To Whom It May Concern #1: The Timeline

Hari ini saya tiba-tiba kepikiran untuk bikin tulisan seri dengan judul 'To Whom It May Concern'. Sifatnya akan sangat self-centered ya, karena isinya seputar perjalanan hidup saya dari orok sampai sekarang, dan hal-hal menarik (dan mungkin juga yang tidak menarik) yang terjadi di dalamnya. Adakah tujuan tersendiri dalam tulisan seri ini? Ngga ada sih. Tapi mungkin di kemudian hari akan berguna bagi pihak-pihak yang (entah dengan alasan apa) ingin lebih kenal dengan saya. Future employer, future partner, or future kids maybe?

Jadi ya, begitulah. Mari kita mulai dari nol, kenalan dulu.

Nama saya Aulia Dewantari di akta kelahiran. Nambah nama belakang bapak saya di paspor, tapi most of the time kalo ditanya nama lengkap ya saya pake yang di akta. Orang rumah manggil saya 'Lia', atau 'Mbak Lia', karena saya anak pertama. Orang luar rumah kebanyakan manggil 'Aul'. 

Saya lahir tahun 1991, dari bapak ibu yang dua-duanya orang Jawa, asli Solo. Jadi bisa dibilang saya orang Jawa. Saya punya dua adik, dua-duanya laki-laki, yang satu beda 3 tahun, satunya lagi beda 7 tahun.

Bapak saya kerja di BUMN. Dari dulu sering banget dipindah-pindah penempatan kerja nya. Makanya masa kecil saya agak nomaden. Waktu saya lahir, pas bapak saya ditempatkan di Palembang. Habis itu pindah ke Bandung sekitar tahun 1993. Era Palembang-Bandung ini saya bener-bener ga inget apa-apa sih, sedikitpun, jadi ngga ada yang bisa diceritain.

Dari Bandung saya pindah ke Makassar. 1995-1997, saya TK di sana. TK nya di TK Islam, yayasan nya punyanya pak JK, Athirah. 1997, pindah ke Madiun, kota kecil super damai di Jawa Timur. Saya sekolah di SD Negeri Kartoharjo 01, dari kelas satu sampe kelas 3 cawu dua. 2000, pindah lagi ke Surabaya. Lanjutin sekolah di SD Negeri Percobaan, sampe lulus kelas 6. 

2003, pindah ke Bandung. Sekolah di SMP Negeri 5, kelas akselerasi, jadi cuma dua tahun. Sejak di Bandung, rumah udah ngga pindah-pindah lagi. Bapak tetap pindah-pindah ketika harus pindah, tapi anak istri ngga dibawa lagi, menetap di Bandung. 

2005, masuk SMA Negeri 3, tetanggaan sama SMP nya, tinggal jalan 10 menit. 2008, masuk kuliah di ITB, Sekolah Teknik Elektro dan Informatika. 2009 masuk jurusan Teknik Telekomunikasi. 2012, lulus kuliah. 2012 akhir, sempat kerja di swasta, tapi baru sebulan udah resign lantaran diterima kerja di BUMN. Belum enam bulan, resign lagi dari tempat kerja lantaran kepingin sekolah lagi. 

Sekarang 2017, masih terjebak di negara asal K-pop. Ambil program integrated degree, M.S./Ph.D. Bidangnya seputar microwave engineering. Bisa digugling kalo ngga familiar. Kapan lulus? Masih berusaha. Hahaha. Pernah lihat artikel di internet, katanya half of all Ph.D students suffer from psychological distress. Makanya, mohon doanya agar istiqomah dan tidak gila. 

Kayaknya buat edisi perdana itu dulu lah ya. Timeline hidup dari lahir sampe sekarang. Udah mulai kebayang saya kayak gimana orangnya? Sakti banget kalo udah kebayang. Haha. Pasti belum lah. Tunggu aja edisi-edisi berikutnya. Muach.

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Decided to make the English version too. Demi mengasah writing skill. Haha. Okay here goes.

Today I got this idea of writing a series of blog posts entitled 'To Whom It May Concern'. It's going to have a very self-centered theme, since I will mainly talk about my life, and the interesting (and maybe the not-so-interesting) stuffs that happened to me. Do I have any particular reason for writing this? Well not really. But this probably will come in handy someday, for those who (for whatever reason) want to get to know me. Future employer, future partner, or future kids maybe?

So, yeah. Let's start with some introductions.

The name is Aulia Dewantari, on my birth certificate. I use additional last name, my father's last name, on my passport. But most of the time when asked about my full name, I use the two-words full name. The family call me 'Lia', or 'Mbak Lia', since I am the firstborn. The non-family mostly call me 'Aul'.

I was born in 1991. My parents are Javanese, both are from Solo. So it's pretty safe to say that I, too, am Javanese. I have two younger bros, with 3 years and 7 years age differences.

My father works at a government-owned company. This job requires him to move around a lot, from one city to another. So I spent my childhood living a kinda nomadic life. I was born in Palembang. Then we moved to Bandung around 1993. Actually I can't recall any memories from the time I lived in my first two cities, since, you know, I was still too young.

From Bandung, we moved to Makassar. 1995-1997, I went to the kindergarten. It was an Islamic school named Athirah, owned by the current vice president, Mr. JK. In 1997, we moved to Madiun, a peaceful small town in East Java. I went to the elementary school, SD Negeri Kartoharjo 01, starting from the first grade, until the second quarter of the third grade. In 2000, we moved to Surabaya. Continued my study at SD Negeri Percobaan, until I finally finished the 6 years of elementary school. 

In 2003, we moved again to Bandung. I went to the middle school, SMP Negeri 5, acceleration class, so I graduated from middle school a year faster than the kids my age. Since then, we no longer moved around, and by we I mean the family minus my father. He still do move wherever the job takes him, until now, but the wife and kids stay in Bandung. 

In 2005, I went to high school, SMA Negeri 3, only 10 minutes walking distance from my middle school. In 2008, I went to college, ITB, School of Electrical Engineering and Informatics. In the second year we got to choose our major, mine was Telecommunication Engineering. I graduated in 2012. At the end of that year, I got a job in a private company, but I left after a month since I got a better job in a government-owned company. I resigned again in less than 6 months, since, at that time, I wanted to continue my study. 

It is 2017 now, and here I am still stuck in the land of K-pop. I am taking an integrated degree program, M.S./Ph.D. My research is related with microwave engineering. You can look it up on google. As to the question of when I'm gonna graduate, I can't really provide a definite answer. But I'm working on it. Hahaha. I remember reading some article on the internet, said that half of all Ph.D students suffer from psychological distress. So please wish me a good luck, so I can survive this without going bananas.

Okay I think that was plenty, for an introduction. So that was the rough timeline of my life. Starting to get some clue about what kind of person I am? It'd be shocking if you were. Haha. Relax, there's more to come. Muach.