Story About the Butterfly

There was a time when I met a man with good thoughts. That one time, he taught me about the butterfly effect – how a small touch could make a really big difference.

As someone who is working in art and design on daily basis, this little piece always helps me on the creative process. Whenever I feel like there is something missing from the work, I always try to give it a little touch of this butterfly effect. Surprisingly, it always works.

This, is something that I always stick to my mind and one of the strong reason why I never forget this man.

When you met someone and they made a good impression in you, you wont be able to forget the person. Let's say, we forget their name but we will never forget their look – and moreover – their piece out thoughts, right?

Then be one.

Between hijab, equality rights, and freedom issues

I am not the kind of a very good person or intellect enough to give a preachment — because I am not even trying to give a preachment — I just want to share a piece of my thoughts through this article, this is how I think through issues.

I started wearing hijab since I started Junior High School. My parents never forced me to wear hijab. My high school back then also one-of-a-kind of school that never forced the students to do this and that and teaching us to be responsible with the choices we take in life instead. At that time, there was a moment when I felt like I need it and to be responsible with my religious obligations, so I thought that was the time when I need to start wearing hijab. It was not difficult to get adapted with my surroundings at that time because almost all of them were Muslim and wearing hijab as well. I still remember the happy faces they made once they found out I started to wearing hijab.

One day, there was a time when I started to going through a new surroundings, leaving my comfort zone behind. I met a lot of new people with various backgrounds and almost all of them were older than me. By various backgrounds I really mean VARIOUS backgrounds – this is the point when I felt like the world is so biiiig! As the time goes on, I figured out that knowing them is a new thing, but adapting with them is the other new thing. I really enjoyed sharing minds with them and I really like their way of thinking. This is how I started to learn more about the freedom to speak up for your own opinion and shout it out to the world.

Until today, this is how my surroundings has created my mindset. People always say to be aware in choosing the right friends for you. Well I did. It never crossed my mind just because this is how the way I think made them as the wrong friends for me. The more I learn, the more I understand that this is also how my closest surroundings, which is my family, also rising me in the same mindset.

Back to talking about the hijab issues. For me, going to concerts or hanging out with boys are okay – as long as we know the limits and know how to protect ourselves. Some people found that it is not appropriate for someone who is wearing veil to go to concerts, dancing, and even singing to the music.

For me, this is how the thing goes. All of us are the same, we are humans. Just because some of us covering our heads under a veil, that doesn't mean we are trying to be seen as a good or religious person. We are just trying to be a better person for ourself and our own beliefs. I know that everybody also trying to be a better person and for me, wearing veil is one of some many ways to reach the goal. There is only one thing that makes all of us different – it is only the matter of ways in how we try to reach the goal. Difference doesn't always mean a bad thing, right? I know a lot of great, good, smart people who doesn't wear hijab. Because it does not define who we are. Darling, the world is so big.

We never know what makes a person become a person or what kind of life they experiencing, so just let it be. Sometimes the things that is right for us could be wrong for other people. And sometimes we can't see why is it wrong for them – where actually, it's just all about our surroundings and how it creates our mindset. And so do this article. You can disagree with the thing that I wrote down in here and it is totally okay because we all have our own rights to understand one and another thing.

"Today, seven billion people experienced this day in a different way."

See you on the next post!

illustration via weheartit

March's Bucket of Blessings

So far, March has been a real tough month for me. But hey, when life gives you lemon, there is always something good about it, right? Yes - you can make a lemonade out of it. In between the difficulties, there's also the marvelous things happened. The same thing happened in my life, this month. Here below I want to share the most unpredictable things happened in the month of March.

Me and a few friends currently working a video campaign for one of Jakarta's online motorbike application company. We did the storyline and concepting which turns out to be really good. The story once inspired by one of the driver who turns out to be a man with limitations to speak.

In this project, I was appointed to be the talent officer. I am responsible to manage and prepare the talents before the shooting day, contact them, and so on. This makes me have a lot of chance to talk with Pak G*, the driver man. The first time I phoned him was on the shooting day, when I wanted to ask his current location. And it was really magical. With his limitations to speak, he still tried his best to tell his current location.

photo taken by Sabila Anata on shooting day

Once he arrived on the shooting location, we greeted him and he seems kind of confused at first. I lead him to wait at the talent room with the others. There, with a bunch of other crew and talent friends, we were talking and joking and I'm glad that he was into the conversation and sometimes even laughed. As the time went on that day, I could feel that he was more adapted with his surroundings. Until the end of the day, he seemed really happy. His happy face simply makes me feel happy and grateful. It was a really priceless emotions.

