In a very old blog post, I mentioned about a teacher who had changed my life. In this very bright Sunday afternoon, I somehow just decided that I wanted to share about a couple more teachers who have changed my views and life since middle and high school.
First. She was my Mathematics teacher and class advisor. She has a few kids. Besides being a teacher, she has made all these beautiful illustrations of buildings, in or out of the country. She also got her artwork put in a couple of exhibitions already. It made sense that she has this very artistic side as she studied architecture — but the thing is, she had just started to focus on this craft a few years back. I remember her sharing about her trip and meeting new people on Facebook.
It is very inspiring to see her weekend and holiday activities, just to show that you can start a new hobby at any time and still enjoy life. Also, I had never recalled her being upset enough to scold the students when probably we would’ve been yelled at. I would imagine that was how really good self-control, emotional intelligence, and maturity should look like.
Second. She was my humanities teacher in my grade 7. She just returned from the States to teach here but eventually, she moved back to the U.S. She taught sociology, history, and geography and she did not major in any of that. She majored in teaching so everything that she’d given us felt new and interesting. We were given chapter glossaries because it was our first year reading materials in English for some of us. I remember one time she taught the class about the Six Thinking Hats. It was a fun experience for me, although it may have taken me a while to remember everything again. Also, she did not rely on slides so instead she gave us a workbook, filled with illustrations, diagrams, and paragraphs only for us to fill everything that’s left blank. In a way, she was allowing us to focus on the keywords, letting us find and understand them ourselves.
She knew that I was into musicals and I remember her telling me about the musical that she saw, In the Heights. This was right around the time (2006–7) when the show was either still running or about to close on Broadway. She told me it was very interesting because it was an all Latino cast. That was how I learned about Lin Manuel Miranda, who created that show, and Hamilton a decade later.
She has been sharing her tips in creating a learning environment at home especially now during the pandemic, pretty sure we all need some tips on how to keep the kids active and learning during the day. She gives out print out templates and activity guides.
Third. She was my English teacher (and class advisor too), but I somehow felt like our class could’ve been a Literature class because at the time we had just finished with some parts of the more structured and formal parts of English, like argumentation (which I think will deserve another post later), into the more creative part of English. That year, our reading materials were Matilda (Roald Dahl), Things Fall Apart (by Chinua Achebe), Treasure Island (Robert Louis Stevenson); we even had an excerpt from Life of Pi (the hospital scene where Pi tried to recall what happened), all of which were very contrasting and provided us different ideas on how stories and language were told and used.
She’s a bookworm and sometimes she shared her life stories, especially about her daughter back at home who was around our age. I think I got most of my inspiration for story-telling from her. We were able to delve into the characters, the environment, the humor and irony, the paradox and allusion technique, the choices and reasons behind them. When she read something in all of our works that everybody should know about, she’d pick out one of our papers and recite what we wrote. Just to show that she really tried to understand, remember, and letting us know that anyone is capable to write something interesting.
Classes with her were not entirely about writing. One time, we had to make and recite a poem based on a song that we like; it was a simple and easy way to draw inspiration and emotion. I choose the song A New Day Has Come by Celine Dion. I felt good about it and very excited to share it because at the time I was picturing myself to be buried under rubble just waiting to be rescued. But it was the day that I found out that my hands could tremor whenever I get too anxious. Everybody felt bad, and they were all quiet, probably shocked looking at my hands fluttering the paper that I was holding. I was so embarrassed but I was relieved that she still allowed me to just go back to my seat instead because at the time I did not need encouragement, I just needed to calm myself down first.
Once we basically finished all the curriculum, we were instructed to prepare a presentation. I could not remember exactly what was it for but I remember asking her if I could present another topic and I decided to come up with my own topic. I remember being excited to present pop culture where I shared about how fandom works, lingo, shipping couple, and I used references from shows like The Big Bang Theory and Glee, novel/films like Harry Potter and The Hunger Games. So this was around the time when internet fandom cultures were starting to peak.
I remember she was sitting right in front of me, on someone else’s chair, then I asked her, “how was my presentation?” and she told me that I was very confident.
Fourth. She was my Chemistry teacher for almost two years. Despite being a very tough subject, I was most excited about it because everything was just so organized. From the slides to the schedule, and she even provided us with an organic chemistry reaction mindmap, so of course, I had to love her!
I remember one day she gave us the challenge to draw this very complex mechanism of which answer we’d not get easily on the internet. Imagine me, going through papers and eraser dust, trying to figure out where the hell does this electron go next. I was not able to finish it but I still sent to her my progress via email. I was surprised to know that I was on the right track and I felt appreciated. And this was coming from someone who probably only had only achieved 70 when the rest of the class could get 90 or 100 easily. So she opened up my eyes about what does it mean to try.
