19

Hi! Isn’t April such a beautiful moment to admire spring that has come through your door?

You know me. I always make a post to remark my birthday, and they’re usually short or just simply sweet, but it’s gonna be long and a bit touching, not to mention precious. So, caution: precious contents.

I’m turning 19 this year, and I have to say, it’s probably one of the sweetest birthday ever. I don’t know, I always say that every year because mostly I forgot how sweet last year’s celebration felt, but it does feel like my sweetest birthday ever. You see, I have spent the last six weeks with the same group of people who call themselves The A-Team, talking and practicing technically the same thing day by day, night after night, and we have come to know each other so well after so much tears and laughs and dramas shared together. And the first minute of my birthday was spent in a medium-sized karaoke room with a bunch of new family-like friends singing happy birthday with a chocolate cake and four small candles lit on top of it. Six weeks is probably a short time to get to know someone, let alone 15 people, but family is the word I'm gonna use to define these people.

We had so much fun. Too much, maybe, because at the end of the day, when we’ve come to the place where normal people should be sad and crying because we lost the battle, we didn’t! Instead, we want much more fun, like it was the drug to kiss the pain away. Heck, maybe we didn’t even feel pain for the slightest (well, there was, a bit. but it wasn’t a big deal at all.)

Pardon my mixed language in this post. I don’t know how to make it more sincere without writing it the way my mind works, so, here it is...

Inmoot itu buat gue rasanya kayak... I don’t know, tapi yang jelas, now that it’s over, ini rasanya familiar banget. Rasanya kayak hari di mana gue landing di Bandara Soekarno Hatta setelah homestay di London dan jalan-jalan eurotrip summer 2008 yang lalu. I don’t know how to explain it, tapi yang jelas rasanya... lebih banyak takut dan bingungnya, karena sejujurnya pasti awalnya akan bingung, “What would I do without them? What would my days be?” Just a little rewind, dulu gue jam 3 pagi baru pulang dari airport dan jam 6 pagi udah sampe di sekolah lagi, sekolah yang sama dengan yang udah satu tahun gue tempati, tapi gue cuma bisa bengong dan merasa sedikit stres karena gatau harus ngapain selain karena masalah jetlag, tapi juga rasanya aneh berada di tempat yang penuh dengan aura yang sudah lama ga dirasakan lagi.. Well, ini ga akan se-ekstrim itu sih, but what upsets me is probably... not knowing how I’m supposed to overcome the feeling of missing latihan inmoot bareng The A Team. To explain The-A-Team and my birthday, I'm gonna divide this post into some parts, in hope that you'd get the flow of the story.

• Sunday, April 22nd.

We lost the competition to the team that ended up being champion, and everyone was worried about us. They gave us wise words, quotes that will calm us down and motivational wisdom just to not let us drown in sorrow. But like I said, we are so strong, as strong as the real The A Team, WE DID NOT CRY. Not a single tears was shed, and instead, we... I don't know, we went a little more nuts than ever that Saturday, and at night we went out for dinner, to eat the food we weren't allowed to have during practice, and after that, KARAOKE NIGHT! Awalnya cuma 2 jam, dan tiba-tiba ditambah jadi 3 jam. I was already losing my voice that night, but at the karaoke, I didn't care. We sing, we dance... but we don't steal things. Tepat jam 12 malam, in a somehow not so surprising way (I'm so hard to surprise, by the way) Diaz dan Ncek masuk ke dalam ruang karaoke membawa kue dengan lilin. Tapi... lagu Happy Birthday yang udah disiapin di list tiba-tiba hilang, dan yang play justru lagu Happy Birthday Ten2Five yang nggak se-happy birthday itu, tapi liriknya...well...entah kenapa saat itu cukup bikin terharu sih... Thanks a lot people, you make the first minutes of my birthday completely beautiful. Okay, about the karaoke... it was a bit wild, thanks to Manda and Astrid semoga laku terus yah di malam-malam lainnya :) Selesai karaoke jam 2 pagi, mau ke parkiran malah harus muterin satu mall lewat parkiran... Dan tampak sangat gila. Sangat sinting. Curiga di dalam cake-nya ada ganjanya sih haha. 

Well, I don't wanna bore you with a series of things that are only memorable for me and my team, but the highlight is, secara tiba-tiba setelah gue pulang dari birthday dinner sama keluarga yang membuat gue harus melewatkan beberapa momen besar dalam rangkaian acara inmoot, semua anggota tim mendadak unyu... sampe gue ga kuat buka BBM. No, seriously. The more they talk about it, the more they show how proud and sad and happy they are, the more I feel like I wanna cry. It’s not the kind of cry that means I’m sad, but I’m just... I don’t know, maybe I’m just upset. But I’m not sure what upsets me.

Let's just say we had a good time that night

Oh hi girls from my team!

This is just hilarious

When it comes to looks, nothing can bring us down

Pejabat much? 

Oh hi, Riri!

Berkas The-A-Team!

They have enriched me with a lot more happiness and a lot more things to be grateful for, and most importantly with a lot of vocabularies that no one will gets. It's like we have developed our own language or something.

Our mentors, Mba Citta & Mba Icha

I have to thank our mentors, Mba Citta & Mba Icha, for their full dedication, for their guidance, their much... help. Mba Icha, I just want you to know that it's an honor to know that I remind people of you, to make them think I was your sister, and to learn a lot from you. I'm so proud of you, and I hope forever we can be kakak adek ketemu gede. Mba Citta, we went to the same high school and we have never been closer than in these 6 weeks, and I have to say I have grown to admire a lot of things from you. We could never find a better mentor, sorry we didn't make it to the finals, but we love you, and forever you will always be our mentors :')

CHIBI!!!!!!

Six boxes of jumbo pizzas, anyone?

Majelis Hakim Yang Paling Mulia!

 Dear Astrid dan Ganis hakim-hakim anggotaku yang paling kece, sesungguhnya sedih karena kita nggak akan baca berbagai macam putusan dengan beragam versi bareng-bareng lagi. But like I said the other day and way above in this post, to me, the bonus of this mooting is not about winning, but it's having partners like you, who were so cooperative and so helpful that means everything to me. I have to say I'm a bit sad that we didn't win Majelis Hakim Terbaik, but to have been sitting between the two of you for 6 weeks was a great honor. Terima kasih untuk kerja samanya yang mengharukan, bisikan-bisikan setan nggak penting yang sangat lucu dan menyenangkan... I'm a proud Hakim Ketua :')

THIS. 

• Tuesday, April 24th 2012

So, my best buddies threw me a surprise two days after my real birthday. Based on past experiences and the aforementioned karaoke night, I thought I was so hard to surprise. I thought  was too cool to be astounded by a little surprise. But my best buddies taught me the other way. No matter how smart I thought I am, they can still surprise me with cakes and Pepsi splashed all over my body. I got dirty, but, there's nothing more beautiful than a late birthday surprise. It was really surprising. It really was. I don't have pictures of that day, sorry I can't put them here, guys :(

And actually, it's one of my best buds too that make a tribute picture in honor of my birthday that people use in Sunday. It's hilarious. I'm not gonna put that here.

In other words, I’m glad I’m getting my life back. Maybe not entirely but most of it. But in a lot of ways, I feel so sad because... I’m losing the life that I’m getting so much used to in the last 6 weeks. I hope I’m never gonna lose the people that I knew in those times, never gonna lose the memories, and never gonna lose the adorableness we have together. Thank you for the most remarkable 6 weeks ever! Thank you for the very, very sweet 19th birthday! Thank you! I love you!