorang anak, terkadang kita merasa “boleh” memberi kritik terhadap sikap orangtua kita mengenai suatu hal, kita menuntut “kesempurnaan” dari mereka. Namun seringkali kita lupa bahwa tidak ada satu pun orang di dunia ini yang sempurna, termasuk orangtua kita. Kita harus selalu ingat bahwa mereka, dalam segala keterbatasannya, selalu berjuang, melakukan yang terbaik hanya demi kita. Mereka akan selalu ada disamping kita dengan suka cita menopang anak-anaknya, seperti yang sudah mereka lakukan sedari dulu saat mereka menopang kita belajar berjalan, sekarang mereka masih terus dan akan selalu menopang kita menuju masa depan.   Surat cinta untuk MamaPapa   Orangtuaku tak sempurna Lalu kenapa? Apakah ada orangtua yang sempurna? Maksudku, apakah ada orang di dunia ini yang sempurna? Setahuku, hanya Tuhan-lah kesempurnaan yang sejati.   Orangtuaku tak sempurna Mereka tidak berada disampingku saat masa2 penting pertumbuhanku Lalu kenapa? Apakah h...

I remembered like it was yesterday. One day we suddenly decide, the next day we're already planning. Where to go, what to do. When we tell them that we're going, they laugh but permit us still. Little did they know how serious we were. Then the time of the travel comes, nervous laughter was heard all over the table, doubts were conveyed, worries heightened. But we keep going, anyway. Then we embarked on our journey of 8 hours flight, arrived when the night hit its peak. I never been to China, we do not speak Chinese and none of us have had travel during winter time, either. We really were an audacious (if not mad) bunch of people. We slept at the airport for the night, we were separated because I got lost, we got yelled at in the bus during our way to The Great Wall, we experienced Toboggan, a slide so long, the wind was so cold I couldn't even feel my own hands. We felt the gushing cold winter wind blowing up our face when we got back from The Great Wall, ate...

Waktu yang berhenti membuat kita menjalani hidup dengan perlahan. Hidup yang pelan tersebut membuat kita menyadari banyak hal, salah satunya adalah betapa banyak hal-hal kecil yang terlewat untuk kita syukuri. Puisi ini dibuat untuk mengingatkan, dan mengajak kita untuk bersyukur atas hal-hal kecil tersebut.   Kusampaikan cinta   Kusampaikan cintaku kepada pagi Yang senantiasa menjelang tuk memulai hari Kusampaikan cintaku kepada langit Yang biru-nya selalu cerahkan hati Kusampaikan cintaku kepada mentari Yang senantiasa bersinar setiap pagi Kusampaikan cintaku kepada dunia Yang selalu manjakan mata dengan segala keindahannya   Kusampaikan cintaku kepada hujan Yang selalu datang basahi taman   Kusampaikan cintaku kepada pelangi Yang selalu hadir di kala hujan menjatuhi bumi Kusampaikan cintaku kepada bunga Yang harum semerbaknya senantiasa bangkitkan asa   Kusampaikan cintaku kepada Tuhan Atas segala berkat yang telah ia...

“We may fall but we’ll keep on going We may break but we won’t stay broken Through the cracks in the road the flowers grow” Alice Kristiansen – Moon and Back ( https://youtu.be/7jiNJYbSMTw )   SOS is a term that the navy use in the face of difficulties. A distress call, so to say. SOS is an abbreviation of “Save our Ship”, “Survivors on Ship” or “Save Our Sailors”. One interesting thing about SOS is : it’s an  ambigram , a word that can be read right side up  and  upside down, to help anyone from anywhere sees the signal thus enable them to dispatch help wherever it might be needed. SOS teach you about struggle. In their case, they’re struggling to survive, as-in in the matter of life or death struggle. They literally struggle for their lives. That is not the SOS I want to talk to you about, though. Well I do want to talk about struggle, or a  Series of Struggles (SOS),  to be precise. One of the most human thing every single one of us has encountered. Stru...

Of all the places we could be, there is nowhere better, safer, more peaceful than our mother’s arm. Being a mother isn’t easy, I suppose. Hard choices had to be made, sacrifices had to be done, just for the sake of their children. We found ourselves fall in love with them, over and over again. Our strong, beautiful mother. May they always be in God’s grace.   Dear future daughter   Dear future daughter I shall never let you cry But I must Because that is the only way you'll learn how to be strong   Dear future daughter I shall never let you fall But I must Because that is the only way you'll learn how to stand up for yourself   Dear future daughter I shall never let you fail But I must Because that is the only way you'll learn that life require efforts   Dear future daughter I shall never let your heart broken But I must Because that is the only way you'll learn to know your own worth   I do what I must do, ch...

I made this poem because of our pandemic, coronavirus, year of 2020. I realized that this pandemic costs us everything that we have, even lives of the people that we love. Grieves were perceived globally, across nations. In regards of our massive bereavement, I imagine those that we've lost turn into flowers when they die. That even in their death, they're still our everything, and even in death, they'll still be with us. They're in our hearts. Forever. And they become flowers Imagine all lives that we've lost turned into flowers when they die A flower so beautiful That even God will smile from above when He sees it A flower so beautiful That'll warm even the coldest of heart A flower so beautiful That'll calm even the most turbulent of soul   I know that we've all lost too much We've cried too heavy I know that we've also missed them, so much   But what can we do for them? We can do nothing, actually The only thing th...

Pandemi virus korona telah menyebabkan kehidupan manusia berhenti untuk sementara. Bukan hanya di Indonesia, namun dunia. "Dunia sedang beristirahat", katanya. Istirahat-nya "dunia" tersebut memberikan kita banyak pelajaran, "istirahat" yang juga memberikan kita banyak kehilangan.  Ketika Dunia Berhenti Sementara Ketika dunia berhenti sementara Banyak perut yang ikut berteriak dengannya Banyak hati yang ikut menangis bersamanya Banyak jiwa yang pergi, hilang selamanya   Ketika dunia berhenti sementara Aku menyaksikan orang-orang yang tertinggal itu Perlahan kehilangan pelanggannya Lalu pekerjaannya Kemudian rumahnya Mereka lambat laun kehilangan segalanya Dan pada akhirnya, mereka kehilangan jati dirinya   Ketika dunia berhenti sementara Mereka menjalankan hidup dengan gamang Tidak tahu menahu bagaimana masa depan akan membentang Namun mereka tetap berkata dengan lantang Bahwa mereka akan terus berjuang   A.K, 2020. ...

Berkat; berkah : “Mendatangkan kebaikan; karunia Tuhan yang membawa kebaikan dalam hidup; bermanfaat” Salah seorang teman ayahku, seorang Indonesia yang tinggal dan berkarier di luar negeri mengatakan hal yang sangat baik kepadaku beberapa waktu yang lalu : “Apakah karya-karyamu sudah dibukukan dan bisa dibeli, Ananda? Menjadi sosok yang berseni melalui kata adalah berkat-mu untuk dibagikan kepada manusia lain. Teruslah berkarya dan jangan pernah menyerah, ya?” Teman tersebut adalah Grace Siregar, seorang perupa handal yang telah beberapa kali melakukan pameran tunggal di dalam dan luar negeri. Indonesia, Senegal dan Skotlandia adalah beberapa negara tempat pameran tunggal tersebut diadakan. Seorang seniman yang mendapatkan inspirasi dari kesehariannya, dan menumpahkan idenya dalam bentuk seni rupa. Seseorang yang ku kagumi. Beliau menanyakan apakah karyaku sudah diterbitkan dalam bentuk buku dan bisa dibeli, maksudku, siapa yang tidak senang ditanya begitu oleh i...