Ten Things

Nad, you know, I’m supposed to be updating my resume for my office right at this moment, and somehow fulfilling your blog game just seems a lot more interesting right now than crunching all those numbers into beautiful words that will lull people into my direction hahaha.

Well, I’m just gonna go out on a limb here ; ) Hope you’ll find this as embarrassing yet as entertaining as I do.

One – I get bored easily. And when I say easily, I literally mean as easy as taking candy from babies. Let me draw the picture for you: we would be sitting face to face, you’re telling me something that I’m not interested in, and bam, two seconds, you lost me. I would still be sitting there listening to you, but my mind would be off somewhere.

Two – This, of course, has got me into trouble when I was a kid. Since I was a kid, I tend to learn things by myself by reading ahead (which was encouraged by my parents). So by the time the teachers taught me one subject, I had already read it, and as you might have expected, I would fall into boredom. And you know what I did? I started sketching, drawing (if you found my elementary and junior high school books, there would be drawings everywhere), totally ignoring the teachers speaking whatever. My mom was in the school board, so she would come home from the school one day too many bearing news: “Guess which teacher now complained to me that you haven’t been paying attention at school.” And my defense, as always, was: “But I already know what she’s talking about. And I’m getting good grades, right?” The worst was when I was taking this math exam in junior high, I was finished half an hour earlier, and there was this stupid rule that you couldn’t leave the room until everybody’s finished, so I decided to start sketching in the back of my exam paper. The math teacher came by my desk, took a glance at it, and said: “What do you think you’re doing?” And I said: “Drawing. I’m finished and you won’t let me leave the room. So allow me to draw whilst waiting.” Let’s just say that my mom would be hearing another complain that day haha.

Three – People everywhere always had a hard time guessing where I’m originally from. Nobody, and I mean literally nobody, has got the correct first guess so far. In Indonesia, (in Medan especially) people would come up to me and speak Chinese all the time, and I would say: “Huh?” When I traveled or lived abroad, people would guess that I would either be Filipino or Thai. Just to set the record straight: my dad is pure Malay and my mom is pure Bataknese.

Four – I have a phobia of dirty bathrooms slash toilets. Really. My family moved a lot when I grew up, and before my parents decided to move to a house (especially if it’s not a new one, i.e. somebody else has lived there before), they would take me to judge the bathrooms slash toilets rather than risking taking the house and me not wanting to come near the bathroom ever. This is also why I hate to travel on land if it’s longer than four hours. The thought of taking a leak at some non-hygienic toilet is not my idea of a good trip. I’d rather fly.

Five – I hate the smell of any red meat. Beef, lamb, you name it. The last time I had one was probably in high school. We’ve been sworn enemy since, and I’d like to keep it that way. So if you want to impress me by taking me to a Kobe beef dinner, let me spare you the trouble ; )

Six – After I graduated from high school, I got accepted at a graphic design school and (pardon me for saying this proudly hehe) the best architecture school in the country. Then comes the third: accounting. Which I chose to take. Which lead me to my job right now. And which lead me to write books about it. I guess it’s funny how destiny plays with your life sometimes.

Seven – I have two greatest fear in life: becoming stupid and having no dreams to chase.

Eight – here’s something for Bill Gates and Steve Jobs: I don’t know how to use Windows until I was 25. Really. I grew up with Mac.

Nine – I have a terrible first impression: friends admit that they thought I was stuck up, know-all, and demeaning when they first met me. I guess you have to meet me in person to find out whether this is true or not ; )

Ten – I love my room when I was a kid. My parents encouraged my creativity so they let me do whatever I wanted with the wall (then they’ll have an annual wall painting season to give me clean canvas a.k.a wall each year). And that includes drawing with pen, pencil, even those large markers. I would be lying in my bed, holding a pen and then drew on the wall until I fell asleep. I remember drawing this simple stick figures comic strip where aliens invade the earth landing on UFO hahahaha.

Yay, I’m done! And next to the tagging game, I can only think of two of my friends: Damar – he always has an interesting story to tell, especially now that he’s venturing a new life in Stockholm, and Inga – her stories about her son Raka and her husband (who happens to be my best friend) Firman are always endearingly funny, I’d love to hear more now about her ; )