Saturday, September 6, 2014

Masalah itu saya

Photo by Nishe

[1 Agustus 2014]

Tahun lalu, waktu saya baru saja mau menyongsong gelar sarjana, lebaran saya nantikan dengan rasa penuh suka cita. Kenapa? Karena kalau ada sanak saudara yang bertanya, “Semester berapa, Ris?” Saya bisa jawab, “Semester akhir” (senyum). Lalu kalau ada yang tanya lagi, “Lulus kapan?” Saya akan tersenyum lebih lebar dan menjawab, “November besok.”

Ah, bagi saya persoalan pelik dunia rasanya bisa diselesaikan hanya dengan satu kata itu saja. November.

Kalau lebaran tahun ini?

Duh. Jangan tanya. Membayangkannya saja saya merinding.

Saya pulang kampung tanggal 8 Juli. Itu pun karena pemilu akan segera diadakan dan hak pilih saya ada di rumah, bukan di Jogja (lagian saya malas juga mau ngurus-ngurus lagi). Kalau tidak ada pemilu, bisa dipastikan saya pulang H-7 lebaran. Pasti banget.

Namun karena urusan satu dan lain hal, saya balik lagi ke Jogja. Dan sialnya, saya malah jadi males pulang kampung lagi. Haha. Jogja memang sihir. Tapi mau nggak mau saya tetap harus pulang juga. Lebaran di kos kok rasanya nggak asik. Sepi pula.

Sepanjang lebaran saya berusaha meminimalisir kontak dengan para tetua. Kenapa? Ya untuk menghindari pertanyaan, “Sekarang kerja di mana?” Saya lebih senang main bersama sepupu-sepupu yang masih kecil atau yang berumur tanggung. Ikut gabung mereka saja. Biar dianggap masih muda ^^;

Yang membuat kondisi saya tambah menyedihkan, mbak sepupu saya, yang seumuran sama saya, yang dari dulu seangkatan, lebaran ini membawa pacarnya untuk dikenalkan ke keluarga besar. Ah... Lihatlah kondisi saya. Sudah jomblo, pengangguran pula. Semakin mantaplah keputusan saya untuk menghabiskan sisa libur lebaran dengan mengurung diri di kamar sambil nonton drama Korea saja.

Lalu, momen yang paling saya takutkan pun tiba. Om saya yang dari Jakarta datang berkunjung.

Om saya yang satu ini, dulu waktu saya kecil, adalah salah satu om yang paling dekat dengan saya. Satu almamater. Satu fakultas. Dan paling nyambung kalau diajak ngobrol masalah-masalah 'berat'. Beliau juga yang menginspirasi saya untuk kuliah di Jogja, di universitas almamater saya.

Om saya sekarang sudah jadi orang yang ‘lumayan’ penting. Setidaknya beliau kenal beberapa orang yang duduk di kursi pemerintahan. Ngobrol dengan si Om tentu saja membuat saya canggung. Karena saya memang notabene selalu mudah diintimidasi oleh orang-orang sukses macam beliau ini.

Tapi satu-satunya orang yang bisa diajak ngobrol tentang kegalauan pasca wisuda pun cuma beliau. Karena paklik-bulik saya yang ada di desa rata-rata cuma lulusan SMA. Lagipula ibu saya berulang-ulang kali menyuruh saya untuk dekat dengan si Om. Siapa tahu dapat bocoran info-info bagus. Maka mau tak mau, waktu si Om datang ke rumah buat silaturahmi, saya keluar kamar juga. Awalnya cuma pengen salaman lalu balik ke kamar lagi karena saya dari semalam belum tidur. Tapi si Om dan istrinya manggil saya keluar. “Sini lah. Ngobrol.” Begitu katanya.

Waini. Saya membatin. The nightmare begins.

Seperti yang bisa pembaca bayangkan, saya diceramahi macam-macam. Dari A sampai Z saya dengarkan. Sayangnya, konklusi dari ceramah mereka adalah hal yang sudah saya tahu sejak tahun lalu. Masalah saya adalah diri saya sendiri. Dan tanpa perlu diceramahi pun saya paham benar akan hal ini. Lebih dari siapa pun.

Saya kadang mikir, mungkin akan lebih baik kalau masalah saya adalah masalah eksternal. Masalah yang terlahir di luar diri saya, seperti misal; diremehkan orang lain. Mungkin saya akan lebih mudah deal dengan masalah eksternal macam ini. Kalau saya diremehkan orang, saya justru akan tersulut untuk berusaha lebih keras. Problem solved. Tapi masalah saya beda. Saya diremehkan diri saya sendiri. Saya ditakut-takuti diri saya sendiri. Saya diajak untuk melihat hal-hal negatif oleh diri saya sendiri. Itu masalah saya.

