Sincerity Results in Goodness

Every human being must have a golden age in their lives. Such golden age lies in a condition wherein there occurs an encounter between an opportunity and eligibility. The sense of eligibility definitely results from hard work and sincerity. Talking about the term success, the perspective of Indonesian people most often merely defines the word “success” pursuant to the indicator of achieving wealth. Thus, the more capable someone is to earn much money, the more successful he becomes. In fact, that someone manages to earn much money is only one example of success. Intrinsically, what is defined as “success” is a condition when someone is able to attain the target which he sets as the prioritized indicator. Hence, in any field, if someone has managed to pass an indicator that he prioritizes, he is categorized as successful.

The indicator of success is often triggered by a variety of challenges and responsibilities. I personally was ever confronted with quite heavy challenges insofar as undergoing my profession as an English as a foreign language teacher. Exactly, in 2013, I was ever faced with unusual busy activities. At that time, I coped with my days by actively teaching as one of the adjunct lecturers in a college where I had received my bachelor degree, STAIN Curup. I taught there from morning to midday. At that time, I was assigned to handle a subject so-called Introduction to Linguistics. This is a subject that addresses various theories pertinent to the nature of language. Basically, the scope of this subject is indeed oriented towards a few general elements of language. However, as a teacher or lecturer, I had to be able to grasp every single detail of the material contents in order that I could guide and facilitate my students when they were dealing with a number of obstacles in construing the material. This subject naturally demanded me to learn more the insights and theories vis-a-vis Phonetics, Phonology, Morphology, Syntax, Semantics, Pragmatics, Discourse analysis, Sociolinguistics, and Psycholinguistics. In coping with this situation, I made an effort as maximally as possible by preparing two hours every night for the sake of preparing and mastering the learning material that I would provide for students every week.

On the other side, I also had another responsibility. In the same year, because I also worked in the Language Center of STAIN Curup as one of the English course tutors, I also actively handled some courses there from midday to afternoon. At that time, the Language Center had initiated to establish cooperation with the other institution. Thus, I was eventually assigned by the head of the Language Center to teach an English course in Battalion 144 whose location was not really far from STAIN Curup. I had two students there, a vise commander and a sergeant. This condition also became a great challenge for me since teaching English for the students whose ages were older than me along with their military dispositions demanded me to have an extra preparation. This condition trained me to learn more to enhance my teaching creativities for the sake of driving my students’ interests in learning. In taking this responsibility, I deliberately spent more time to prepare my teaching media which conformed to my students’ occupation. Thus, in teaching, I frequently gave them some illustrations or English games with the context nuancing the lives of soldiers. I also deliberately made myself accustomed to accessing information as regards various teaching techniques especially in the field of English for Specific Purpose. I felt very happy because this course went on successfully along with good responses from the students.

Furthermore, in the same year, the Language Center of STAIN Curup also gave me a responsibility to be the mentor of ELICOS (English Community of STAIN Curup) which was established by STAIN Curup. This community provided any student from any major with the service of free English learning. In this regard, I was also faced with a big challenge especially when ELICOS was invited to join “English Kampoeng” competition held by the English Education Department of STAIN Curup. As a mentor, to cope with this situation, I engaged all ELICOS members to cooperatively prepare for this competition. I involved them to find out a creative idea corresponding to an artistic show which would be presented in the shelter of “English Kampoeng”. I deeply put my trust in the power of cooperation because this way could result in lots of creative concepts as expected. Finally, we decided to present the Megalithic culture in the shelter of “English Kampoeng”. Continuously, I also trained all members of ELICOS in order to capably describe every object that would be displayed in their shelter by using English. It was so exciting because our preparation was ended up with a good result. One of the presenters among ELICOS members was granted an award as the best English speaker. I felt very happy since what I gave to ELICOS members could be useful for them.

2013 was the year that made me face great challenges and responsibilities. That year also taught me a lesson about the meaning of success. In brief, for me, the biggest success in my life is when I manage to cope with the given challenges, and when I am capable of taking any responsibility maximally.