How Long? A story About Journey of Life.

Every time I do an internal review which is usually come out with a couple of big decisions, I have one question which is always flying around my head. The question is, “For how long it will always be like this?”

Back in 1996, when I decided to take an opportunity to improve my educational background, by chose Informatics Management as my major in college. At that time I had a blue-collar job as a production operator in a factory in Cikarang, Bekasi, Indonesia. Because of my job, I keep wondering, “for how long will I do something like this?”. It doesn’t mean that I’m ungrateful with the job. As a senior high school graduate, to be a production operator is such a delightful job. The problem is the job is literally hard and tiring.

What did I do every day was, clean a nut (T- nut) by dry the oil in the nut using the dryer machine. The weight of each box is 20 to 25 Kg and I must manage 50 to 100 box of nut every day. At that time I was 20 years old, and the job quite hard for me. After two years working as a low-level position, once moment I told to myself:

“If at this early age I already feel that level of tired, how if I am getting old? Am I will always able to do that hard work? For how long these routines will keep running through my days?”

The thought that is haunting my mind lead me decided to go to a college on the night. Yes, that was very hard to me, and even more tiring, because I have to attend the lecture in the noon, and working in the evening, or vice versa (at that time I worked in a shift). Even though I was more tired than before, my decision to take a college is quite right. Soon after that, I managed to move to a new job, because it was suitable for my college major. I can use my brain not only my muscle. I am no longer a robot.IT

In 2009, I decided to resign from my job, the reason is the distance, I was too tired to go and back between Bekasi and Tanjung Priok daily. I’m physically and psychologically too tired, so once again I wonder and asked myself,

“For how long I should measure the road? My time wasted on the road”

Source : Pixabay

I have no problem with my job. I love my job. Above all that, I have a desire, and I have a lot of needs but, my salary as an IT supervisor was stagnant. If this condition is kept going, for how long can I survive? And when will I achieve my dream? At that time, I have a side job setting up a Linux server and provide IT training for some niche stuff.

I did a simple calculation, even with 30-50% raising, my salary is unequal with my ‘outside’ earning. It was unequal with my earning in setting up the server, training, and online earning. At that time, my comparison was covering several months of my total income, so I did not fool by a temporary trend of my income.

After considering many things, in 2010 I finally and officially resign from my job. This decision is one the biggest decision I ever made and turn out to be the best decision in my life, until now.

If we work, wherever it is and no matter what position, try to ask ourselves, “are we want to work in the same position, the same place for years?”. Are we have a chance for promotion, or increase our earning and quality of life? Or is there no chance to improve our life? Or we, ourselves is too ignorant about our future and our job?

Do not fool by fake pleasure. Do not ignore the reality. Sometimes we (including me) try to convince ourselves, that everything is okay, but, the truth is not. Our life is risky and if there is an unexpected change, we have no idea how to anticipate.

Don’t wait until you regret the time that has been passed. Don’t wait until you regret, that the decision you make is actually too late. Don’t waste your time and chance given by God. Don’t wait until you regret everything

Our life is ours. Life is our precious gift. Don’t waste it being unhappy, dissatisfied, or anything else you can be.

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