Om saya datang tentu saja tidak hanya untuk ceramah. Beliau juga memberikan solusi-solusi. Kebanyakan solusi-solusi yang beliau tawarkan sebenarnya juga sudah pernah saya pikirkan. Bukan solusi baru. Hanya saja, solusi yang saya katakan untuk diri saya sendiri dengan solusi –walaupun intinya sama- yang diucapkan orang lain untuk saya, rasanya jauh berbeda. I found both encouragement and –ridiculously- mock in them. Dan keduanya menstimulasi semangat saya dengan cara yang baru.

Setelah om saya pulang, saya bergegas melanjutkan tidur yang tertunda. Sialnya, saya malah jadi gagal memejamkan mata. Saya merasa tiba-tiba saya menemukan vision baru. Konklusi saya sendiri.

I am a thinker to the bone. Untuk urusan analisa permasalahan dan solusi, rata-rata keduanya bisa saya lakukan sendiri. Saya tidak perlu orang lain untuk ceramah tentang apa-apa yang jadi masalah saya karena saya tahu tentang mereka. Strenghts, weaknesses, mistakes... saya paham. Hanya saja, saya butuh orang lain untuk mengingatkan mereka. Saya butuh orang lain untuk mengatakan hal itu di depan muka saya. Bukan dalam konteks menggurui, namun mengingatkan. Karena, jujur, tidak banyak orang yang bisa mengingatkan kelemahan orang lain tanpa embel-embel menggurui. Saya pun masih perlu belajar banyak.

Lebaran kali ini jauh dari menyenangkan. Namun di antara sekian banyak hal pahit yang saya dapat, saya bersyukur masih mampu menemukan gula-gula yang menyempil di antaranya.

Today, I matured a little bit more. And I’m grateful for that. 

**

Friday, September 5, 2014

A broken record of her confession

Photo by Mandy Faith

"I thought the chapters were over. Apparently I was the only one who closed the book."

"I mean it's admirable though. Keeping all those feelings for all these years? Alone? Without any communication whatsoever? That man is a badass. A keeper material indeed."

"I know. Which is why I don't want him to end up with an asshole like me. He deserves better. Ends up with me will be a miserable ending for his future. God is not that mean for pairing him up with a girl who can't even appreciate his delicate affection for something so silly like grammar errors. And notably, he doesn't deserve a girl who makes fun and jokes around on how countrified his name is. That's utterly rude and impolite."

"But he's literally someone who fits every expectation you've dreamt before. Count the stupidest ones in. It's like you listed those criteria and then BAM! he appeared out of nowhere."

"THAT. IS. ALSO. WHY. He is too good to be true. Besides good boy ain't no fun, you know. I never expected them to be that boring."

"Oh, c'mon! Loving a bad guy isn't fun either."

"Well, at least they're cool."

"That's seriously moronic."

"I'm sure he had moved one. Just like me. There are just million girls with better personalities who want to have a good man like him. Why choose the bad one out of hundreds baskets of good apples? I believe he's smart enough to know that."

"I think the problem is he doesn't know who you truly are. He thought you're a good girl. The one who rises early in the middle of the misty night to pray."

"Yeah, I kinda feel guilty for that. I was portraying someone whose personalities a whole universe apart with the real me in front of him. What a bitch, eh? Sometimes I just want to smack myself with a hammer."

"Don't you ever think you're just being overly confident?"

"I did. I mean, who knows if he already had another girl with gazillion better traits somewhere?"

"Yeah, you're right."

"And besides, it'll be such a fool of him if he want to wait years and years for a girl like me. I seriously don't think I am that worthy. Well I'm not trying to bring myself down. I'm just trying to describe how good he is as a man and how he deserves a good girl to complete his perfect life."

"People will think you're an ungrateful wicked woman though."

"I am aware of that. Completely. I know I'm just that shallow girl who cannot accept a little flaw like typo or grammar errors when many women out there were crying over their men who did the cheating and beating. I am too shallow. I know. And as cheesy as it may sound, I'll say it once again, but I don't deserve him. He deserves a good girl who likes him back, who loves his whole being as much as he loves hers, who accepts him as who he is."

"You used to think marrying for God is the coolest thing ever. You are the one who said that a woman needs to marry a man who can make her closer to the Creator."

"Indeed. That's true. The thing is; it is easier to be said than it is to be done. Even till now I can't imagine myself lives with another human being. Let alone someone that I don't feel attracted with. I always know I am going to live a lonely and loveless life. I'm just too ridiculous and greedy and selfish for the world to take in."

"You surely have such a sad and desolate depiction to picture your future."

"Yeah, I am a dark kid. LOL."

"Are you sure the "typo and grammar errors" thing is the sole reason you can't accept him?"

"I don't know. I can't guarantee my feeling will stay the same forever. I mean people changed. All the time. As of now, my feeling stops at admiration. For sure, he is a good man. Proven. I just can't bring myself to like him back."

"The world is a such a weird place, eh? You wish someone with the exact same personalities like him come to like you, but when he did, you don't like him. What a twist!"

