Category: what’s inside my head

  • Dilema Nge-blog Sebagai Seorang Ibu Baru

    Dilema Nge-blog Sebagai Seorang Ibu Baru

    Aku sudah menulis di blog ini sejak tahun 2009; sudah hampir 10 tahun lamanya. Blog ini merekam kehidupanku selama 10 tahun itu. Ada suka, duka, dan banyak sekali pelajaran yang bisa aku petik dari semua pengalaman ini. Dulu, aku bisa menulis sampai 3 postingan dalam sehari. Aku rutin menulis keseharianku di blog ini, layaknya menulis buku harian. Aku sangat menikmati menulis semua isi di kepalaku saat itu. Aku tidak terlalu banyak pusing memikirkan follower, page view, DA, PA, pasang iklan, dll. Aku hanya menulis. Eventually, kecintaanku dalam menulis blog saat itu mempertemukanku dengan komunitas blogger kampus, di mana aku pertama kali kenalan dengan seseorang yang sekarang menjadi suamiku (ehem…) (more…)

  • English and Me (+ #BookishScene Link Up)

    Good grammar is attractive by Grammarly
    I have been meaning to write a ’20 Random Facts About Me’ post for a while now, but I realise that it is not something you can write in one sitting. I tried to write it a few days ago but after a while, I only managed to write 3 random facts about me. So I decided to postpone it until I remember the facts randomly. Haha

    Fact #1 on my list goes like “English is not my first language. It is not even my second nor my third language.” It dawned on me that I have never actually written a post about this particular topic and then I thought “Perhaps it will be interesting!”

    In my country’s ever-changing curriculum, English is not a compulsory subject until middle school. However, a lot of elementary schools, especially those in big cities like Bandung, add English as its local content. I started getting English in fourth grade. I still remember the first lesson. It was spelling. The teacher was a beautiful young student teacher called Miss Naning. After the first few lessons, she gave us a spelling test and promised to give a prize for someone who got the highest score. It was me! I got 100 and she wrote “Congratulations!” on the corner of the page. It wasn’t until years later that I knew what the word meant, LOL! Anyway, she gave me the prize and it was a pack of snack bar. I was so happy back then. The test result and the prize were what made me fall in love with English. I excelled my classmates in English classes all the way through my school years. I was the walking English dictionary in high school. My friends often turned to me and asked what particular words meant and I would help them with English homework.

    And then it came the time to choose my major for uni. I had always wanted to be a teacher. Combining that with my love for English, I decided to choose English Education as my major. I learnt a lot of new things about English language in my courses. I became so into grammar and loved correcting other people’s grammar. I became a ‘grammar police’ in no time.

    Grammatical error in Samsung's official website
    Can’t believe Samsung have this grammatical error on their website 🙁

    I had no idea that being enchanted by English grammar could be frustating, though. People in my country often use incorrect English and it keeps giving me headaches. It gives me itches I can’t really scratch. It also makes me look like a jerk who can’t stop criticising people for using incorrect English. But I can’t just shut up seeing people misusing the language I really like. It’s not only once that people accuse me of being a traitor of my own country and nationality because of my love for English. Haha! People can be mean like that :p

    All those things set aside, my English is still far from perfect, though. I’m just an outsider of the language after all. Just another grammar nazi on the Internet. This is actually one of the reasons why I started blogging. I want to perfect my English while making friends with people from all around the world. You guys have helped me improve my English. Thank you so much! And pardon me if several things on my blog get lost in translation. I really hope I’ve never written something too odd or offensive. Haha!

    ***


    Dara's bookshelf for #BookishScene link up
    This week I’m joining Georgie‘s and Josephine‘s Bookish Scene link up. The theme for this week is “bookshelf”. My bookshelf currently only has several books because I haven’t brought all of my collections from my parents’ house. As you can see, out of the fifteen books on my shelf, only two books are in my native language. The rest is in English. One book is actually a grammar exercise book. See? I’m sooo in love with English!

    Image via.