In between the shooting, we also talked about his personal life. It all was like a hit to me, a big self reminder. When we feel like at our worst, always remember that someone out there is carrying an even more big problem than ours. Like, with all of the things we have now... Perfect body and good life, for me it's kind of unfair if sometimes we still think that we are the worst person on earth. Remember to always appreciate the little things, dear friends.

big family of the talents and crew that day, with Megan held the camera

There are two sides to every story.

At one time, someone taught me a life-trick. We are living in a world where we have to be the one that need to follow things, instead of hoping the world would follow after us. Playing the game of life, you can't always hoping for everyone to like you. Every single of us certainly have that one person who dislike us and it's totally okay. What we need to do is trying to adapt in any kind of situation with any kind of people. Which is a good idea for me and I keep it in mind. 

The other day, I had dinner with a couple of friends and we just got at the moment where we were talking about the same topic.

"Nope, it's different for me. I would let the world follow after me. I always have this one thing I keep in mind; where in a box full of needles, grey and sharp needles, there is always this one tiny, red needle. When someone opens the box, this red needle is the one that they see at the first glance.” he said, reacted to my opinion.

And I also agreed.

His opinion makes me think again about the idea of truly being ourselves and having a strong character, not only keeping up with the world. Sometimes we do need to make the world follow after us. Let them follow us. Be inspiring.

It’s a really good idea to be different from the others and it’s not a bad thing, as long as we know the limits of ‘being different’. Because we all know that being ’too different’ wont do any good either too to our surroundings and the world. 

After I think about it all over again, the 'red-needle' people somehow always stand out in the crowd like they have this kind of attractive power that reflects from their beautiful minds. It really does. Maybe for the world, their appearance or passing-look are not as attractive as those beauty darlings, but once we know them, they will eventually stole this one space in our mind that makes us always remember them and the words they said. We will let ourselves inspired by them. 

I do have some friends that somehow always inspire me. I like the way they look on daily basis, the way they think and react to people, how they spill out their thoughts and things inspire them to the world, and so on. It’s always attractive and no matter what they do, we always know that it’s really ‘their own style'. They have this strong-different character that always inspire people because yes, they are the red-needle people.

One thing I learn from the conversation is how we should not be afraid to show the world about who we truly are. Don’t let your own self always follow after the world, but let the world follow after you. Always remember to stay close with people who makes you feel glad to be alive and surrounds yourself with the beautiful souls. 

Yours truly,

N

Priorities x Procrastinate

They say, there's no one ever be too busy. It's just about priorities.

And yes it's true.

On the last few months, I never spent a day without getting my works done. It's all about setting up schedule and to-do list, doing this and that and if I can't complete a task on that day, I continue it on the next day. It goes around just like that. Getting shit done. But like, literally. I felt bored of course, sometimes in the middle of the task I was wondering to procrastinate by watching movies but it's just doesn't feel right and wasting too much time. Yes it was so sad.

And so on. Every night when I just got home, not so long after that I'm back in front of my laptop and getting things done, again. It's really exhausting, I know. Okay let's say I still got much time to meet my friends, hanging out and stuff. But behind this, there's a bunch of things that I have to complete before I go.

Well maybe you are bored enough reading the 'getting shit done' words all over again. Okay, hang on there because I'm going to spill out the good things. And the good thing is, I feel so much free now. I feel like a real freelancer. Much happier, much free time, much time spent with my family and friends.

YAY!

Actually I didn't know/realize exactly how things thing start and how this happened. After I think about it all over again, this is how; these days I wasn't getting less of work, I still got a bunch of it, what I do now is only I being productive, not busy. One day I went out for work, one day I stayed home just eating stuff and watching movies. One day I went out to spent my day with family or friends, one day I stayed home just getting my works done. It feels so much efficient and productive. And happy, of course. I'm not pretty sure what I did until this happened, maybe it's just my schedule not as tight as the past months, probably, but here's the thing I did that makes me feel much efficient these days and because sharing is fun, here we go:

Pint up your daily schedule

Whether you want to pint it on your desk calendar, laptop calendar or using post it and stick it to your working table, just pint it up. Just make sure the place you pint it is the place you always looking at so you wont forget and it helps your mindset to keep things on priorities. And don't forget to write down the little things. Day one, lunch at cafe with a friend / day two, buy this book at the book store / day three, shooting day / and so on.

