Scientific Competition in Djakarta, my first flight

Scientific Competition in Djakarta – an added bonus; my first flight in a plane

Debby Zunta

I am a poor girl. I admit it. My parents are only farmers. I never lie about my parent’s occupation. There is nothing I can hope to get from my parents. If ever I have dreams, I have to endeavor by myself to realize them. Even I  need my parents’ help, they are in no position to give me.  Everything is in my own hands.

However I regard myself a lucky girl, because I am able to get what I want through my    effort. I am a girl who has a lot of dreams. But I know dreams can only remain as dreams; if  I don’t make them  becoming realities. 

 Flying in a plane is one of my dreams. I want to fly for a reason, not for holiday leisure.  But maybe going places for persentations, scientific meetings and attending seminars. It sounds really great.

One afternoon after the pathology class, Ana asked me, “ Deb, would you join a science competition like our friends do? I really want to do something different.”

“ Yes of course I really want to do that. What competition?” I asked.

“ The competition is in Djakarta. We have to make a literature review.”

“Actually, I still don’t know how to make it, An. We have to ask someone who has the expertise.” I said.

“ Me too, but you know there is always a way if you have a will. I believe in that.” Ana sounded so optimistic.

Before join competition in Djakarta. Ana and I decided to join an essay competition in Jember. First we made a proposal and we became the finalist. We we so happy because our proposal was good enouth to be accepted.  From then on, we became so interested in writing.

 We asked another friend to join. She was Mei.  Together, our team of three signed up for the first competition that was held by Universitas Sriwijaya in Palembang. But we were not picked among the finalists.

That was our first experience.  We failed but we did not lose heart. We still wanted to join another. We put our heads together to find out what actually the criteria the judges were looking for.

“Our paper should be related to real life, the aim must be clear.  We have to make new inovations. I mean it is not only theory. We need to make a product.” I suggested.

“Yes, I think so.” Mei agreed.

“ We have to choose what disease we want to cure.” I proposed.

“What about Diabetes Melitus? My Dad has it and you know, his teeth are vulnerable to decay and  easily fall off. We know that their Alveolar bone is easy to decay.” Ana said.

“ it is a great Idea. I think about bone graft Injection like insuline injection. It is safe for them.” The idea came about like a lamp switched on in my head.

Forget that idea. We had to read up so many journals. My senior divulged that another university team had gone through  more than 100 reference articles. It was a crazy attempt.. For me, to understand only one journal would already taken up a lot time. How to collect and colate all those 100 journals just to substantiate that topic. .

It was a gigantic challange for me. My motivation to read   just came about recently. Before I started my undergraduate days,  I was not a bookworm. But now I knew I had to be one. I needed to.

From reading journals, I also learned English; because most reference literature were  written  in English. The publications were not updated in Bahasa Indonesia.

I held meetings with my friends  every weekend. Sometimes we went to cafes to brainstorm over some ice cream and ais buaya. We three were so ambitious. But who cared?

To make three people to come to a common consensus was surely very hard. We had our own arguments but we had to. Finally after a month of hard knocks, we got  our abstract material done and submitted it via email promptly.

We had high hopes to win this competition. It would be an achievment for us. The result would be announced in a mounth.

The day came. The annoucement appeared on the university website. Ana was also informed by email. The email containing the names of the winning group to become the finalist was our group.  Our names were  there too. OMG I was so happy with it. Wow!

Besides our busy schedule, we had to make the full paper for the presentation. This part was actually much more harder than making only the abstract. We were confused about the discussion part, we didn’t find any references that were related to the topic.

The day for the presentation came. We flew to Jakarta on Flight Juanda from Soekarno Hatta Airport.  We choose to fly from Surabaya cause Jember airport don’t have enough flight. Flying in a plane from Surabaya to Jakarta was an experience of a lifetime.  During the take off, I had a panoramic view of Surabaya.  It was a sight to behold.  No words could express my joy and my feeling.  I realized my dream of flying in a plane for the first time all on my own.

The competition was secondary. Till now we were still not sure about the contents. So when the judges asked, we could not come along with satisfactory answers. We came in  last. However, just like the view from the potholes of the plane in the air,   we saw  our true selves.  Comparing with another participating group, we felt that our paper was really bad. Theirs was really great.

At the and we did not win. Actually, I didn’t really care about it. Important thing was I gained a lot of experience, Nonetheless, my friends and I were sad. . But we persisted and looked forward to have another chance in another competition.

Okay I think that’s all about my experience that brought me on a flight to djakarta. I aspire to embark on another journey to another place. I hope I can always find new places and gain new experiences.