    Dara | Bloglovin’ | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook

  • A Letter to Everything

    Dear husband
    Dear husband,
    I’m opening this letter with one simple sentence for you: I love you. Those three words are exchanged for a gazillion times but I swear I mean it. I say it with more and more love everytime. This April, you’re turning 25 (a quarter of century!) and the same day will mark our third year of saying ‘I love you’s. And I’m so very super glad to be able to call you ‘my husband’ this year. I love you (for the umpteenth time).

    Dear Jess
    Dear Jess,
    You’re fluffy and hyperactive and amazingly annoying and annoyingly amazing. Can you please lessen your nap time and spend the day cuddling and playing catch with me instead? I told my husband that I needed a cat to keep me company during the lonesome days when I was home and he was at work, but you’re not helping at all! No, just kidding. You’re entertaining even when you’re asleep. I love your tail, baby.

    Dear skin
    Dear skin,
    I’m 23 and a half this month, so can we break up with the breakout already? It was fine during my teenage years because although my friends had flawless skins and I was the only pimpled-faced kid in high school, I accepted it because that was normal during puberty. But I’m an adult now! I want to wear make up without pimples making my eyebrows look ridiculously uneven (what pimples pop out on eyebrows, anyway?). Please?

    Dear April
    Dear April,
    I have high hopes for you. I must say that I miss sunny days when the skies are blue and cloudless. I miss those days when I can do my laundry and hang it out and then go nap-nap without worrying if it will rain. Please bring the sun out, April. I’m counting on you.

    Dear readers,
    We’re having a long weekend for Easter here in Indonesia. I stay at home to avoid the traffic. (Trust me. The roads practically become parking lots because the vehicles are not moving. At all.) But I’m going to spend these days cuddling with my husband and my cat and also finishing Veronica Mars #2, so Weekend Links won’t be up this weekend. It will be back next week. I hope your weekend is as relaxing as mine (if not more).

    PS. I’ve created a new Facebook page for this blog. Give a girl a like? 😉

    Dara | Bloglovin’ | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook

  • Things I (and You) Need to Stop Doing Right Now

    Stop crying over the past. Who you are today isn’t defined by your past mistakes. It’s okay to look back, but only to reflect so that you won’t do the same mistake. Don’t live in the past.

    Stop putting things off today. Do what you can do today, but don’t push yourself.

    Stop worrying too much about the future. Your future depends on what you do in the present. Remember: you build your own future. You choose your own path that will lead you to a certain point in the future. Plan it carefully.

    Stop hating yourself. Stop blaming yourself.

    And most of all, stop comparing yourself to someone else. You are precious.

  • Here’s the thing…

    This post is going to be brutally honest and a bit selfish. Let’s be adult by not fishing for arguments. You are very welcome to state your own opinion, but please respect my belief and my privacy by not stating it as if you are judging me. Thanks 🙂


    I have come to the point where I got so sick of people approaching me and asking me if I have my period late yet. In my society, married couples are expected to be expecting as soon after the wedding reception ends. Yes, literally like that. People will come to your wedding to congratulate you and to talk to your face how you should get pregnant as soon as possible. For my people, that’s what marriage is for: to produce offsprings.

    When people found out that I decided to start taking birth control pills, they flipped out. They went cray-cray. They questioned why I didn’t want to have kids rightaway; one best friend even asked “Then why the hell did you get married?”

    Rude.

    I’m young. I’m crazy in love with a guy. I’m head over heels. Of course when he asked me to marry him, I said yes. Why? Because I wanted to marry him. We were both in love and things were looking up, so why wait?

    You see… to me, being ready to become a wife doesn’t necessarily mean that you are ready to become a mother. Hell, I can’t even take care of myself and a grown man that is my husband, how on earth can I take care of a tiny human who is completely dependent for its first years? I can’t imagine what my baby would grow up to be if I decided to get pregnant now. Having kids is a lifetime contract and there are responsibilities. You can’t just give them up when you find that you can’t do this. They’re not pets. No, I’m not ready yet.

    I want my own kids, of course. We have plans to have (at least) three kids in the future. But as for now, there’s still a lot to learn. And instead of rubbing my belly as if it were a magic lamp and hoping for a baby genie to pop out of it, I think it would be better if you just keep us on your prayers that we will have our kids as soon as we’re ready.

    Image via.