Living a Value Driven Life
Previously, I shared something about failure on this blog. This moment gives me a room to reflect on myself and what I actually want to do in my life to make it worth living. Therefore, in this story, I would like to share my own reflection about what I have done so far in my life.
I’m always passionate to create meaningful impact to community. It’s because I live in a semi-rural area in West Bandung region where I used to be surrounded by underprivileged community. I still clearly remember that when I was a young girl, my friend told me that she couldn’t continue her education because she was going to be married with somebody whom she didn’t even know. It was so unfortunate for her because she was so ambitious back then. Hence, I’m so interested in women empowerment issue because I want to challenge the patriarchal mind which still underestimates women.
Asides from that, I aspire to make betterment for the society because I am inspired by my father. He used to create an innovation for farmers in my village to produce bell pepper by using hydroponic system which can be affordable for smallholder farmers. Just for your information, the real hydroponic system is so expensive and it is usually owned by big corporate; so, my father created the cheaper version of it. Then he eventually managed to financially empower the farmers and make our village becomes one of the largest producer of bell pepper in Indonesia. Actually, the thing that makes him so inspiring for me is not because of his accomplishment. I just feel that there is an unseen thing in his life which makes him looks so peaceful regardless of all the failures, challenges, and difficulties that he faces in his life, and that’s the thing that I want to have in my life, so that it can be meaningful.
How about me? Have I done something for the community like what my father did?
Maybe the answer is not yet, but I’m currently working in progress. I think the most significant experience in my life which gives me a valuable lesson is when I initiated a social business during my high school life. I sold healthy meal to my friends in which the ingredients are directly obtained from farmers. Not only that, I utilized eatable vegetables that usually ended up as waste because it doesn’t fit with the standard of supermarket. I also used to empower three re-sellers from different schools and became financially independent.
I don’t know how I can do that. I wasn’t really active in social media back then because I still used BB so that I didn’t have access to Instagram to promote my products. The location of my school is also very far from my home, so that I need to wake up very early every day to prepare everything. However, despite all these limitations, I was still able to manage my ideas to be executed.
Unfortunately, I didn’t continue this business because I started to be occupied with college life like academics, students’ association, debating, etc. Right now, I’m currently trying to start my business again and help my sister’s business “Sobat Veggies”. However, my initiative is not as powerful as what I have done in my high school life. Sometimes I stopped in the middle. I think it’s because I think too much about it. I have so many insecurities and that makes me investing my time too much on planning instead of executing it.
So, I think I need to stop being insecure and just start. Having a well-planned planning is necessary, but the most important thing is execution. I’m writing this is as self-reminder. I hope I can always have the capacity to uphold my value by contributing back to community.
