Meaning of Numbers

When I was in high school, I experienced a lot of things. I couldn't say it was mind-blowing or life-changing to you, but it was, for me. Luckily, I was surrounded mostly by adults that listen to me and my stories. No matter how stupid I sounded, no matter how simple  the problem looked, they listened to me. My Mom have always listened to me and she still is, up until now, and I couldn't be more grateful for that. Of course there used to be adults that  corrected me because my way of thinking was wrong and sometimes I got corrected because simply, I was younger than them. I instantly became someone who "didn't know better" because I "haven't experienced it".

This also happened in high school, but that adults weren't technically adults. They were my seniors, those who mostly aged 1-2 years older than me. Social media, especially Twitter was really hot. We were actively voicing our thoughts online, through that 140 characters limit. I remember seeing my senior in high school said, "these juniors that complained, wait until you experienced 3rd year". When I entered college, I saw and heard many seniors saying the same thing, "Enjoy your time now. It's only your 1st year. Wait until you face 2nd year/3rd year/thesis". They were indirectly saying that 1st year wasn't hard compared to what they have experienced and I shouldn't complained that much. I remember when my friend from different faculty said to a senior that he was stressed because he felt that 1st year was so hard, the senior said "You're only in your 1st year!" and just laughed it off, thinking that my friend was only over exaggerating his problems. The other time, I joined an organization and there was a meeting held. It was held after 6PM. The day after there was an exam for many first year students (except for my faculty), which resulted in many of them didn't attend the meeting to study. One of the seniors asked  where my friends at? I answered they have exam tomorrow so they are preparing for it. At the end of the meeting, one of the seniors said for his opening ment, "I have two exams tomorrow and I still attend this meeting," I was fuming inside. So, our problem had to be "as big as theirs" to be socially accepted and excused to not attend the meeting? Oh please.

Now moving on to my 2nd and final year of college. I saw so many new high school graduates entering college. The look of excitement in their eyes, the curiosity of everything, the look of wanting to actually  learn something in college, reminded me of my old days. However, as I saw them I unconsciously said, "Look at these young kids. Look at their spirit. Wait until they got to 2nd year." In my third year, a junior one year below me told me a story about her on-going group project. She was really stressed about it. I kinda sympathized with her because I also went through the same thing. However, after that conversation I had this feeling of being superior to someone. Yes, I became one of those seniors and adults.

No one ever brought this topic, or at least in my peer. This behavior of dismissing someone else's problem just because they were younger, has actually became common. I realized this behavior who I consciously and unconsciously did was wrong. I failed to understand that those problems that they faced may seem small, minor, pointless to me, but it was a problem to them regardless. The thing is, I failed to listen to them in the first place because of my prejudice of those who are younger. 

Last night, I came across a TEDTALK which titled "I'm 17" on YouTube. A 17 year old girl named Kate Simonds spoke on this matter, how her ideas often shrugged off by adults because simply, she's a 'teenager', what could she possibly know? Until that thought got into herself and she even told herself to stop thinking too far because she's still 17 years old. Fortunately, she didn't let that perception got deeper into herself, because if not, she wouldn't be able to go up on that stage and gave one of the most inspiring TEDTALK I ever  watched. The talk focused more on the educational system. She proposed an idea of collaboration between adults and students to solve real-life problems. The world where adults respect and listen to the students' ideas and students respect and listen to their own ideas.

At the end of the TEDTALK, I realized how rare it was for me to ask my younger cousins about "adult things" such as politics, economics or passion. I'd rather ask and talk about their love life. The same goes with my family. I began to think, maybe, Indonesian teenagers 'dating style' these days, that the adults despised so much was somehow encouraged by non other than us, adults. Maybe, if we asked them more about politics, science, economics, or their passion instead of their love life on family gathering, if we encouraged them more to voice out their opinions and ideas on more serious topics and let them know that their voice matters too, they would be more cautious of their actions and how it could affect them. Maybe, we would be seeing more Evita Nuh instead of Awkarin.

Discriminating someone because of their age/experience may seems natural, especially in a country with a really high score of power distance which value status and seniority. So, as I turned 20 year old, I made a promise to myself to never dismiss someone else's ideas and feelings regardless of their age. Hopefully, by doing this I did the society a favor and made it an ounce better to live in.

The future of Indonesia in a frame

- Hany