Motivation Letter
Since I was kid, I have always watched Nat Geo Wild Animal with My Dad and forestry has always caught my attention since I know there's a major learning everything about biodiversity and forest. I can choose any other major besides forestry, but forestry is my game-changer, this major made me out of my comfort zone when I knew there are plenty of field studies. Forestry is not just about biodiversity, but we learned about people who live in the area of forest, how forest affects them in daily life, how forest becomes their income and how they protect the forest itself.
Before I got into Forestry in Gadjah Mada University. I studied so hard to get into Forestry in different Universities, unfortunately I got rejected more than five times. I just have one last chance. I took the last chance with the thought that If I got rejected again, it means forestry is not for me. However, in my last chance, I got accepted into Forestry in Gadjah Mada University. "I should not fail my dad", is the first thought that comes to my mind. In the first semester, I had many difficulties, overwhelmed, my friends really step ahead of me, they graduated from forestry highschool, etc. However, having supportive people helped a lot. I studied with my friends, we are having a study group and did my own study. By the third semester, I had accumulated 3.12 out of 4.00 GPA. I can bounce back from the second semester, when I got a lot of thoughts in my head that I do not deserve all of this and narrowing down to the point my GPA touches 2.87 out of 4.00. I still manage to maintain my non-academic activities by joining the diving club and suddenly became the 2022 force leader. I had many responsibilities as a force leader, but I love how people can trust me and rely on me when there is something wrong or they do not get comfortable in the club.
2.
If I were given the opportunity to be an awardee, I would engage fully with local and international communities in Lithuania, Taiwan and Russia. According to my research, there are plenty of student clubs I can join. With my interest in exploring new foods in new places, I would join history club in VMU, so I can tell them how food and history are related, and try to shed some light on the foods from a historical perspective. I have an idea to work with my fellow awardee so I want to invite them to introduce our healthy food in the food festival that is held every winter in Lithuania. For example, Pecel, from what I know you can search the ingredients so easily and pecel is one of foods that can last for weeks, so pecel can become an alternative instead of processed foods. Besides exploring new foods, I like reading books. In NTU and ITMO, I would love to join the literary club. I can bring some books from
Indonesia to introduce them to the literature in Indonesia and we can have any discussion about it. However, when arriving in a new environment I would observe my surroundings first. Attending open events like art performances, sport games, bazaar and others also can be my strategy to engage with local and international communities.
3.
In my second semester, I did not know that my major had a lot of courses mathematically based and required to take 23 credits with one field study at the end. Which means that the lectures will be held from Monday to Friday with Laboratorium practice in between. I also joined the diving club at that time and became a 2022 force leader. At first, I can not take that big responsibility at the same time, being a 2022 force leader is hard and confusing. I have never been the leader in my whole life, so that was my turning point.
Diving club practice every Saturday or Sunday, that was to make my semester full of activities both in academic and non academic. This left me exhausted and unable to focus, also pushed everything. At that time, I did not get enough sleep and every weekend there was a practice, which made me stressed and unmotivated because many tasks were coming and the responsibility of being a force leader at the same time.
After the midterm exam, I realized I can not always be like this. I should be more motivated especially when I have the privilege to study in Gadjah Mada University. It took a lot of hard work to be there. I believe the difficulties I faced are going to make me a better person than before. Since then, I learned time management from my friends and my seniors.
That is when I had to break down and make notes on what I should do first by prioritizing them and I began to talk about my difficulties to the club, so I can get a lot of help. I learned that I can not run from my responsibility, I should face them and search for how to solve them.
4.
I have poor eyesight, -7 and -6 for minus and grade 3 in cylinders for both eyes. I have amblyopia or well known as lazy eyes. When I take the glasses off, my left eye will squint to the left and I have to do therapy everyday by covering my right eye for 2 hours. I also have a GERD. Sometimes it is difficult to know when my gerd is flare up, because it flares up when I am stressed or tired. I already do not eat any food that can trigger my GERD and my blood pressure is so low most of the time, so I had to take a blood booster everyday.
While having so many health problems with my body, I still take vitamins and exercise in the meantime. I love walking, I did not take any private transportation from my place to campus, I take walks everyday. For me, walking brings many benefits to my body, both physically and
mentally. Since I am in the diving club, I swim every Saturday or Sunday. As for mental health, I used to go to psycholog that affiliated by campus for counseling, at the one times my psycholog recommended me to go to psychiatrist if I did not think I can handle the struggles with my anxiety and suicidal problems. Up to this point, I still can handle it by myself. For those reasons, I believe I am physically and mentally ready for IISMA 2024.