Postcard from Singapore : Lucky Vicky

Travelling INDEED taught me a loooot of things. But I’m not gonna talk about places or experiences here. I’ll talk about how important it is to face the problems, hurdles, challenges during the trip with clear mind and accept what ever happened with big heart.

Sekitar 9 atau 10 tahun lalu, jam pelajaran matematika wajib, tiba-tiba namaku terdengar melalui speaker di kelas. Aku diminta datang ke ruang kepala sekolah hanya untuk mendapat pertanyaan ‘kamu punya paspor ngga?’ (yang bertanya bukan kepala sekolah tapi guru lain). Jawabanku singkat, padat, ‘ngga punya, Pak.’ Beliau merespon, ‘Yaaah yasudah ngga jadi. Bukan rejeki kamu.’ dan aku diminta kembali ke ruang kelas. A sixteen year old me lost a chance to visit singapore for free in a blink of an eye.

(Cerita soal kenapa aku bisa hampir dapat kesempatan ke singapura gratis dari sekolah disimpan untuk lain waktu).

Udah mah pusing pelajaran matematika malah harus menghadapi kenyataan seperti itu. I was shocked… but instead of getting sad for too long, I thought that maybe Allah SWT wanted me to make more efforts (walaupun penawaran sebelumnya datang dari usaha yang aku lakukan juga). Maybe He protected me from… I don’t know… worse things? Mungkin Dia tau kalau aku kesana akan membuat kedua orang tuaku resah karena belum ada yang punya pengalaman ke luar negeri dan mungkin akan memberatkan mereka karena ngga bisa kasih anaknya ongkos (minimal) untuk oleh-oleh—dan aku akan tinggal dengan perasaan bersalah kalau hal itu (betulan) memberatkan mereka. Maybe He wanted me to learn more about fight for my dream. So I kinda made a mental note that I’ll come to singapore. Be it for free or from my own money, I have to come!

Yeaaaars later, the dream FINALLY comes true. After 10 years of dreaming, 2 years of (diligently) saving with my best friend + months of preparation (not to mention the stress), I got to feel the hot weather of singapore. I got to hear the—now unforgettable— beep beep sound from their MRT. That ‘Universal’ globe that I only saw through screen is no longer an imagination. 

But life is funny (be ready for the plot twist!). It can turn you upside down in a split of second because what do you mean after yeaaaars of dreaming and saving, after I finally stepped my feet to one of my dream country, I didn’t even get to see the icon of the country THEE merlion statue??? I still have to keep the watching light show in gardens by the bay in my ‘wishlist storage’ for another… I don’t know months??? Years??? 

Life is EXCEPTIONALLY funny, right?

Sitting in the middle of closed road—in front of Fullerton Bay Hotel with my best friend, our legs were weary, hurt even. Sweats all over our body because the area is packed PACKED with people coming to watch the rehearsal of NDP fireworks (one of the reason we couldn’t go to Merlion Park and Gardens by the Bay) I’m going through another griefs… but AGAIN, the grief’s phase is passed by quicker than I knew! Instead of being angry with the situation or self blaming or questioning what’s gone wrong from our preparation, I saw it as a motivation that I DEFINITELY HAVE TO comeback. On my next visit, I will explore more. I will see things that I missed during my first trip and see things that’s not included on my itinerary. Or maybe find out ‘another’ side of singapore (the country is too good to be true I kept questioning how people here can be soooo discipline).

And I think another reason that helped me to go through the grief’s phase quickly is I experienced it with an understanding, reliable, and similar mindset best friend. Not that I wish us to go through this, NEVER. But you know, travelling with friends can either strength your bonds or the worst part is it can lead you to separation and I think it leads us close to the former.

a pict of Marina Bay Sands I only could took was from this distance

We turned the mini disaster into a joke. We lucky vicki-ed (idk if it’s a correct term) the situation : we might skip the merlion, the graden by the bay, the viral escalator on marina bay sands but we could get more rest before the next trip. Kita bisa menghitung uang yang terpakai selama di Singapura (tingkat pusing nya juga ngga kalah tinggi dari bikin itinerary) sekaligus nyicil packing untuk ke negara selanjutnya (in our case, we went to Malaysia early morning it’s not fajr time yet). We simply take it as ‘belum rejeki kita sekarang’ and believe that another rizq will come and then go on with the rest of the trip with happy mind and happy heart.