Wacana

"Nanti kita reuni lagi, ya."

Teman-temanku, maaf.

Aku benci diriku sendiri.
Aku benci kalian.

Aku muak. Muak membaca semua wacana omong kosong yang kalian perbincangkan. Muak melihat diriku muak membaca obrolan kalian. Muak merasakan tidak adanya balasan ketika aku mengajak kalian mengobrol.

Aku iri. Iri melihat teman-temanku yang lain seolah mempunyai persahabatan yang sempurna. Iri teman-temanku bisa mendapat balasan atas obrolan mereka sementara aku tidak. Iri.

Aku sedih. Sedih melihat bagaimana semuanya berubah. Sedih melihat runtuhnya komunikasi kita.

Maafkan aku, teman-teman.

Topik obrolanku tidak semenarik orang lain.
Humorku tidak selucu orang lain.
Aku tidak bisa bermain basket semahir mereka.
Aku hanya kutu buku.

"Jangan lupain gue."

Kamu lebih suka berbicara dengan orang lain.

"Nanti kita reuni lagi, ya."

sebuah

wacana?

Beneath the Number Four (English)

Four is just a number four is just a number four is just a number.

Since 9^th grade, the number four have been so influential for me. The number often made me remember all life lessons I have got throughout my life. Sometimes I feel like that number is encouraging me to do brave things, but other times I feel like the number is killing me softly with its sharp angles and edges.

In a group of all one-digit numbers, four is one of the numbers which is commonly used in the world. Think about it. In music, you generally count from one to four. GPA is scaled from zero to four. Even the word four itself has four letters. What else? Fantastic Four? I am Number Four? Four from Divergent Series? The number four is indeed fantastic, at least for me. Luckily we don’t have four fingers for each hand, eh?

But, is it okay for a number to be so influential in someone’s life? Probably.

I should start off by letting you know who are the persons I address as “Four”, because it’d be quite long of a story. I had to repeat the phrase four is just a number while I write this so please tolerate my silliness of being influented by the result of two plus two.

There is a friend in my school which I address as “Four” because a friend of mine wrote a novel about dauntless bravery and impeccable psychopathy, and she based the character “Four” with this guy. He’s kind of the perfect guy for all girls. The prince. The kind of guy I would envy on (if not everyone). I’ll tell you about him later.

And then there is this Four from Divergent series, which I sometimes fantasize as my friend from school. This sounds stupid, but both Fours are equally influential in a way.

There is this sport called basketball which I almost refuse to join before 9^th grader, but I did anyway. (Luckily a ball doesn’t have four sides) Now, as I’m graduating to 10^th grade, I kind of lost hope in basketball because I’m not dexterous enough. My friends like to say that it’s a waste of time for me to watch basketball because I can’t play it right. I was extremely sad and angry at the same time.

Then this guy called Four came. He’s so kind that I’d envy his kindness while being skillful at a number of sports. He encouraged me to never give up at all things, including basketball – the sport I love most, yet the one I hate most. After months of not playing basketball, I decided to play with him. My old friends became vain and I didn’t want to play with them, because I’m not as good as them and I fear they would humiliate me. Four isn’t as good as them but twice as kind, so I choose to have a kind teacher rather than a qualified one.

So there you go, my basketball story. A story involving friendship and allegiance.

Four in the novel is so different. I think I’m not the bravest of my friends, but Four in Divergent have changed me mentally. He indirectly taught me to be brave and take options, like what his girlfriend does. Tris is supposed to influent me more here, but I don’t know. I like Four more.

Having ONLY four fears would be awesome. I thought I had a hundred of them when I actually had only seven. One of the most valuable lessons Four taught me is that being fearless is not the point, it’s overcoming your fear and being free from it. That’s my favorite one as my father often says to me, his son (who is scared of insects) to be fearless.

Nobody’s perfect, so I think nobody is purely fearless.

