Thank You Very Much

It is a common knowledge that saying ‘thank you’ is important. However, some people just seem to ignore it. Perhaps they forget, or they just feel that it is not worth to say it. It is such a shame because saying your gratitude is not just a virtue. It is not just a word to show your appreciation. There is much more advantage behind it, not only for the person who is being helped but also for the person who helped out.

 

First of all, gratitude is a fundamental thing that keeps the two persons connected with each other. Have you ever wondered why in the world would someone help you when you are having difficulties? Why would they even bother to spend their time on your problems even when it doesn’t give them anything in return? It is because they feel that they have a bond with you. Not just friends or family, it could be any bond, for example because the both of you are having a same background, in the same situation, or just simply because you are both human beings who couldn’t live on their own. They have a good intention. Saying your gratitude is a way to keep that bond intact. So the next time you have other problems, they would be pleased to help you out again.

 

When a helping is done with something in return, for example you pay the person to help you, it doesn’t mean that you saying your gratitude is unnecessary. Money is just one of the physical parts that hold the bond. In it still needs the basic human interaction, where every person wants affection. Gratitude is a universal form of affection that everybody could feel. With it makes the bond even stronger. Keeping the bond strong will make the person who is helping realize that he is needed and important. That way there will be a guarantee that he will always be there for you when you needed them.

 

Another case is when the helping is an obligation. A simple example is between a parent and their children. It is a parent’s obligation to take good care of their children, feed them, give them shelter and education. When the children give their gratitude by saying ‘thank you’, it will give a great impact back to their parents. They will feel that their obligations to fulfill the children’s needs are not a burden. Of course a great parent doesn’t feel it as a burden because they do it based on the love they have for their children. But what is so wrong with saying your gratitude to your parents to make them feel happy having you as their son, compared to all their effort to complete your needs.

 

It is just like nature’s law. When you give a force, it will return the same amount of force back at you. The force in the action equals to the force in reaction. Saying your gratitude is that reaction that keeps the force in balance, by strengthening and keeping the bond in each people’s social life. No matter how small their help is. Please don’t make other people upset with you or unhappy with you by forgetting to say your gratitude!!!

Futurist- Predicting the future? Or making the future?

The Robinsons family

Have you ever seen one of Disney’s movies titled Meet the Robinsons? This is one of my favorites because it has great moral message in it: KEEP MOVING FORWARD.  The message is shown very clearly in the story. For you who haven’t watched it yet, let me give you a short review. Of course, I don’t want to tell you the whole story or else you won’t enjoy the excitement of the film. The story is about an orphan boy named Lewis. He has hopes and dreams. However, he wasn’t sure with himself, with his own ability that he could make a difference in the world. With an adventure to see a glimpse of the future, in the end he was confident with his abilities, brave enough to take chances and make his dreams come true.

 

 

 

The question that comes in my mind is about the difference between animation movie and the reality. In the movie, Lewis saw a peep of the future that motivated him to keep trying and to not give up. He could see where his life is actually taking him. On the other hand, in reality we could not do that. We could only see the future of what we dream of. The questions are; can we really create our dreams? How do we know what we want? How do we know what to dream about?

Now take a look at my fellow seniors that have just won the IMAGINE CUP 2008 early this month. It is an international competition of software programming, facing 61 countries in the final round in Paris, France. They are Arief Widhiyasa, Ella MD Mustika, Dimas Y Danurwenda, and Erga Ghaniya from Electronics&Informatics Faculty and Arts Design Faculty of Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB). Their program, named Butterfly, won the Rural Innovation Award. This program is a system that helps citizens to report environmental problems in their areas to the responsible authority. They can send their report through telephone, short message service (SMS), internet or mobile application. The team, Antarmuka, received a US $10,000 prize and a chance to join the Microsoft Research Center in Bangalore, India. Not only bring our country’s pride, they also get a chance to develop their program so that it could be used for other countries in the world. This is a great example of making a difference which started from a dream to stop the damaging of Indonesia’s forest and environment that’s been happening. (source: Daily KOMPAS, July 10^th 2008 edition)

One of the members in the team, Ella, is my senior at Student English Forum (a group of ITB students that loves to debate and other English activities). We’re close friends. We’ve once went to Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore together to join an English Debate competition there, representing ITB in March 2007. Well, I last met her after she won the IMAGINE CUP national level to become the representation of Indonesia, before she went to Paris. She shared some stories about how she and her team gave their best effort to create the program and to defend it in the competition. They’ve faced many failures and challenges in the last 6 months. They even had to borrow computers and notebooks from their friends because they didn’t have enough resources to start up with. However, it was no problem for them. They had fun through the whole process of the competition because they are devoted in what they do.

