How I Deal With The 2010s
“A century is about events, A decade is about people” — George Friedman
I’m writing this on the night of 31st of December. As we approach the end of a decade, people are often making new year’s resolutions for the upcoming year or maybe reflect on what they have done this year. But I’m somewhat different though. Suddenly, I’m also contemplated, but not just this year, but a decade. Yes… I’ve been remembering my past decade, which means from 2010 until 2019. As I remembering my past events, I’m amazed. It’s so crazy if we think about it, how many events have passed in these 10 years. 10 years is not a short time guys… Maybe some people haven’t realized it yet, but if you really think about it, it is a very long time.
So there are 2 objectives in this story here. The first is to invite you guys to think about 10 years, a decade has passed, there are so many events and changes that happened in our lives, and we’re about to enter a new decade, the 2020’s. How crazy is that? Many people underestimate the number 10 in a decade. But if you think about it, 10 years is a long time and we have passed it. The second is that I also want to write about my life in the 2010s. What happened in my life in the 10 years. I won’t write it down in detail, just the important ones. Apart from sharing it with you guys, I also want to make this writing my “self-note”. So I don’t care whether you want to read it or not 😆 Feel free to close this at any time you want. So without further ado, let’s get started.
2010 — First Goal
Starting with 2010, it was my second year in middle school. It was at this time that I found several of my best friends that is lasted until today. It was also the first time I was introduced to a programming language, Visual Basic (VB).
Yeah… I don’t know why my school decided to teach middle school students programming language while other schools only teach their students Ms. Office. But when I get to try VB for the first time, I was very interested. Two hours of IT subjects every week is something I always wait for. Because of this, I decided to pursue a career in the IT field. It was the first time ever I set a goal for my life.
2011 — Lucky Shot
The national exam has passed, which means my middle school life has officially ended. I learned a lot of things in my 3 years in middle school. Met some of my best friends, first time I approach a girl that I liked, met a teacher who made Math look fun, and a few other things that I can’t mention here. Then I had to choose my high school because my middle school doesn’t have one.
Then come my first year in senior high school. I met new friends from other schools. My high school is a lil’ bit different though. So in every high school, there’s this subject named “local content (In Bahasa: Muatan Lokal / Mulok)”. Basically, it’s a subject that can be filled by the school itself, a 1-hour subject. While other schools have “Javanese Language”, or maybe “Culinary”, my school prefers “Programming Language”. Yep… we meet again. This is a very good coincidence for me. It is always been my plan to pursue a career in IT, so this is a very nice first step on the ladder.
I’ve also become a member of the basketball team. Because my high school has a great track record, I’m excited to meet my teammates. As expected, they are on another level. They are all great players, so it kinda pushed me to do more at that time, to reach their level. Also, shout out to my coach. For me, he’s the best basketball coach that I’ve had until this day. He designed the training menu well, pushed us to the limits, and always came to every match.
That’s why I call 2011 my lucky year. Lucky cause I get to deepen my IT knowledge in high school. Lucky cause I get tutelage from a great coach.
2012 — Stepping Up The Game
2012 began with a basketball competition at my school. We were divided into 2 teams: A and B, I’m still in team B. Team A got the champion title. Even though it was team A who got the title, it felt like it was our title together as a team. The third years then graduate. They have left us a legacy that is quite difficult for us to follow. At that time, I felt like we have to carry on the legacy, so I started to practice more.
Then comes the second year of high school. I chose science as my major, cause as I said earlier, I would like to pursue a career in IT. As far as I know, many universities in the country prefer science major students to be enrolled for the IT major. I started to be more focused on my studies, but just on the important subjects. Mainly 3 subjects: Maths, IT, and Programming Language. I was also introduced to a deeper IT concept. Our teacher taught us about IP addresses, binary numbers, simple HTML. I was lucky that I get to know that earlier in my life. Even after learning about all that, I still chose IT as my future career. “I’m not afraid”, Eminem once said.
That’s why I feel like I was on another level in 2012. I’ve been busy stepping up my game in basketball and school. What can I say… study hard play hard, am I right?
2013 — Just Ordinary (?)
Like the president of Indonesia said: “just ordinary” (In Indonesia: biasa aja). To be honest, I think there are no interesting things that happened in 2013 haha… Just me in my 2nd year and 3rd year in high school. Still practicing basketball, still in science major class.
