diary zaman

2 days ago, i visited a children’s cancer foundation in yogyakarta. At first, it was just for my scholarship social project. Honestly, i never expected this project to take me this far. The project focuses on something that is often forgotten " how children with cancer can still get their right to education" . They are still between zero and eighteen years old, an age when kids should be learning, playing, making friends, and experiencing school like others. My team comes from different places. Some are from Surabaya, Aceh, and Banten, and i’m based in Yogyakarta. Because of that, i decided to find a children’s cancer foundation here by myself. In the beginning, everything felt unclear. I imagined the project would be full of action, meeting the kids, teaching them, spending time together. But my mentor said something that really hit me "action alone is not enough". We need a prototype . Something real. Something useful. That’s how i ended up visiting a children’...

I want to share a small story i got in bandung. It happened when i was on my way to a cafe near ITB. I ordered an online motorcycle ride, and the driver who came was an older man, almost at retirement age. But he was still working. Not because he wanted to, but because he had to. In this economy, surviving is already a challenge. At first, we just talked casually. I asked him what people from outside usually look for when they come to bandung. He answered simply. Bandung is just like this, he said. People come for the cool weather, high places, or just to walk around. Then we talked about food. I told him i had just tried mie kocok . He smiled and said it made sense. Mie kocok is expensive because it uses cow skin, which is hard to get and costs a lot. That was when i found out that he used to sell mie kocok himself. Before the pandemic, his business was doing well. He had many customers, and life was quite comfortable. But after COVID, everything changed. Rent became expensive, co...

Hello this is diary zaman!! It feels like it’s been a long time since I last wrote on this blog. Today, I want to talk about a book by Bang Tere Liye called Janji . Some of you may have read it, some of you may not. But I think this story is worth sharing. The main character in Janji is Bahar Safar. The story is told using a back-and-forth timeline, so we slowly get to know who Bahar really is. At first, he looks like a rebellious young man, someone people would easily judge and underestimate. And honestly, when we hear about a troublemaker, especially one accused of burning a religious school, our first reaction is usually negative. Bahar was once a student in a religious boarding school. He did not like the rules and felt trapped there. He kept breaking them until one serious incident changed everything. After the fire, he was expelled from the pesantren. What looked like the end of his life became the moment that changed his direction. Before Bahar left, Buya, his teacher, gave ...

Hellow, I’m Zahra! It’s been a while since I’ve written here, life has been full of tasks, assignments, tests, and all those endless college things. I honestly missed writing, but lately I finally had a quiet moment to read again. And this time, I picked a book that many people have been talking about  Atomic Habits by James Clear. I didn’t expect much at first, but after reading just a few chapters, something clicked. The book talks about how small habits can lead to big changes, but what caught my attention most was this idea: Focus on the system, not the goal. It sounds simple, but it hit me deeply. I started realizing that so many times in my life, I’ve been chasing goals to be productive, to be fluent in English, to get good grades, to improve myself. But when I failed, I often blamed my motivation instead of looking at the system behind it. The truth is, everyone can have the same goal, we all want to be successful, healthier, more confident, or happier. But what makes som...

What’s the mean? horse blinders? actually horse blinders has different meaning in my dictionary. Still focus. Still consistency.  A horse that still walk whatever the condition is crowds, their still move in other place and accept everything distraction.  Why? because they never seen beside of their. Not because of they are ignore with environment, but their main motion from coachman. Because coachman want the horse need to focus. Maybe without the device, they can distraction easily by crowds, horns, or people on the side of the road, even though their goal is clear : to continue to the destination according to the coachman’s instruction. SAME!! Sometime people need horse blinders, its not really wearing blinders on a horse. But a mindset to keep moving forward without any distraction by things have nothing to do with our personal improve. Because what people say or environment is too noisy with unclear standard: its not our business . In our life , we have “coachmen” is our ...

These days, people are overthinking almost everything, especially when it comes to personal achievements. It’s likely one of the factors driving our stress levels up, making us obsess over small details. Overthinking is actually something we can manage ourselves, but sometimes it’s just tough to stay focused on one thing, let alone avoid overthinking altogether. And now, in the digital era, we’re constantly bombarded with information and trends from everywhere, especially social media. Our brains end up overloaded trying to process it all, which only leads to more overthinking and confusion about what information really matters.   Scrolling through social media can feel like a quick escape or a way to heal, but sometimes, without realizing it, we start comparing ourselves to others. We see others on vacation, in better jobs, or in healthy relationships, and it makes us feel like we’re not enough, driving us to overthink and wonder, “Why am I not like that?” When friends consta...