The Forest Knolls

Life, or the Universe, seems to have a way to prod me forward. All the time, but especially when I need it the most.

So here is, the Thanksgiving Break, coming just nice as I tried keeping afloat in Amherst. I visited MIT at the weekends to volunteer for their Splash, and caught up with Jiayi and Aofei!

Now, I am taking a refuge at my cousin's house at San Francisco. I should say: He lives like a boss. He drives everywhere, treats his friends to good food, tries out interesting things from engineering computers and car designs. My life here is nothing short of awesome. I ate Filipino food when I touched down, amazing Indonesian food for lunch yesterday, and wonderful Japanese tonkatsu curry (plus hellishly delicious tamago) for dinner. I cook for my breakfast, which is amazing too! In short, food is covered, and as long as it's Asian it's always good!

I sleep in a comfy bed, shower in an amazing bathroom, and am driven around everywhere! What a sharp contrast from my first night at MIT where I stayed in East Campus' common room. It was cold, noisy, and uncomfortable lol.

My brother also taught me how to shop. I'll go back to Amherst being more in touch with fashion.

"It is fine for us to walk into shops that we know we can't afford. Act like you have money, dress up and people will take you seriously. We do this because we want to know what to wear when we have money." Cousin as he takes me to enter and try out winter coats from Saks Fifth Avenue and the like.

More importantly, my brother is a mentor to me. He always strikes me as an individual who knows what he's doing and knows what he wants to do. We had this conversation yesterday, when we were feasting upon amazing Indonesian food (authentic gado gado, soto betawi, martabak sapi, nasi uduk, ayam bumbu rujak, and nasi goreng ayam) at SF's Borobudur Cafe.

We started talking about the purpose of education, how his friend brought up that the most important formative education in childhood happens during the children's interactions during breaks, and how school teaches you to get a job, but not to create one. I agreed, seeing how a significant amount of important things are never taught in classes in school, or at least were not that emphasized. These include, but not limited to people skills, analysis, politics, and diplomacy.

Above else, my cousin was not merely a rich kid pampered by his parents' wealth. He has his own *legal* means to fund his expenditure.

I respect him and envy him somewhat. He has this purpose, this vision. He is living the life, socializing, building friendships, not mere connections, having fun, immersed in the typical big-city Indonesian immigrant environment but with a means to escape the clutches. He always has this interesting thing going on, a project worthwhile of doing. He's busy, having to pull allnighters probably twice a week, but he is always so chill, calm, and relaxed.

Let's just say that I learned a lot this holiday, and the Universe keeps reminding me on what my focus should be.

Thanks for the inspiration, bro!

-Truly Indonesia's Finest