REACHING HOPE IN DAENG CITY
We (Dewi Nabilah Anwar & Tsanya El Karima) are both new students studying at the Accounting Department, Universitas Airlangga . Starting when we attended faculty orientation, we were very impressed with the achievements that our seniors had made both on the regional, national and international levels. So we tried to become a team to take part in the student essay competition held by Muhammadiyah University of Makassar, because we also wanted to make our beloved alma mater proud. Even though we have great determination to carry out the sacred task of making our beloved alma mater proud, in reality 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. Shock was our first reaction because we had only done the essay 6 hours before the submission deadline and we had minimal experience considering that this competition was the first national essay competition that we participated in.
Not wanting to miss out on happiness, we immediately realized that we still had a lot of preparation to do to present our essays in the final round. So we immediately prepared ourselves as best as possible so that our trip to Makassar was not in vain because of the long journey and quite long competition, starting from 17 October to 21 October 2018.
Wednesday, 17 October 2018
October 17 2018 was the first time we set foot in the city of Daeng, Makassar. The heat was felt as soon as we left Hasanuddin airport. Our first meeting was with participants from IPB and UNS, who greeted us in a friendly manner while telling us about their respective 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 universitas airlangga ) and a technical meeting and closed with the hope of ease in the following day.
Thursday, 18 October 2018
The second day is execution day. On this day, we had to present our work in front of the finalists and the jury. Apart from that, we are also required to make posters which will later be displayed in front of the Unismuh house. The essay we present is inspired by the people affected by Dolly Gang who are still experiencing difficulties after the closure of the largest localization in Southeast Asia. In accordance with the results of yesterday's Technical Meeting, we received the first sequence number to present our work. Happy mixed with fear. Happy because we got the initial sequence number so we didn't have to think hard anymore, and afraid because our presentation would be watched by great students throughout Indonesia, so we were afraid of giving a bad impression when presenting later. However, thank God, with the power of prayer and determination, we managed to complete the presentation smoothly without any obstacles and submitted whatever the results were to Allah SWT.
In accordance with the agenda, apart from presentations, today was also filled with a gala dinner at the Makassar Mayor's Rujab. At this gala dinner, we were required to wear traditional clothing from each region. There are those who wear traditional clothes from Lampung, Ambon and what dominates most is traditional Javanese clothes. The approximately 30 minute journey to the gala dinner location was punctuated by the laughter of the other finalists, who looked relieved because they had let go of the presentation burden and were just having fun waiting for the announcement in 3 days. The gala dinner activities were filled with telling stories, conveying impressions and messages, eating together and of course taking photos to immortalize this once-in-a-lifetime moment. Below is our documentation with the other finalists as well as photos with the other Airlangga contingent.
Friday, 19 October 2018
On the third day of PIKIR 2018, we had the opportunity to sleep a little longer because there was only one activity, namely coaching ideas which discussed hoaxes. We were divided into several small groups, each group of which had no members from the same university. We also had to separate and join our respective groups to discuss what the right solution was to deal with hoaxes in Indonesia. The discussion lasted for 30 minutes and was quite tough. The reason is, everyone in each group has a different background so they have various opinions. But unfortunately, the committee only instructed each group to only provide one or two solutions, nothing more. So the debate became increasingly fierce. From this coaching clinic activity, we gained a lot of new knowledge and new views. The following is documentation of one of our groups from Brawijaya University, UNS, Pattimura University and IPB.
Saturday, 20 October 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 will definitely feel bland, so Kun fa ya kun, Fieldtrip!!! After messing around for two days, we were finally able to have fun. We, together with Sis Irma and Ria from Pattimura University, always walked together because they were the only two who brought cameras to take photos, so we followed them wherever they went with the aim of providing documentation hehe. From Bantimurung to Losari Beach, there are lots of beautiful and beautiful views.
Until the end of the time, we took the time to go to the typical Makassar souvenir shop to buy souvenirs for our friends in class who had helped during the process before leaving for the competition. And the fourth day closed happily while still praying for a miracle tomorrow.
Sunday, 21 October 2018
The last day and the long awaited day. It started with an entrepreneurship seminar and was followed and closed by the announcement of the winners 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 competition winners because the schedule was close to boarding time, so we could only listen to the announcement via the 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. We were anxious, but in the end we were able to take home the best poster and 1st place (0.5 point difference from 3rd place). We were happy and immediately contacted the committee to entrust the trophy and other prizes to the Airlangga contingent who would follow to the airport after the announcement. Even though we couldn't be present at the location, thank God there were still Mas Wahid from the science and technology faculty who were willing to represent us who couldn't attend at that time. From this competition, we learned many things that are not taught through regular lecture activities. So we are grateful for having this extraordinary opportunity to represent our beloved alma mater, Universitas Airlangga .