2014 — Year Of Change
This year is all about change. Many changes happened in 2014. As I said earlier, this year will be the last year of my basketball career in high school. Unfortunately, we still haven’t got the champion title. Despite all that, I don’t have any regret cause we gave it our all. The first one on the bucket list: scratched. Time to move on to the next thing. As I’ve mentioned earlier, I want to pursue a career in IT. This is the first change, shifting my goal from basketball to IT. So the next mission is to go to a college that is famous for its IT major.
The obvious choice would be Bina Nusantara (Binus). But after I read the admission fee for my major in the pamphlet… bye-bye Binus 👋 The next choice is Multimedia Nusantara University (UMN). I heard that they also have a great IT major curriculum there. It’s still pricey, but not as much as Binus. Later on, I got the news that we could get a cut in the admission fee if we took a test. The test result will be assessed, then the campus will determine how much cut percentage you will get. I took the test. Luckily, I got a 100% cut for the admission fee (yay!). But after a certain amount of consideration, I decided to cancel my application to UMN. Why? Because I only got the cut for the admission fee, not the semester fee, and it was still pretty pricey and I didn’t want to burden my parents. So I decided to try applying to state universities by joining the “joint selection of entering state universities” (Seleksi Bersama Masuk Perguruan Tinggi Negeri / SBMPTN) program.
It was harder to get into a state university than a private university cause you’re competing with students from all over the country. There is also a quota of how many students can be accepted for each year, so… fingers crossed 🤞Luckily I got accepted at a state university, even better, it was my “first choice” university. I was accepted at the University of Indonesia (UI) majoring in computer science.
My second change was I got a girlfriend that year. She’s was a classmate of mine for 2 years. Never have I thought of having a girlfriend though, but yeah… I guess it is what it is. So in this change, I learned how to manage a relationship with another person. Eventually, we’ve driven apart cause she’s in another town, studying at another state university. It was difficult to manage a long-distance relationship for a year. W e broke up in 2015.
My third change is my first time working experience. To fill the 3-month gap between high school graduation and university orientation, I decided to apply for a part-time job. Every year, there’s this event called “Jakarta Fair” which is held in Jakarta obviously, and every year they always looking for high school graduates to fill the part-time employee slot. With the connection of my uncle who has a friend who works in the accounting division of Jakarta International Expo, I’m in. Me and 3 other young men were placed in a storage room. Our responsibility is to manage the in-and-out of the tickets: entry ticket and parking ticket. I pretty much like it. It has a decent wage, a great workplace: the storage room had a computer and full ac, the bosses are super nice, and the job was also not too tiring. I learned how to be responsible, how to manage things, and how to collaborate with others. Oh! I was also stuck in an elevator while working here, but let’s keep that for another time to tell haha…
My “last-but-not-least” change was when my university life began. Starting with campus orientation in August. First, I was amazed at how big the campus is. It has 13 different faculties, each faculty have at least 3 main building plus a cafeteria. It has a central library and many other facilities. It even has an internal bus system to help the students to commute within the campus area. Second, I was amazed by the number of new students. There are thousands of students who come from all over Indonesia, from various ethnicities, cultures, religions. For me, who only lived in a certain area in the city all my life, It was an amazing experience. Let me say it once again: It was amazing! I’m not even exaggerating. Especially when we all sang our national anthem: Indonesia Raya. I got goosebumps.
Later on, comes the faculty orientation. I was surprised by the amount of work given by the orientation committee. “It makes no sense, why do I have to do this?”, I was very skeptical once. But in the end, I understood the essence of all the given tasks. The most interesting task is collecting signatures from various elements on campus: seniors, alumni, even janitors, securities, and cafeteria stands owners. We called them “faculty elements” because they are an essential part of the faculty. I enjoyed it very much cause I was able to talk with various people from different backgrounds. Then came our inauguration ceremony, the 2014 new students. We officially became the new member of the Faculty of Computer Science, marked with a name that is given to us. It is a tradition on our campus that each year, the new batch will obtain a name as a nickname for that batch. The class of 2014 name is ORION: Outstanding Radiance Igniting Optimistic Notion. Even more special for me cause our “birthday” as the new class is the same as my birthday, 30th November.
