Friska Notes

Our Last Survivor

Pustakawan Mendunia has been 2 years and the vision keeps going! 

I have this (weirdly) urgency to leave a legacy in this world. 

I want to have a little token from me to give a glimpse of hope, a better world, in my capacity. What is my capacity? I am a librarian by profession and I have a passion for reading, literacy, and librarianship. I find this is rare even between my circle of alumni. I am blessed to be graduated from the best university in Indonesia with this major, and passionate about it too. 

Then? What shall I do?

The Past

Years ago, when I was in Jakarta, my friends and I were helping a community library nearby Ciliwung River. When I left Jakarta for a job in Surabaya, the library activity was stopped. Since then, I am terrified to join or build a community if there is no one to continue the initiative. 

When I joined a youth community to teach kids in the remote areas in Mimika Regency, Papua Province, I still had this in mind. I need to make sure that even though I am no longer there, the community may survive. However, it is not easy to find an idealistic person, with the same view, and has perseverance as me. This is not boasting, but I had tried to find that person/s for years. 

In Papua, I still have that positive mindset, as long as we were working on the same children and the same projects, that would not be a problem. But, it had problems then. My vision is idealistic and not compatible with others who thought of our projects lightly and did that as a matter of having fun. I am serious about teaching the students with a well-managed preparation and program. For others, why am I making it so difficult?

Then it came true, the moment I left the community in Mimika Regecny,  the activity was collapsed! The community is no longer active. I moved out to Batam.

Leaving a legacy is not that easy. A good deed is not enough. 

Therefore, I make sure to be more careful in Batam. I would not join any community if I know the people's values are different from mine. At all. At all. At all. Nada. I would not join at all. I met several communities in Batam, tried to attend their gathering, or joined one of their programs. However, I found out that these people only taking this as a matter of having fun and to have something nice to be shared in their IG feeds. 

The Present

Enough with the lesson from the past and I make a promise to myself. 

If I can't find it, then I will make it. 

I will make my vision happen, and that's how Pustakawan Mendunia comes up 2 years ago. I still have that urgency to have Pustakawan Mendunia as a legacy, and this is going to be continued by the next visionary librarian/s. Even though I am retired or meeting my Father in heaven, I still wish this vision keeps going. 

I am building my path on my way there. I make contact with Library Science students in UI and Uncen. Students are the key to a better future, and they shall realize that through our profession we may touch people's lives, help people to unleash their potential, giving hope, build a better world for everyone. However, most library science students do not realize their strength that well. 

Therefore, I am delighted that we just finished 9 sessions with Library Science students in Universitas Cenderawasih, Papua Province. At the first moment, I really hope that this meeting would help the library science students bridging the theory they had in college with the reality in the working environment. These sessions are free, they do not need to pay anything. However, the number of attendees keep reduced until our last 2 meet up. Only Ridho and I were there in our last 2 meetups.

The Future

Future is something that we can't have yet but we can plan to. 

I am feeling sorry for Papua who doesn't grab this opportunity well. Our learning session is only temporary until December 2020. I am not really sure about next year because I have a lot of projects to do with my planner. 

However, I appreciated what Ridho has done and I could see his spirit of learning is so strong. After some consideration, I offer him to be part of Pustakawan Mendunia team, at least for a year. If he is willing to. And yes, he is very happy and almost ends in tears. Before, I really hope at least there would be a Papuan student standing until the end of our session. But there is none.

If you read what I have read in "The Past," you know for sure that I am very careful to make decisions about the community. Therefore, having someone get into Pustakawan Mendunia is not really easy for me. In a way to open the path of Pustakawan Mendunia as a legacy for the future, I have to overcome the fear. I need to mentor the next/another Pustakawan Mendunia, and it begins from Ridho.

Let's see. 

Batam, 12 December 2020.