Thinking Essay Contest 2018

ACHIEVING HOPE IN DAENG CITY

We (Dewi Nabilah Anwar & Tsanya El Karima) are both new students who are studying in the Department of Accounting, Airlangga University. Starting when we attended the faculty orientation, we were very impressed with the achievements that our seniors had made in the regional, national and international arenas. So we also tried to become a team to take part in the student essay competition held by the University of Muhammadiyah Makassar, because we also wanted to make our beloved alma mater proud. Although with great determination to carry out the sacred task of making our beloved alma mater proud, in fact we did not work optimally to take part in this competition. Until, on October 2, 2018 a miracle happened. We were declared to have qualified as finalists in this competition along with 14 other leading universities in Indonesia. Surprised, was our first reaction because we had only been working on essays 6 hours before the submission deadline and our lack of experience considering this competition was the first national essay competition that we participated in.

Not wanting to escape the joy, we soon realized that we still had a lot to prepare to go forward to present our essays in the final round. So we immediately prepared ourselves as best we could so that our trip to Makassar was not in vain because of the long journey and quite a long competition, starting from October 17 to October 21 2018.

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

17 october 2018 was the first time we set foot in the city of Daeng, Makassar. The heat was felt as soon as we got out of Hasanuddin airport. Our first meeting was with participants from IPB and UNS, who greeted us in a friendly manner while telling us about each other's experiences when we still had to wait for the pick-up car. The first day in Makassar was filled with an opening (opened by the dean of Unismuh who is an alumni of Airlangga University) and a technical meeting and closed with the hope of convenience tomorrow.

Thursday, October 18, 2018

The second day is execution day. On this day, we have to present our work in front of the finalists and the judges. In addition, we are also required to make posters which will later be displayed in front of the unismuh Graha. The essays we bring are inspired by the people affected by the dolly gang who are still struggling after the closure of the largest localization in Southeast Asia. According to the results of the Technical Meeting yesterday, we got the first serial number to present our work. Happiness mixed with fear. Happy because we got the initial serial number so we don't have to think hard anymore, and afraid because our presentation will be witnessed by great students throughout Indonesia who we are afraid of giving a bad impression when presenting later. However, thank God, with the power of prayer and determination, we managed to finish the presentation smoothly without any obstacles and leave whatever the result was to Allah SWT.

In accordance with the agenda, in addition to presentations, today was also filled with a gala dinner at the Makassar Mayor's Rujab. At this gala dinner, we are required to wear the traditional clothes of each region. Some use traditional clothes from Lampung, Ambon and the most dominating are Javanese traditional clothes. The journey for approximately 30 minutes to the gala dinner location was interspersed with laughter from the other finalists, who looked relieved because they had let go of the burden of presentation and were just having fun waiting for the announcement in 3 days. The gala dinner activity was filled with telling stories, conveying impressions and messages, eating together and of course taking pictures to capture this once-in-a-lifetime moment. The following is our documentation with the other finalists and photos with the other Airlangga contingents.

Friday, 19 October 2018

    The third day of PIKIR 2018, we had the opportunity to sleep longer because there was only one activity, namely coaching ideas which discussed hoaxes. We were divided into several small groups, each of which should not be from the same university. We also had to separate and join our respective groups to discuss what is the right solution to deal with hoaxes in Indonesia. The discussion lasted for 30 minutes and was quite tough. This is because everyone in each group has a different background so they have different opinions. But unfortunately, the committee only instructed each group to only provide one or two solutions, nothing more. So the debate gets even more intense. From this coaching clinic activity, we got a lot of new knowledge and new views. The following is the documentation of one of our groups from Brawijaya University, UNS, Pattimura University and IPB.

Saturday, October 20, 2018

    The fourth day is the day that all participants have been waiting for. How come? Going all the way to Makassar without exploring Makassar must taste bland, so Kun fa ya kun, Fieldtrip!!! After hanging around for two days, we were finally able to have fun. We are together with Irma and Ria from Pattimura University, we always walk together because only the two of them brought their cameras to take pictures, so we follow them wherever they go with the aim of having documentation hehe. From Bantimurung to Losari Beach, there are lots of beautiful and beautiful scenery.

Until the end of time, we took the time to come to a typical Makassar gift shop to buy souvenirs for friends in class who had helped during the process before the departure of the race. And the fourth day was closed happily while still praying for a miracle tomorrow.

Sunday, October 21, 2018

    The last day and the long awaited day. It started with an entrepreneurship seminar and was followed and closed with the announcement of the winner of the 2018 PIKIR competition. At that time, we together with PENS, UNS and IAIN Salatiga were unable to participate in the announcement of the winner of the competition due to the schedule approaching boarding time, so we could only listen to the announcement via Instagram live report. PIKIR 2018 as well as information from friends of the finalists who are still faithfully waiting for the announcement at the location. Hopefully, we will finally be able to bring home the best poster and the 1st place winner (a difference of 0,5 points with the 3rd place winner). We are happy and immediately contacted the committee to entrust the trophy and other prizes to the airlangga contingent which will follow to the airport after the announcement. Even though we were unable to attend the location, thank God, there was still a revelation from the faculty of science and technology who wanted to represent us who could not attend at that time. From this competition, we learned many things that were not taught through regular lectures. So we are grateful for getting this extraordinary opportunity to represent our beloved alma mater, Universitas Airlangga.