Learning is the best investment ever happen in your life. You won’t see it through materially, instead, you can feel yourself grow. I taught myself how to write, because I’m not a good speaker to talk in front of people. Back in the day in my high school year, I volunteered myself to join a speech competition. I was confident to win because of all my classmates, I got a better to speak English than anyone did. I belived I can win.
However, once I stand on the stage, I was trembled so bad that my voice hardly came. My speech presentation that I prepared was ruined, the worst of all, I can’t do any improvisation. I need to write down all of my thoughts to memorize it and deliver it through the speech.
It won’t happen again, I hope.
I know my weakness. To overcame it, not only by practice to be better each time, but also to learn how to write. Writing is the best option if you are not a stage person. The more you taught yourself to write the more you can be heard. Words, in any language it is, have the power to move the heart and mind in order to better understanding.
“Writing is work to eternity.”
Pramoedya Ananta Toer
For myself, I write because I want people to know if I was exist. I got my artefacts in me. It will always live and remined. That's why Pramoedya, the writer of Bumi Manusia, said "writing is work to eternity". He was long gone, but his works, his message still echoing around us.
To write, sure takes effort and time. But once you made it, you have this undescribed satisfaction that only you can feel it. We live to seek something, and share what we got. As explained in the Maslow Hierarchy, appreciation or esteem needs is the second highest level of the basic human needs. Appreciation can happen only if you have done something that worth to be appreciated.
My intention is not seeking for appreciation. Instead, it’s a bonus of my hard work. So, what’s your goal?
To learn and grow
That’s all I need in life.
العِلْمُ بِلاَ عَمَلٍ كَالشَّجَرِ بِلاَ ثَمَرٍ
“Knowledge without action is like a tree without fruit”.
And writing is also the form of action.