Seriously Comical

“We can only connecting the dots by looking backwards“

Steve Jobs Commencement Speech

It was a words that Steve Jobs said in his commencement speech few years ago and it also becomes the words that I really believe in. Why? Maybe because I had a concrete experience related to that words in these past few days. Let me tell you my story:

My first dot is about my ability in English, especially writing. About two years ago I got a scholarship for one semester at Macquarie University, Sydney, as an exchange student for one semester. I could choose any subjects that I wanted during the study. As a psychology major student, it was an innate desire that I want to take psychology subjects at that time. However, I asked myself , “What could I get in one semester?”. I mean, studying psychology isn’t like taking a computer short-course. I felt that I could not really understand deeply if I only study there for one semester. So, under that consideration, finally I took three different subjects: Print Media Journalism, Linguistic, and Creative Writing. I chose those subjects because I wanted to improve my english (in writing).

The other dot is about presentation. I could say that I had a really bad public speaking ability until a year ago. I always nervous whenever I needed to speak in front of many people. My heart was pounding, my hands shook, and I spoke uncontrollably. In short, I was a clown. And it had become my greatest fear ever to talk in front of people. Fortunately, I have been trying hard to overcome my fear since a year ago. The first time was when I needed to give a powerpoint presentation in a business plan competition. I have two partners that encourage me to do the speech, at least for 5 minutes. And after I went through that 5 minutes of hell, I could manage my fear better. I kept practicing by giving a lecture at Universitas Indonesia  (faculty of Communication studies), became a trainer, and surfed many websites that give me many good examples of powerpoint design.

Finally these dots were connected in these past few weeks. I had some kind of occasion that needed myself to be examined. I had three test in a row for three weeks: interview test, Presentation test (in english), and essay writing test. I could not imagine if I did not have those dots before. It would’ve been a disaster for me. I could get nervous while doing the interview test and presentation test, and I could write a trash essay on the essay writing test.  I have my dots helping me eventhough I did not think that the previous dots was going to be helpful to me. It’s just like Steve Jobs said, “We can only connecting the dots by looking backwards”.

Make the dots as many as you can.

I believe all people in this world only have two ways of life.

1. The first way is to be someone who is realistic with all their decision. This way of life will give you a safe way to live; no deep scar on your heart and no glorious joy whatsoever.

2. The second one is to be someone who always pursue what they want ignoring whether it is possible or impossible. Just simply follow your heart and follow your ego. As a result, there are possibilities to feel insanely down or vice versa.

Cool your head, drink a glass of water, and think clearly which way of life do you choose. By defining this, you are a step further on knowing who you really are. Realistic people who love to act within his range of competency will feel good if they can measure what are they capable of. On the other hand, the person who always follow his heart will feel satisfied everytime he takes risk.  So in what condition that defining whether you are a follower of your dream or someone who realistic can make you a better person?

I should say: in any condition that needed you to make decision. Why? It’s because everytime you make decision, you are being tested that are you someone who really know about yourself or not? If you really know about yourself, then you must be seldom to regret what you’ve decided. And this will lead to a happy life without looking back to your past.

Larry Page, the Google co-founder, was giving a commencement speech at Michigan University. He shared his story about google and his family. This is the words that we all should remember from him:

Overall, I know it seems like the world is crumbling out there, but it is actually a great time in your life to get a little crazy, follow your curiosity, and be ambitious about it. Don’t give up on your dreams. The world needs you all!

Read the transcript here.

taken from time.com

We  need to work hard for the better future.

While some people compete with each other, there’s someone who’s trying to reach the impossible.