Sorry for you non-Divergent fans, but I often claim that I am a member of the Dauntless faction, that I have dauntless bravery. I also fantasize what would happen if Tobias Eaton is real, which sadly is false. But that’s not the point.

Back to the basketball story. I’m still not so skilled at basketball. 10^th grade is coming fast and I have to choose between attending basketball extracurricular or not.

The question is : Do I have enough bravery for that?

Do I have that dauntless bravery?

Yes.

My Opinion on Generation Z and the Internet

Hai! Salam kenal!

Saya adalah seorang manusia dari generasi Z. 
Generasi yang paling sering dijelek-jelekkan oleh media massa.
Kecanduan teknologi. Lupa waktu. Lupa dunia. Lupa segalanya.

Benarkah? Benarkah begitu?

Tidak (sepenuhnya) benar.

Beberapa dari kami memang sangat menyukai teknologi, namun, jika kita pikirkan lagi, jika saja teknologi seperti handphone, tablet, dan semacamnya itu sudah ada di tahun 1980an, bukankah efeknya juga akan sama? Manusia tahun 1980an pasti akan sama seperti kami, jika teknologi tersebut keluar di tahun 1980an.

Mungkin memang iya, beberapa dari kami sudah kecanduan teknologi, namun tidak semuanya. Menurut saya, massa terlalu mendeskripsikan generasi Z sebagai generasi yang menyalahgunakan teknologi, seolah-olah semua orang dari generasi Z melakukan itu. Tidak.

Memangnya semua orang Islam teroris? Tidak.
Memangnya semua orang hitam miskin? Tidak.
Semua hanya stereotip saja. Melihat sesuatu yang besar dari sesuatu yang kecil. Lebih parah lagi, melihat hal kecil yang negatif. Wah!

Tidak bisa disimpukan bahwa satu-satunya hal yang kita buka dalam internet adalah hal-hal negatif. Malah, menurut saya, anak-anak usia sekolahan pasti cukup sering mengakses internet untuk membuka materi pelajaran. Apakah itu penyalahgunaan internet? Apalagi setelah diterapkannya Kurikulum 2013 yang mewajibkan para siswa mencari tahu sendiri mengenai materi yang sedang dipelajar.

Kami juga dapat meraih prestasi mengenai pengetahuan-pengetahuan yang diperoleh melalui internet. Semua orang dapat meraih prestasi melalui pengetahuan yang tersebar di internet. Berguna sekali, bukan?
 
Internet sangat berguna juga untuk mencari tahu informasi mengenai sarana pendidikan yang akan kita tuju di masa depan. Mengapa banyak sekali yang terlalu menjelek-jelekkan internet? Lagi pula, menjelek-jelekkan internet di internet sendiri juga merupakan suatu tindakan yang menurunkan kualitas konten internet.

Internet tidak seburuk itu.

Jadi, mengapa harus membenci internet secara berlebihan? Pasti kita pernah menggunakan internet minimal sekali. Menurut saya, Generasi Z juga hanya memanfaatkan apa yang bisa dimanfaatkan, walaupun mungkin terkadang kami melakukannya dengan cara yang salah dan tak bertanggung jawab.

Memang, seharusnya kami juga menggunakan internet dengan lebih bertanggung jawab lagi. Saya secara pribadi juga setuju dengan hal itu.

Sekian opini saya, mohon maaf jika ada yang tersinggung.

Terima kasih untuk membaca!

[P.S. : Baca cerita buatan saya di Wattpad : realtheodorejonathan dengan judul cerita "Five". Dijamin tegang dan penasaran.]

English Practical Exam

Hai! Gue sekarang mau ngasih kalian naskah Ujian Praktik Bahasa Inggris gua. Mohon pendapat kalian mengenai semua hal yang gue tulis. Makasih banyak, ya! Maaf ketikannya acak-acakan, gue asal copy-paste aja hehehe

English Practical Exam

Alvendro H.         9A/03       AH           Jonathan N. W.   9A/20        JN

Angeline C.         9A/06       AC           Theodore J.         9A/32        TJ

Elaine                9A/15       EL            Vania V.             9A/34        VV

Counter Clockwise

JN (Narr)     : Elaine’s been living in denial of the mysterious death of her father. Her family tried to encourage her, but she doesn’t look any better so far.