"I know right. People would probably wonder how can I be so picky with a face like this? I will perhaps forever lose the chance to be loved by someone else if I manage to reject him. I don't have a lot of choices. That's true. But do I have to accept anything that is thrown at me just because I am ugly? Do I have to marry anyone who loves me just because I'm not good looking enough to attract other people? What kind of sick judgement is that? It's discrimination. I am offended."

"No one ever said something like that to you though."

"I know. I just thought, perhaps, sometimes, people were thinking about me like that. They just didn't have the courage to spit it out directly in front of me. Ha. Ha. What am I talking about? Human judges another human is a basic common sense anyway."

"Don't you fear the repentance? Later?"

"First of all, we have to get the fact straight. Who said he still has the feeling lingers for me? It's all SPECULATION. He never offered me a promise, I never demanded any fulfillment. That's the fact. I really don't get why people think we have this some sort of contract for always coming back to each other whatever happens. People keep telling me life is not Korean dramas. Then, I say, YES. This isn't. This is life. The real one. Where the sweetness sometimes cannot cover up the bitterness that comes. You know, I can barely love myself on a daily basis. But when I do myself a favor for choosing something that I feel right, people told me I am selfish. What the fuck."

"You don't answer my question by the way."

"Well, as much as I hate people telling me "Told ya!", I can sense a great remorse is waiting in the future. Preparing to attack and to turn me into a big burrito of sadness. But, does it change my decision? Nope. Not even an inch. What should I do? I'm always this stubborn. That's why a good camaraderie never occurred between love and I. We'll forever be in this eternal space of luckless romance hating on each other. "

"Whatever choices you make, I hope you're just joking when you said you want to love a bad boy. There is nothing fun in it. You knew that long ago."

"I'm still thinking they're fun and cool though. LOL."

"Oh, please."

"I am probably the biggest hopeless romantic that lives on Earth now. My vision on love and partnership keeps changing more often than the weather. Sometimes I believe in marriage. Sometimes I think it's just bullshit. Someone keeps saying that my decision for always avoiding him is the sign that I'm still having certain feelings. Yes, I do. They are hatred and regret. If only I could cancel our first rendezvous, I would. If only I could remove him completely out of my life and forget who he is, I definitely would. To summarize, I prefer my world without his existence. Or his world without mine."

"How come you have all those ugly feelings for him while all he did is just silently loving you? It's something that I can't make sense of."

"I am an enigma even for myself."

"Still, it does not justify how cruel you are for the boy."

"Cruel? Really? To be honest, what did I do to him that make you think I am the bad guy?"

"You're giving him a false hope."

"In what way??"

"You shouldn't act nice to him if you don't intend to let him in."

"I didn't act nice. I did what I should. He asked me a question, I answered it with an answer. I didn't even asking him back to make the conversation longer."

"You should just remove his account from your friend list then."

"Hahaha. And changing my phone number too I guess? Am I a childish bastard too now?"

"You are."

"Whatever. I'll try my best to make him go. I don't want him to come to me again. If he had already forgotten me, that's 1000x better. Although he's the jewel and I am just a poor beggar, it doesn't mean I have to accept the jewel just because I am poor. Someone can marry someone else with the same gender, I can also have a freedom to reject a good boy. Somehow, I hope people will also realize that I'm just human with feelings. The fact that he is nice and I'm not does not vindicate the decision that I have to accept him. In fact, the thought of forcing myself to let him in makes me hate both of us more. It's just weird. 

I think people just keep focusing on the 'rejection' part more than the whole situation. I reject him means I hurt him. I waste a good man. Then what about me? Accepting him means hurting myself. Do I have to suffer my whole life? A kid told me that other people may interfere my speech and correct my grammar but they don't have the right to do the same with my life decision. I mean my choice in rejecting him is literally saving both of us from the seemingly doom-like situation. Isn't that good enough?"

"Not everyone can understand your mind."

"Believe it or not, I don't understand it either. 

Anyway, life, as everyone knows, is a roller coaster that goes either up or down multiple times without warning. It's unforeseeable. As much as I wish my life to go on and on as I want, it won't. I cannot control it. I will never have the remote controller. 

I may regain  my trust on marriage someday. But I need someone who is capable enough to convince me. And I'm not hoping much on that. I mean, I'm not hoping that particular someone to exist.

People changed but memories stay the same. And this guy, no matter how insignificant his figure is in my life, I am forever changed by his existence, by who he was in my past. In fact, he is one of the sole reasons why, sometimes, I don't believe in true love, marriage, lover, partnership, whatsoever. He changed my perspective so much I almost wanted to erase him completely out of my life although all he did is nothing but confessing his feeling. That one move affects me to the extent that I almost decided to never get married, yet he doesn't know it. It frightens me."

"..."

"You know I don't hate him, I just wish we never met."

**