One day, we had this class project to make a drama based on Pram’s Ken Arok novel. I did not know how or why I did that but I ended up volunteering to be one of the directors because reading the novel, I already had a vision of what the Ken Dedes’ kidnapping could look like on stage. I need to remind you that I was as quiet as a rock at that time but my cunning mind thought, “oh nobody wanted to be a director anyway, so I could just be one easily and everyone would be fine.” So I pulled up this intense music by E.S. Posthumus, a long piece of white cloth to represent the forest and the chaos, and did my choreography shenanigans. The scene had no word and it was the opening. She came to the performance, was rooting for our class, and had the drama recorded on her Handycam sitting in the front. I think I was satisfied with it, though we might have to work on the rest of the scenes more.
She was active on Twitter and I was surprised to read her review. She said the opening scene was epic and very theatrical. It left me wordless because I did not actually expect that. I only had an idea and I just wanted to see it right before my eyes. So I took a screenshot of that tweet and sent her a message to tell her it really made me so happy. It has been one of my biggest passions and finally, at 17 years old, I tried again.
Unfortunately, she decided to resign in order for her to pursue a master's degree because she had felt that she still wanted to learn and improve herself so she could teach better. It was very heartbreaking because it was just right before our last semester in high school. And she had done everything for us so we were left wondering what and how else she could’ve done it better? She has taught students before us who love and have said great things about her. She allowed some of us to come to visit her house on the weekend. She stayed with us at school after 7 p.m. But I did not want to wait until it’s too late to send her another message, saying how grateful I was and how I much I really appreciate her. I could not remember if I ever did that to someone before. So being with her has taught me to feel good about trying, to open up, and appreciate people.
Lastly, she makes me think that if we look up the word, “woman”, in the dictionary, there’s a picture of her right beside it. She was my Biology teacher for almost two years as well, just like the teacher number four. She had to leave on our last semester to study again. For every chapter, we were required to make a mind-map before she actually started teaching it, because we knew that the most challenging parts are the essays, where it could take up the whole page just for one answer.
She has been very open about her youth, her work, and her children. How often can you see your teacher talking about her personal life? How often can you see your teacher fangirling over actors on Netflix?
She was also another teacher who decided to resign on our last semester to pursue yet another master’s degree in Japan. Then returned to Indonesia to have already worked in a couple of universities, while pursuing a Ph.D., in less than five years. And I am under the impression that she was in charge of her house renovation project, like Ariel (Ned’s wife from The Try Guys) which is so awesome.
In times when some people are being second-guessed, I wish I had known more people like her who could prove to the world that taking care of children and the house requires a smart and strong individual and partnership but to become or have one, we need to experience and achieve things too so we’d have more holistic understanding, skills, and life values to pass down.
As I was writing this, people on Twitter debated how a lecturer should’ve responded to their students who were working on their thesis. A public figure complained about how hard it is to take care of his kids while doing online learning at home. Some schools have already opened up despite the risk but many are still struggling to keep up. I was angry at how some people were too lazy to care, not even bothered to learn more.
I am also about to recruit more people into the project and reading their CVs and motivation actually has touched and moved me again because I realize that I have always wanted to help, or even just see, someone, becoming better and feeling more fulfilled. In March, I booked a ticket to Bali because I was excited to see my university orchestra juniors perform in a music festival last July; some of whom I have already met since they joined. I have been reflecting on yet what kind of experience I have been giving to these fellas since last year. I wish that I could do and provide everything better. I want to be like my teachers — they may not realize how influential they have been. It has been a very difficult thing to do this year or five years ago, and it will still be a big challenge in the future.
I was never the smartest, the bravest, the most talented, the friendliest, or the closest to teachers. Some of them actually live nearby but we never really caught up to each other. And I had imagined bumping into any of them in the mall, or somewhere else for many times. I just miss being guided and having someone as an example. But lately, I have been thinking about this in another way and I just want everyone to know how wonderful these people are. Hopefully, people who read this (at the time this is still not made public yet) get the gist of what it means to become a person, dedicated to helping others, without having to care what you get in return because certainly, these people (and you guys) deserve more.
If you ever want to pray for me, please pray for these amazing five people instead. I’m just the luckiest student in the world because, in the end, I have already forgotten all the things I have learned about Mathematics, Humanities, Literature, Chemistry, and Biology. I have learned to become a person. I also learn about how hard it must’ve been to raise and support me by learning from them. Cue Whitney Houston’s Greatest Love of All.