	Scene 1

 

January 25, 2179

AC       : Elaine!?? Alvendro!?? Huh.. Where are they going..?

EL        : Yeah? What’s wrong, Mom?

AC       : Can you help me tidy your dad’s lab?

AH       : Ugh.. Okay, Mom.

EL        : Mom…, who will take us there?

AC       : It should be…, your auntie, Vania, or maybe my friend, Jonathan.

AH       : I hope we won’t wait for it too long.

VV       : Hi Chika! Hi guys! Let’s go. Jona is waiting for us in the car.

AC       : Bye.. Be careful dear~

EL+AH  : Bye mom..

(Elaine, Vania, and Alvendro get out of the stage)

	Scene 2

 

(At the Lab)

VV       : Don’t touch your father’s tools. Tidy those books. I’m going upstairs and Jona is gonna be here.

JN        : I will take care of them. Don’t worry too much. They’re adults anyway..

(Vania gets out of the stage) (Alvendro sees the box)

AH       : What is this? I think this thing wasn’t here before.

EL        : What’s in the box? (approaches Alvendro)

AH       : A watch!??! Why is it here? I’ve never seen this watch.

EL        : Is it Dad’s?

JN        : Yes, it’s his. Do you know how it works? Your father made it by himself.

AH       : Of course we don’t!

EL        : Show us how it works! I want to see it!

JN        : You can see the steps in this book. Your dad wrote it.

(Jona gives them a book and leaves the stage)

AH       : It’s written here. It says that this watch is a…. Time machine??

EL        : Really? I know that this isn’t real.

AH       : If you don’t believe me, just read this by yourself!

(Ven gives Elaine the book and Elaine reads it.)

EL        : Wha—this isn’t a joke, right?

AH       : Ha—! Told you so!

EL        : Let’s try this! That means we can see Dad again, right?!

AH       : Are you crazy?! Don’t do that! You’ll mess with the timeline!

EL        : J-Just try it for once! I want to see him!

AH       : …Okay, then. Let’s try this thing together.

(Vendro fiddles with the watch carefully and Vania comes to the stage)

VV       : Kids…? Where are you? Kids?! Kids!! Jonathan!!

JN        : Yeah? What’s wrong?

VV       : Alvendro and Elaine are gone! What should we do?!

JN        : Oh…

VV       : What?

JN        : …Nothing! Let’s find them together.

	Scene3

 

January 25, 2158

AH       : Let’s check the date on the watch. Oh! We did it! It’s January 25^th 2158!

EL        : Let’s find Dad!

EL        : It should be when Dad was a college student.

AH       : But how do we get into his university?

EL        : I don’t know. Wait.. Who is that guy? I think I know that face. It looks like.. dad!!??!

AH       : What?! Really?! Could it be…he is Dad in this timeline?!

EL        : I don’t know, but they kind of look-a-like.

AH       : Let’s follow him!

(Ven and Elaine follow Theo around and Theo drops something)

AH       : He drops something! Look! It’s an ID card!

(Elaine takes the ID Card)

EL        : (Gasp) It’s really him! (Whisper)

TJ        : Excuse me.. I think it’s mine.

EL        : Ugh? I-I am sorry sir. (Give the card back)

TJ        : Thank you.. Where are your parents?

AH       : Oh!? … One of our parents is a professor in your university.

TJ        : So you are going to meet your parents, aren’t you?

EL        : Y-yes..

TJ        : I can bring you there.

AH       : Thank you da- Ugh? Sir..

EL        : So, what are you studying, sir?