Write down the little things

Okay there's two different things that I want to take on this point. The first one, write down the things that you are going to do that day in a to-do list even the simplest thing like 'Ask X about the cooking recipe'. For a forgetful person like me, this idea does help. Try it yourself!

The second thing is to write the little things about your day or about your passing thoughts. It helps you to relieve the things that runs on your mind. You can share it through your social media and I'm pretty sure people would love to read it. You know that beautiful mind inspire the others. Just, never forget to appreciate the little things!

And if your schedule is really tight at the moment, just never forget this point ;

Ask some friends to hanging out!

Come on, don't be too hard on yourself. Spend your time just working on the task won't do any good to you, it makes you get bored with your job more quickly and moreover, stressing you out. No, no, no! To make it more simple, just ask a friend you feel comfortable the most to go out for a lunch / vinyl hunting / window shopping / and the other unnecessary things that could help you forget about task for a little while.

Hope it helps! Stay close with your family and friends because they are the ones that matters the most.

Love,

N

My definition of a new year

Happy new year!

I have a bit different meanings for new year. Besides that I'm not a person who likes to celebrate new years eve on 31st of December with fireworks and BBQs, it's just never feels right for me to get a new resolution every 1st of January or such as thing. Okay, I can say that every 1st of January I always whispering to myself that I have to be better this year, well that's all..

But in this case, what I really like to say as a new year is the day when the number on my age changed. Here I can really meant it that I've became someone older and I've left the past year behind. I'm going to start a new chapter of life, new adventures and more positive mind. The day before I get older, I always looking back at things that I've went through that year. The good and the bad things. The joyful memories and the hurtful ones. The new friends and life lessons.

It's still the second month of the year, about three months to go until the day when the number on my age changed. Maybe I'll be going to add another new stories below, but right now when I have much time to write it down here, let's start over.

The new chapter starts at the third day of national exam. That morning, the second I opened my eyes, there's a wrapped gifts standing on my desk. A really sweet presents - terrariums themed birthday greetings written by the whole family and three books of Haruki Murakami's. Back then there's this one person who always coloring my days and before the d-day, he asked me what I'd love to get for a birthday present. DIY things was my answer and so he did, at the d-day he secretly put a birthday card (that he made by himself) inside my backpack. Another one sweet thing happened that day also a friend of mine surprisingly brought me a bag full of snacks and a letter. I ended the day with taking a commuter-line and bought a flower for myself on the way home.

Not so long after that day, I got accepted to be one of Indonesian Youth's comittee, which is also one of the big start for me that brings lots of luck until today. And so I spent the past year mostly with them and myself as the youngest comittee. I met a lot of new people with marvelous backgrounds also tons of memories. Also with my creative team in Knacker Magazine I launched some magazine issues last year. One of my favorite issue, Knacker #11 got the highest reads than ever before. Also in this issue, I met new creative friends that still being a good friend until today.

They say, when life gives you lemon - make lemonade. And what is life without lemons, right? As the time went, there's some drama things happened to me in one and another place. It's too hurt too spill it out again the details in here, besides I'm trying to forgive & forget the memories. But not so long after the drama, until now, I have found new joyful things with my new surroundings. Well at the end, it was okay.

Towards the end of 2015, Indonesian Youth Conference, the event that I've mentioned before has successfully held at November. I also got accepted to be one of the Liasion Officer (LO) at Indoestri Makerspace - a really nice place for creative people, maker of things and independent business owner. Yes, I feel so thankful for all of this. I can say that this year was my year!

It was a crazy and so-called life changing year so far. I must be really grateful the most for Knacker Magazine & my team as the starter for all of the adventurous things I've been through this far. I can say this year was the year I feel free yet to be responsible for my own self. The year when I went to gig the most, hanging out with friends, setting up schedule and more. This year, I tried a lot of stuff that I've never tried before and it was pretty nice to figure out new things. Well there's still 3 months to come and I will definitely updating this post for more unpredictable joyful things to come!

Last but not least, I want to say thank you to everyone who has become part of my adventurous year. Everyone, the ones who brings joy nor sadness (guys you make me strong!), and of course, you!

Yours truly,

N