First came pride and then prejudice, first come a letter written eloquently, telling us that just like many great people before us that we have made it to the very institution that birth them and soon enough we will be a part of their proud alma mater. For a month or so the euphoria and the satisfaction seems to everlasting, but inevitably prejudice finally took back the narrative and expectations began to set in stone. Universitas Indonesia is the best university in Indonesia, everyone knows of their credential, the stereotypical over the top academia with thick and impressive CV, they all go here, or so we thought. This is the story of our survival and how we have made it thus far, this is our narrative the pride and the prejudice.
I probably pushed myself too hard time and time again while I’m here, I feel like I have something to prove on, because I know in the back of my head that I need to catch up with everybody else. Yet truth be told, I achieve many great things within this semester, from being coordinator of the batch to be in Harvard WorldMUN delegation, pride slowly take back my narrative. But it wasn’t until I stopped and look around and see that in my quest to prove myself it has cost me almost everything, even myself. I’m lucky enough to stop before I lose everything, lucky enough to still have people around me that continuously love and support me. To realize that the prejudice I put for this institution is merely the prejudice I have within myself, it rooted in my insecurity of not being good enough, though I’ve learned it the hard way, lesson learn are lesson earned, maybe one day I live in pride but there is a long way to go, but one thing that I’m proudest of is that I have decided to not end my narrative. ( Ky )
Transition from school to university in my case is not quite that hard. Although, there are some expectations that might not fit reality to me. My first expectation in this university is from myself, that I can join a lot of committees and organizations. But it seems that I cannot fulfill it. Having some activities such as joining a football community, doing college tasks, or even joining some committees really drain my energy. That is why I need to manage my time and need more rest than usual to be fit in further activities. Even though it doesn't really quite fit my expectations, the reality that I got from studying here is not less wonderful. I can be proud of myself that I have accomplished great stuff in my community and committees. Sometimes it is better to have few committees, organizations, or communities but do the best in it rather than having more groups but doing just common stuff. From this experience I learned to put forward quality over quantity. (Arya)
The transition to a university student is an experience some people would say "interesting", well at least it was true for me at least.At the starting months I couldn't get that many new friends, I wasn’t really the kind of person to talk to strangers unless I need something from them. It was really hard for me to get new friends or even an acquaintance, but in the end I did manage to open up more and be more friendly with more of the folks in UI. though I at one point I expected UI students to be more stern and reserve, it seems that most of them are really open and outgoing. another thing thats been a struggle for me to transition out off is the fact that i have to start calling my lecturers with "mba" and "mas" instead of the usual "bu" and "pak". (Eca)