TJ        : Just, please call me TJ. ‘Sir’ sounds too old for me. By the way I’m studying physics here. It’s so interesting. I want to be a scientist and discover more about time dimension. If I can invent the time machine, It’ll be the greatest invention in the world! Imagine if we could travel through time..

EL        : (whisper) so that’s why he invented this time machine.

TJ        : What are you guys talking about back there?

AH       : It—it’s nothing…

TJ        : Please listen to me when I’m talking here.

AC       : Oh, hey there!

EL+AH  : (Gasp)

AC       : Eh? Who are those kids?

TJ        : They’re the professor’s children…I think.

VV       : They’re so cute! Are you guys siblings?

EL        : Yeah… he is my brother…

VV       : Oh my, Chika, the girl looks like you!

AC       : What are you talking about?

TJ        : Not again, Vania. I’m tired of your joke.

VV       : Don’t be like that, I’m just joking here!

JN        : What did I miss?

VV       : Aww, you miss everything good here!

AC       : I’ve gotta go. Bye!

VV       : Okay, then! See you later!

JN        : Wait, who are these kids?

TJ        : The professor’s kids.

JN        : They kinda look like you..?

TJ        : Meh, whatever.

JN        : So…what are they doing here?

TJ        : They asked me to guide them the way to their parent.

JN        : Okay, I’m going to the class. Don’t be late. Bye!

TJ        : No. Stay here and help me guide these kids. We’re gonna be late.

AH       : TJ, you don’t have to guide us. We can go by ourselves.

TJ        : Okay, take care!

AH       : Bye!

JN        : Oh, how about the big project? What is that again… the time machine?

TJ        : Working on it. I’ve got the blue prints already.

JN        : Do you need something? I can help you if you—

TJ        : No, I don’t.

JN        : Are you sure?

TJ        : Of course!

JN        : Just tell me when you need a hand, okay?

EL        : Brother, let’s go a little bit to the future.

AH       : Yeah, let’s go to the time where Father died.

	Scene 4

 

April 20, 2178

AC       : Dear? Are you done with this time machine project? You haven’t slept like for a week!

TJ        : No, I can’t! Just put my dinner in front of my lab.

AC       : Are you sure?

TJ        : Tomorrow I’ll have dinner with you and the kids, so just give me some time with this machine.

AC       : Oh… Okay, Dear. I’ll put the plate here. It’s your favorite dish. Just don’t forget to eat. Bye…

TJ        : Thank you, bye.

	Scene 5

 

(Chika left the stage, Alvendro and Elaine get to the stage.)

EL        : It’s Father’s lab!

AH       : April 20^th.. I remember! Tonight’s when father died.

EL        : We must hurry! Before it’s too late.

AH       : Let’s go! Hey, wait! Who is that guy?
EL        : Isn’t that…UNCLE JONA—

AH       : Ssshh! He can hear you! Is he making a cup of coffee? What is he doing in the lab?

AH       : I wonder what is that.

EL        : That looks like poison.

AH       : Hush! You can’t say bad things to people like that!

EL        : But, why is he smiling?

AH       : Enough with your imagination.

	Scene 6

 

(Elaine and Alvendro left the stage, Chika and Vania enter the stage)

AC       : Vania, do you notice something weird with Jona?

VV       : He’s always weird.

AC       : No, he’s weirder than before.

VV       : What do you mean? He looks the same.

AC       : No, I mean he is always alone, and he seems mad at something.

VV       : Like what?

AC       : I’m not sure. But, he becomes like this, maybe because of the project.

VV       : Oh, I remember now. That’s actually true.

AC       : I think something is up with him.

VV       : I don’t really see it, though.

AC       : Let’s check his lab.

(Theo enters the stage)

TJ        : I’m always, always, busy. I have no time to rest.

AC       : Theo, it’s me and Vania. Can we go in?

TJ        : No. You can’t. I have stuff going on here. Go.

AC       : Please, we want to talk!