 

 

 

Back to the movie Meet the Robinsons, the Robinsons family motivated Lewis to not give up and learn from his mistakes or failures. This is because without failures, we could never learn anything. So, can we really create our dreams? The answer is, yes we can, starting step by step, with hard work and patience. We don’t need to take a look at the future just as Lewis experienced. Use the power of our imagination!! Even if we haven’t find out what we want yet, we haven’t known what to dream about, it is not a barrier. Keep searching for your inner strength and what you think you are good at. Keep learning and develop the skills you have. Let the power of your mind create your dreams and pushes your whole heart devoted to what you do. Remind yourself that failure is a normal thing; it will only bring you to a bigger success in the future.

 

Make the right decisions, make it real, and change the world!!

-BW-

Everyone has their first love

It is inevitable that everyone has their own story of their first love, various kinds. It has different endings, could end happily ever after or disappears with time. It could be love at first sight or love that grows by always getting used to be together. However, it all sure has a beautiful scenario in it. Beautiful since it is felt for the first time in one’s life. This is why it is called first love in the first place.

I will never forget what my parents say about first love. We have to be thankful to God for feeling it. Imagine how you are having feelings for someone else, who is not a member of your family, someone you’ve never met before, someone you never knew before. It makes you think about them, want to know more about them, adore them and care for them. They make you smile when you are alone just thinking about them. They make you happy when you are with them. They make your heart sing every minute. It is one of the things that transform you from a child to a teen. It teaches you to be less individual and selfish. And being the first time to feel it makes that person so special in your life. Therefore, don’t hesitate to thank God for giving us that wonderful feeling.

The problem comes afterwards, also in many kinds. It could be that the two of you can’t be together again, with many reasons. But most of the problems in First Love stories are that the person you like doesn’t love you back. You try your best to make them feel comfortable, as comfortable as what you feel when you are with them. However, it doesn’t work. Even after you have fought for it and still it doesn’t turn out the way you want.

You have to admit that it is just how the world goes round. You can’t force others to feel the way you feel. A simple example, some people love to eat durian fruit, some feel eating durian is not that special, some don’t like it, and even some can’t stand the smell of it. Now let’s see the other way around. It is a good way to put you in that position to be able to accept and surrender yourself in the real condition. When someone loves you so much but you don’t love them back. It is logically understood that it would be better to tell them your true feelings so that they won’t hope too much from you. It will hurt them even more when you are giving them your fake smile. Thus, there is no use of forcing love.

My Dad told me that there is a trend in every problem. Yeah he is an economist. He is used to analyze problems and predict what will happen. What I see about this topic is, people that can’t overcome their first love problems tend to live in the past, close their heart and not searching for happiness that actually everyone deserves to have in their lives. They compare the first person they love with other people, who actually could (who knows…!!) complete you and make you happier if you accept them to enter your life. Trapped in the past, they can’t move on with their life. It’s a trend, isn’t it? In the end they will feel lonely for the rest of their lives, knowing that they actually could open their heart to someone new and have a happier life. So let’s prove that trend wrong, shall we?

Now let’s learn from our experience. Sometimes a first love is only meant to be a story. A tale that is written in your life, that there was once someone special living inside your heart. Don’t deny it or try hard to forget it. Admit it. Believe that, just when you think everything is over, another fate enters your life. Learn to let it go, and new love will come to you. Keep moving forward and find true happiness.

Maybe this writing doesn’t mean much, because I’m sure you’ve already known the main idea and experienced first love. Well, just want to remind you all to not give up and keep searching. Or if you have found a new love, a love that could connect with each other, both have the same feeling and same plans in life, hold on to it and take good care so that the love will grow strong forever.

Everyone has their own story. Be thankful for it, learn from it, and continue your lives. Keep it safe inside you because First Love never dies.

-BW-

Hello there…

I’m actually a diligent kind of person. But still as a normal human being, I also have a lazy part of me. I’m kind of lazy to explain things. When I have some ideas, I tend to keep it for myself. Now I want to change that lazy habit so that I could get used to sharing my ideas.

Well, it doesn’t mean that I have great big thoughts, so amazing that I could change the world, just simple ideas that pop in my mind. So yeah, I’d love to hear comments from you guys, anyone out there from anywhere you are. Hopefully we could have discussion that could broaden our minds and brings positive effects in our lives, furthermore to the whole world.

Nice to meet you all…

-BW-