The big war has ended. Failures and rejections I have accosted, and finally, I am an undergraduate freshman at one of the most prestigious university in Indonesia: Bandung Institute of Technology!
I was not really happy at first. The NTU and NUS rejections often lingered in my mind. It seems that the dreams had shattered into pieces. Yeah, maybe this quote is right: "The higher the dream is, the more painful the failure will." Nevertheless, life must go on. I am very grateful that I still have friends and parents who are loyal and supportive. I'm not the only one who failed at life; others are even worse. Studying in the best university in my own country is perhaps the best gift from god.
I have to say that the guys here are really nice. Most lecturers are very experienced and profound although my Chemistry teacher is literally a... shit. I sometimes however miss my previous life; I usually hang out with girls, but not in college. Learning in the Electronical Engineering and Informatics faculty, we men are out of girl stocks. I'm quite happy on stepping on this life phase. It's not really as great and crazy as the high school era, but maybe as the time goes, everything will be better :).
Despite of being the only muslim, I'm very happy to have current-best friends who are all Christians, mostly Batak. It was never been this diverse; clearly, ITB shows a good toleration between its members. They even do not hesitate to convince me to do afternoon prayer, which I actually appreciate but I rarely do that lol.
The lecturers' eccentricities are interesting. I think I will remember all of these guys. You will meet Pak Wono, which is considered as the most divine calculus lecturer. He always remembers the guys who do not finish their homework, later calling them by which cities they come from. For example, if you are from Cirebon, you will be called Cirebon all the time until you finish the lesson. In contrast with Wono, you will also meet Pak Fourier (or Foye). No one could beat his calamity and brilliance. There is also a somehow metro-sexual chemistry lecturer, Pak Rino. Not only bulky, he always shows off his Apple gadgets, comprised of MacBook, iPad, and iPhone. Though initially the girls adored him, they now hate him as he often talks bullshits and nonsense hahaha.
There are a lot of surprises. You may be shocked at first, you will later get along easily. And for incoming undergraduate students, I wish you the best for the upcoming admissions!