VV       : Just a little talk! Open the door!

TJ        : What do you want?

AC       : Jona is weird, do you know what’s wrong with him?

TJ        : Tch, I don’t know. Just let me work.

VV       : But this is serious! Are you guys fighting? You and Jona.

TJ        : No, we’re not. Now. Go. I have work to do.

(Elaine and Alvendro enter the stage, Chika and Vania left the stage, Theo drinks the coffee.)

AH       : Wait! Father! Don’t drink that!

EL        : That coffee is poisonous!

TJ        : Alvendro? Elaine? How did you get into my lab?! Go to sleep!

AH       : NO, Father, listen to me, the coffee was poisoned by Uncle Jona!

TJ        : What are you talking about—urgh!

EL        : NO! FATHER!

JN        : Well, well, well. Kids are getting smarter, huh?

AH       : Uncle Jona… why!?

TJ        : I thought you are my friend—

JN        : Friend? Don’t be silly. Now all I just have to get rid of you two.

TJ        : I won’t let you— don’t do anything to them—

JN        : Are you sure? What can you do anyway?

(Jona approaches the kids)

AH       : No, no, NO! ELAINE, HURRY UP! GO SOMEWHERE FAR AWAY FROM THIS TIMELINE!

EL        : (switches the watch)

Scene 7

                                                         

April 18^th 2178

EL        : It should be 2 days ago.

AH       : Look! That’s Father and Uncle Jona!

TJ        : With this new invention, the world is surely going to change!

JN        : Yeah! I’m—I mean, we’re gonna change the world!

TJ        : Be right back. I’m going to take some drinks for us.

AC       : Hey Jona! What crazy project are you doing right now?

JN        : The time machine! Have you ever wondered what would happen if you could travel 100 years to the future?

AC       : That’s.. insane! That’s so brilliant!

JN        : Of course! (laughs)

AC       : How can you make one?

JN        : If I tell you right now, you won’t understand anyway.

AC       : I don’t care! Just tell me!

JN        : Okay then, if you insist. The time machine works by the law of Einstein which states that time is reversible and it’s also able to be fast-forwarded if we travel through a particle that travels faster than the speed of light.

AC       : Wow! I don’t understand anyway, but that’s just cool! I feel so smart!

JN        : Wait a minute, I’m going to the toilet.

AC       : Okay!

(Jona gets out of the stage)

JN        : Ugh! I should get that damned copyright! He should get the credit because this time machine is his idea. But, how should I get it!? Hmm.. maybe I’ll just kill him. Good idea!

AH+EL  : (Gasp)

AH       : So that’s what he wants!

EL        : I—I just can’t believe this!

AH       : Calm down! He can hear us!

EL        : W—what is going on—(drops a coin)

AH       : He can hear us!!

JN        : Hey! What’s that!? (comes)

EL        : N—(Alvendro signs to shut up)

AH       : Hurry! (Elaine switches the time machine)

JN        : (enters) That’s strange.. I saw a couple of kids just a few seconds ago.. Well, back to work!

	Scene8

 

January 25^th, 2179. The original timeline.

EL        : Phew, glad to be back.

VV       : Where have you been!? Your mom and I’ve been searching for you for 5 hours and you just popped out right here! What did you do?

AH       : N—nothing.

VV       : Don’t lie to me! I recognize that suspicious face very well!

AC       : Are you hiding something!?

AH       : No. Do I seem suspicious?

EL        : Yeah, we’re not hiding anything!

VV       : Of course you are! You seem so suspicious!

AH       : But we did nothing!

VV       : Then explain why you’re not here for 5 straight hours and you just pop up suddenly!

AC       : You’ve got a lot of explaining to do.

VV (Narr)   : So then, Elaine and Alvendro finally learned the story of their parents and the time machine. They learned to not live in denial, and that we should accept reality, although it hurts. They finally reunited with their real family in their real timeline after missing for hours. They decided to keep this as a secret between them.