Gracias, Dos Mil Dieciocho

2018 was "Year of Preparation"

Well at least that's what I said when I welcomed the year.

Initially it was about preparing to living abroad. Preparing for masters degree, preparing for working somewhere outside Indonesia, preparing for THAT!

But then as you know, life usually has its own, preparation.
So instead of preparing for those dreams I've been dreaming for,
I ended up preparing for something else this whole year.

Which apparently, was

Preparing for Greater Goods

As it turns out the term was beyond just around traveling context, or career context, or of course way so far from academic context—it's about all of those, in one.

Let's take a short, one year ride back to the beginning of 2018.

It began oh so pleasantly. In January I just finished my trip to France. My first ever European trip, which I couldn't really successfully move on from. Too grande, too beautiful, and I gotta admit that this trip, along with the fact that I was on the brink of getting tired of my work, made me think that this year would yet be another one dedicated for traveling. And oh was I so true about that!

Throughout the year, after France, I did six fucking more trips! SIX, for God's sake! I didn't even know how I could cope with that! Financially, bureaucracy-wise -giving the fact that my EX-company only grant me one annual leave per month, and more than that would mean that I got my salary cut- not only about the policy, but about getting the permission for my boss, because, HELL, what I do at work, it's a team work so the more I traveled the more I ruined the pace. But then again, I underwent all six trips nicely, with not much drama -as far as I know... So yea all those trips, I guess it helped me prepare myself to be oh so much better in the world of traveling. And negotiating, and compromising, and hard working, GOSH, a lot, really!

Like my trips to Bali. Oh yeah, I did twice of them this year. One during the religious day of silence, and the other one is for a friend's friend's wedding. See those motives, really uncanny, eh? People who don't travel a lot see me as a very avid traveler, that I now am on the stage that I go to Bali no longer for holiday purposes, but for something, greater!

Then my trip to Korea, who seemed to be normal, actually, but giving the fact that it happened two months from Bali, and a fucking three weeks after Macao, damn, my colleagues start questioning me if I was overpaid -which pissed me off, actually, because it wasn't for my salary cuz I had one of the suckiest paycheck on the company so it totally thanks to my saving skill in which I didn't go out and hangout and buy food and snacks as much as they did, GOSH, I feel like I wanted to slap them for saying that.

So yeah, back to my trip to Korea. It was my annual trip, actually, so like any other annual trips I ever done, I haven't been there. But it turned out to be so amazing, so socially and personally powerful that my five-month streak of can't-seem-to-move-on from France suddenly vanished! I did stuff people don't usually do when in Korea, made friends out of my solitary holiday, and it was always been fun to see how people would react the way I travel.

The same thing applied to my trip to Japan, too. Which happened five months after Korea, and only a month after my second Bali. At this stage I really didn't care about how my friends would react anymore, because I think I was already hinting of leaving the company anyway. I didn't care about how many days of leave I needed to request, how much works I needed to abandon, FUCK, I didn't care anymore! And it turned out to be one of the most refreshing escape I ever done. And on top of that, this trip to Japan was to fulfill my thirst of F1 -yet another fucking uncanny reason to visit Japan I bet not a single Indonesian had ever thought about it before, and to have this amazing social visit here and there -which I'm pretty sure NO ONE could ever equal the way I treated Tokyo as if it was my hometown.

And here's one more trip I didn't know would leave a mark on me. I didn't even see it coming: Macao. Not as a traveler, but as an influencer. Gosh, those days of being treated as royals... I just discovered how life as influencers were totally amazing. At first I thought this could be the life I wanted. I've been working so hard building my travel writing career, and being a travel influencer could be the peak of all, and all this shit of "preparation" blah can switch from preparing what I've always tried to prepare, to preparing myself in becoming an influencer. Turns out, it was a silly consideration. The trip opened my mind about how, -should I use that word?- well, unsuitable a life as an influencer to me. The trip eventually prepared myself to become a more, let's say, pure, unfake, and smart traveler I knew I would always enjoy being.

And that, leads us to other things I achieved this year. My fifth book, the one with Australia. It was out this September. Followed by my FIRST EVER DestinAsian article, on October, right before I flew to Japan—see? All this year was all mostly about traveling! And these works specifically, they helped me prepare to be the more ambitious travel writer I've always dreamed of becoming.

But hey, that didn't mean that I ditch work at all. To my surprise, I actually did well on my advertising side. My ideation skill got honed, my presenting skill got loosened, some of my thoughts and ideas were actually come to life that really helped building my portfolio, I got more chances to work with the company's high-ups and with clients, I won pitches, but as the cherry on top of everything, it was when I made it through to Young Spikes finals. It's the fucking major proof that I'm a worthy adman, and it helped me preparing myself to be a better one.

But again, as I mentioned before, it was money that had me thinking twice to stay. My urge to learn and do more of ideation and advertising grew oh so big, and hell yeah Ogilvy could provide me even more. But I got to be realistic, so out was I of Ogilvy—a decision so big and so brave, but I know it's a part to prepare that GREATER GOODS for me so, yeah...

The resignation marked the end of my 2018 journey.

I quitted the company with no fixed plan of what to do, and which company would take me, after this. I just wanted to show the world that I had all the courage to do whatever I thought I was afraid of, and to show that my preparation had been completed that I'm now ready to embark something greater.

So here I am in Madrid, in the middle of my 21-day-long Spain-Africa journey which is the longest I ever done, waiting for the clock to strike twelve and 2018 turns to 2019, unemployed yet celebrating my bravery to move on.

But before that,

Muchas gracias, 2018.I really enjoyed this year!

Whoa.

I've never ranted this much about my achievements.
But I'm sorry I can't help but being so proud of myself.
Because I've done such great preparations all year long.
And I know next year, something big is coming along.

Guess it's time for some
Redemptions?