Life is a Jigsaw Puzzle

It seems only a while ago I was running through the long dark corridors of Sukarno-Hatta to catch my night flight to Singapore: my first stop in a series of flights to get to Urbana-Champaign. Not much was running in my head then. I had no expectations of my days to come. I couldn’t imagine it all: living in smalltown USA, going back to school, being away from my friends and family. School and being away from family was not a big matter for me, it was the part about being in smalltown that was so not me. I’ve always been a city kid: Jakarta, New York-the farthest I’ve ever diverted from city life was 6 months in Yogya; and even that for some people could still be considered a city scene.

Anyway, that wasn’t what was consuming my mind back then. My thoughts were caught up in the past-my disappointment of unfulfilled hopes. I was too numb to think about anything else. But I was glad to be getting away from it all. This was my moment: to change and to grow. Nevermind the fact that it would happen in the middle of nowhere.

Urbana-Champaign welcomed me with a comforting blandness: the monotonous cornfields, the silence, just pure simplicity. This was where I found serenity, literally and figuratively. This was where I made peace with my broken dreams, now fully thankful for it all to happen. This was where I found my potential (to cook-note: still a potential…haha), my independence, and sense of responsibility (although I'm still always procrastinating).

Now the time has come for me to start packing my bags (at least to start thinking about packing them). I’ll soon be stepping back into the land of hustling cars, honking horns, pollution, traffic jams, and pickpockets. There’s a certain comfort in the back of my head, but fright overshadows it all. For me, it is uncertainty waiting at the door and crucial decisions lying in store. Decisions I’m not ready to make, that is. I think it's because all the pieces haven’t fallen in the right places. So I’m clinging on to every possibility to put off this task.

But then again, I guess life is a jigsaw puzzle. The pieces are never complete. You’ve gotta work with what you have and go with the flow. Just go out there and beat the odds.