The Tigers Come at Night

Several years ago, I had a very weird dream. It was so weird I still remember it until now.

I dreamt of driving a car across the border of Indonesia and Germany.

And you know what, last Wednesday I entered Deutsch Botschaft and officially crossed the border between Indonesia and Germany. Dreams and reality are funny like that.

 

Every year, Ilmenau Technische Univesität sponsored a Student Week Conference in which they invited students from all around the world to congress and discuss certain theme. The year 2015 is all about “Responsibility: Dare to Change” and I will be among the 300 invited students.

To apply a position for this conference was by sending an essay about yourself, experience and how you’ll contribute to the cause. In my essay, I explained my internship experience in The Jakarta Post.  I described how it opened my mind to the responsibility and high-risk of being a journalist, especially as a journalist in an online world.

In the essay I explain how online journalism is the new black, it’s unrefined and eager to fault. It’s powerful, everybody loves it, use it, and it’s the most vulnerable of all journalism work. It’s just so easy to make a mistake and lead reader to false information. But most of all, it shows how being a journalist is about shouldering heavy responsibility. To deliver fact in the middle of hoax storm, that’s the work of journalist in this new era.

(Basically, I outlined Ben Parker’s infamous last words and secure a ticket to Germany, life as a Marvel fangirl is just awesome.)

I sent the application on December 2014 and received their invitation at the end of February. Preparations have been ongoing ever since.

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Indonesia proves to be a worthy advisory, 20 Indonesian ready for deployment. Most of us are scattered all across the nation, and several bachelor students in foreign country will attend the event. If I’m not mistaken, we’re among the list of South-East Asian country who received the most invitation. There’s only one from Vietnam and a handful from Singapore and Malaysia.

As for us Indonesian, some reside in Jakarta, Bandung and Yogyakarta. Some resides in Malang and Lampung, and the bachelors are in Aberdeen, Taiwan, Istanbul, Japan and France. So yeah, we’re an interesting bunch of people and we make odd conversation in our Line group.

Monetary and Visa preparation was the trickiest of all. We’ve sent proposal to many companies and we’re still hoping for the best of luck. This sojourn will definitely dig a new infinite hole in my bank account, but it’s going to be worth it. I’m going to make every single experience WORTH it.

It’s the experience, travel and all the crazy dream I had years ago which excite me. Life is funny, it’s amazing and sometimes your wish upon a star was answered in golden glitter and a chance to make it happen.

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I’m a major fan of Les Misreable movie, but I Dreamed a Dream has been my favorite song long before I watch the production. The tigers come at night, yet I won’t let them shed my dream to shame.