So that’s pretty much my 2014. A year of change as I mentioned above. I think 2014 is the year that has the most events compare to any other year. It was a transition between goals, a new experience of getting a girlfriend, and the adaptation phase of the new college environment which is different from school life.
2015 — When I Got Closer to Church
2015 is a year that I got closer to my religion. Not that I want to become a preacher or start active in church or something, no it’s not like that. This year, I just get to know my religion better. So at the beginning of the year, I was appointed to be the head of the “Weekend” committee. Weekend is an event to welcome new catholic students in the faculty which is held every year. I was a participant in last year’s Weekend. For this year, it’s the class of 2014 student’s turn to manage it. So as the head, I had the responsibility to make the Weekend happened. Starting from the event’s agenda, transportation, accommodation, money gathering, proposal generation… everything. Not to mention several challenges that I had to face. First of all, there are only 8 of us. Secondly, many of them are working in other committees as well, basically doing a double job. Third, I’ve never been appointed to be a leader before.
As the chief, I have to gather signatures for our proposal. The signatures consist of: 1. head of the catholic community of the faculty, 2. head of the catholic community of the university, 3. head of the catholic community of the region (South Jakarta), 4. the advisory priest. I just found out that the community for Catholic students is very structured and organized. I also found out that there is an institution in the Jakarta Archdiocese (Keuskupan Agung Jakarta / KAJ) that could provide funds for events that are held by the catholic student community. It’s called Young Generation Development Fund (Dana Pembinaan Generasi Muda / DPGM). All we had to do is to give ’em the proposal. All the hard work aside, we manage to pull it off. We held our event in Anyer Beach for 3 days 2 nights. The first committee that held Weekend that is not in Puncak, Bogor.
Shortly after Weekend, I was asked to become the vice chief of the Christmas event for the catholic students community at the university level, bigger scale. I accepted it. The event is in January 2016, the preparation is 3 months before the event. My responsibility is not as big as before, cause I’m just a vice right now. My job is to help my chief, whatever she wants me to do, I do it. I also help her in managing the division head.
So that’s my 2015. This year, I felt a little bit closer to my religion by doing some committee work related to the church. It was quite an experience cause I felt like that I was also doing a service for the church, although it’s not that much.
2016 — Tasting Politics
2016 was the year when I became the head of the catholic community in my faculty. I just felt like I need to step in. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because being a leader is addictive or maybe it’s God’s will. This is a new challenge for me. Previously, I only managed 8 people and 1 agenda. Now I have to manage dozens of people, with a dozen agendas. This is the time when I learned the hard way how to manage multiple projects at once. I also had to come to the meeting of all the heads of the catholic community from each faculty. We shared the challenges that we face in our respective faculties, and offer each other solutions that might help. I love it. I love the collaboration vibe and meeting new people from other faculty who certainly had different mindsets from me.
As the head of the catholic community, I also had regular meetings with the head of other organizations and communities in my faculty. There are: 1. head of moslem community, 2. head of protestant community, 3. head of student council (Dewan Perwakilan Mahasiswa / DPM), 4. head of student executives (Badan Eksekutif Mahasiswa / BEM), and 5. head of research and technology. This meeting usually discussed updates from each organization, our future agenda, what’s happening at the faculty, etc. I think this is the time when I tasted a lil’ bit of politics. I learned how to do dialogue. I learned how to presented my opinions regarding a certain issue. I learned how to compromise, but I also learned how to stand on my ground. I learned not to get carried away by other people’s narratives. I learned how to push my community agenda and many other things that I can’t mention here. It’s a roller-coaster of mind and strangely enough, I don’t hate it.
So that’s pretty much it. I spent my 2016 as the head of a community on my campus. Meeting new people with different mindsets will always be a precious moment for me. It’s also the first time I have felt a real “politic” in my life, and it’s pretty interesting, I don’t mind if I have to taste it twice.
2017 — Projects, Projects, and Projects
Starting in 2017, it’s the moment that every computer science student has been waiting for, I guess. That’s because we have to take the software project class. We were instructed to form a team of 5 people, then we will make technology products for the whole semester. My team was making an app called BatiKita, an online repository application that contains information about batik. The most memorable moment was when our team was awarded as the most cohesive team with the title: “Together We Can!”. It’s pretty paradoxical for me, cause as far as I can remember, all we do are debating with one another.
