Sometimes in life, we can not always get what we wanted. Our arrow does not always get into the right target that we have set, but life goes on. There are always rooms and new pages to make up our mistakes and to rewrite our story. Especially when you are transitioning to university life, you must have set your own expectations but sometimes you just can not get there. However, even when reality does not meet your expectations, it does not mean that your life is coming to an end. You can still always set other expectations in your life.
I graduated in 2018, and enrolled in a private university in Bandung and unfortunately that wasn’t my initial goal or the life plan I had in mind. After tolerating a year surrounded by the sense of not belonging and just plain discomfort, I finally get the chance to enter the university of my dream. You could say I’m one year behind, and that alone leaves a big insecurity black hole buried deep down my heart. With that insecurity, high expectations arisen. I expected a lot from my mid-term exam, and I would usually get the grade I wanted but turns out I had bad grades, not all, but one too many. I beat myself up for weeks, but at what cost? I became extremely stressed out and everything I do drained me out. But unlike myself, the universe is forgiving and kind, I was blessed enough to be surrounded by people who keep loving me and supporting me and making me feel that it’s okay to fall sometimes. (Sabrina)
I have studied in different types of school—public, religion based, and private school. So more or less, I know how people from different circles and surroundings think. And university of Indonesia is often mentioned as their intended as well as dream university. So when I got accepted, I pretty much have set my own expectations on how UI and uni life is gonna be. From the environment, the class, lecturer and interactions among students. After almost 5 months adapting here, frankly half of what I expected, did not meet reality. For instance, I thought the class was going to be more formal and scary, in actuality it is much more laid back than that. Though I would not complain about that. To add, I assumed that students will interact and have much discussions. Yet, based on my experience almost everyone is very individualistic. But then again, not everything will go your way and that is okay. (Natasya)
Everyone must have their own expectations in every aspect, including me. I am a part of an organization in my university that is working on social issues called, AIESEC. I have been given the opportunity to be the main committee of a project. Before I have been given that chance, there are some selection steps that I should take. In the interview session, I was being asked which position I prefer working as. I confidently said that I could work as the president of the project and that is actually the position that I am expecting to get. However, when the announcement was published, I did not get the position I was expecting to get. I am okay with the position I have now, but I just wish I got the position I wanted. In addition to that, the person who hold the desired position of mine is not doing her best and that makes me want the position even more, which I know is actually impossible. (Adzra)
My expectation being a new student in Universitas Indonesia was I can follow every lessons that I’ve got in this first semester with no barrier. But it turns out, being a new student here isn’t that easy. Especially ,in political and sociology subjects. At first, I think political subjects is not as difficult as I expected and I think I can learn it well as time goes by. But the situation actually says the opposite than I expected. Precisely, I became a burden and unorganized. But it might also be due, basically I’m not too interest with political things. And I feel struggled in sociology subjects because sociology subjects that I expected is not far from the sociology that used to study in high school. Moreover, I’m always feel satisfied with the grade that I got. But the sociology that I studied now far from what I expected in the beginning of the semester. But I’m pretty sure as time goes by I can follow the political and sociology subjects. I have to keep trying to get a decent grade in all grades expecially in political and sociology subjects. (Harumi)
My first expectation of the mid-term exams’ grades are mostly not met as my expectation is too high and not realistic as I expected an A in all my exams. In reality most of my grades are passing grades that are both not barely passing grades C or perfect grades A+ which are B+. I thought my expectation is realistic as I did not expect perfect grades and study hard and dedicate a lot of time in it. I learnt from this experience to always expect the worst case scenario to not be nervous and get destroyed by it and keep on working hard to reach that expectation instead of merely being hopeful. The video of stoicism in today class shows that to expect the worst case scenario is to be optimistic as even if I got bad grades as I will be alright as it’s within my expectation scope. (Joseph)
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