Besides this project, I also work on several other projects. In February, I did a Content Management System (CMS) project. Just a simple CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) functions for a database. I did the FE works, while my friend did the BE works. In April-May, I also did an online Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) form project. It’s pretty wild cause I need to “digitalized” a hundred types of form. Why did I do all those projects? The money of course haha… Yeah, I’m just a young, dumb, and broke student, so it’s okay to take a project right? Besides, I thought it was good for my CV later in the future (yeah, it is!).
Then came the semester break (we don’t have a summer break in Indonesia cause we had summer all year long). Third-year students begin looking for internships to fulfill the Practical Work class for the next semester. I was looking for a frontend engineer internship and I got accepted at a small startup. Lucky me, this startup heavily used Javascript. It uses Javascript for everything: BE, FE, App. For those of you who don’t know, Javascript is very related to web development. It was the first time that I get to experience Javascript thoroughly… and oh boy do I like it. It’s also the first time I was introduced to many other web technologies: Node.js, Task Runner, CSS pre-processor, web service, etc. I considered myself very lucky cause I get to learn a lot about web development while also getting paid.
In October, I did another CMS project for an open market with graphics and charts. In December, I did another CMS project for public transportation. Again... I needed the money 😎 💸
So that was my 2017, a year of projects as I called it. I think I’ve done 5–6 projects in that year alone. It’s also the year that I decided to become an FE engineer as my professional career, cause when I did all that FE work, I liked it very much. I love creating a user interface and seeing harmonious colors. Aside from technical knowledge, I also learned how to dealt with the client. Because in a meeting, the client is not a technical person, so we must be clever and careful when sounding out our notion for the client to understand what our means. From that experience, I regret that I didn’t take a class in the past. Yeah… I’m looking at you “Business and Technical Communication” class.
2018 — Finish Line and Start Line
I’ve reached the finish line in 2018. I graduated from college, completed my 4 years of computer science studies. While many people treasured the moment of graduation, for me, it’s just another day.
The more important thing for me is where I’ll work after this. At the time, I was a part-time employee in a startup as a backend software engineer, not as a frontend. I was thinking about whether I should stay here and become a full-time, or move to another company. I’m a pretty idealistic person. Since this startup doesn’t need a frontend engineer at the moment, and I still want to explore frontend more, I decided to look for other opportunities out there. I’m always targeting big startups for my workplace. At that time, there were only 4 unicorns in the country. One unicorn 💚 🏍 only uses apps as their customer-facing platform, so I scratched that. The other 2 unicorns 🔴 💚 🛒 are e-commerce. Again… I’m pretty idealistic, and I don’t like using e-commerce, so I scratched that. So it left me with only 1 choice 🔵 ✈️, and luckily, I managed to get employed there as a web software engineer.
I started working in September. It’s not difficult for me to blend in, cause the people in the office are very friendly. I started playing basketball again cause they have a basketball club. Another thing that also excites me is that I get to work with people from India 🇮🇳 It’s the first time in my lifetime that I get to interact with people from another country.
So I guess that’s it, 2018 it’s a “half-and-half” year for me. I spend half of the year as a student, while I spent the other half adapting to a new workplace environment.
2019 — Work, Work, Work, Work, Work, Work
Like Rihanna said in her song:
“Work, work, work, work, work, work
He said me haffi
Work, work, work, work, work, work”Don’t know what she’s talkin’ about though. Yeah I know it’s a bit sad, but that’s the truth. I just spent 2019 working my a** off (let’s keep it PG). I began to adjust to the workplace environment. I kept improving myself, not only knowledge, but also how to interact with others, and also how to manage my tasks efficiently.
One thing that’s memorable this year was when I got to fly to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It’s the first time I get to fly out of the country, experiencing a different culture and different surroundings.
I can’t ever forget Alor street in Kuala Lumpur. It’s a one-way long street filled with restaurants and dozens of food stalls. It was heaven on earth for me. I think I spent almost $10 just for the street’s snack alone. If I get the chance, I would like to go back there again.
So… what do you think of a decade? It’s pretty damn long, right? I mean just look at my story. It’s the longest one I’ve ever made 😅
Ok so… that’s it then. That’s how I spent my 2010’s. For you guys who read until the bottom of this story, thank you for taking interest in my story. Hopefully, this story can entertain and inspire you.
Cheers 🍻 — Ferzos
