"Mexican Phenomenon"

One day, during free time at office, I argued with a friend.

Friend   : Mexico is in Europe, right?
Me        : You're kidding, right? For God's sake, who on earth doesn't know where Mexico is??
Friend   : That's not like something we all have to know
Me      : Yeah, but Mexico is a famous country (It's not like we were talking about Mauritania, or Republic of Sierra Leone, or Federated States of Micronesia. Can you even guess where these countries are?) Didn't you have Geography at school? I bet you're the only one who doesn't know it.

I confidently challenged him and ended up asking some people at our floor about whether they know in which continent Mexico is. And the result surprised me! Out of 8 people we were asking, only 4 people knew it. Yes, just half of it! The other people weren’t sure or even had no single idea about it. I baffled. I lost words.

Perhaps, we were all ever be in the same situation, when we thought a common thing for us is common thing for worldwide. The truth is, it is NOT. Ever since I realized that, I always call such circumstances when people judging others for not knowing something as “Mexican Phenomenon”.

At times, we unintentionally (or do we?) say thing like “oh come on you don’t know this kind of thing?” or in Indonesian “yaelah kayak gini aja nggak tau”. Where in fact, there is no standard for people to know certain things. There are too many variables; point of interest, sensibility, environment, etc.

Because if there are too many standards, then there is no standard.

I begin questioning, do “common knowledge” really exist? And what about "common sense"?

Writing

It's been more than 4 years and I decided to start blogging all over again. Saying start all over but not making a brand new page, why? The question popped up. When I had a look at my old writings, I realized I was real happy back then. Though people would say it "alay ", I would rather call it "gone mad". Yes, we were mad back then. And happy. Period. So I was left with no reason to delete it.

I stopped writing those "gone mad" things just after less than one month I made the blog. Oh, yes, I was so lack of consistency. I had no strong willpower. And it continuous, still.

I can't write. I barely make my mind up and speak my thoughts up. That was what I told myself and people a lot this whole time. The anomaly is, when I read a writing (friends' essay, body email, messages, etcetera), in english particularly, many times I thought that the writing should be this way, not that way, or the sentence is better like this, not like that. So, I was thinking, why don't  I make the writing myself?

The opportunity came on the day the company I work in was welcoming it’s 6th anniversary. Many competitions were held during the pre-event, one of them is essay writing competition. We had around 15 days to prepare and submit the essay. I searched for references right away after being informed the theme for essay. I was on fire. I searched for journals, papers, market researches, and so on. I read them, made a writing framework, and tried to develop it. At the time I reached about 200 words (it was supposed to be 1000-1500 words), I stucked. I lost words. I didn’t know what to write anymore. “It’s not working. This isn’t for me”, the whisper approached.

But I convinced myself that I was last-minute-person, so, yes, it would take a while for my brain to generate ideas. I shoud have taken it slow. I decided to give my brain a break for.................... almost two weeks! Yes, I ended up sleeping late to work my essay out on the very night before the submission day. I even still did it at office at working hours to finalize the essay and give a final touch of eye-catchy title. I Eventually submitted it exactly 2 hours before the due date. Hafyuuuh

I was quite satisfied with my writing. And frankly speaking, I put a big hope in there. On the day the judge called me to inform that I was the 1st winner, I yelled at heart “I know it!”. Don’t take me wrong, I didn’t mean I’d say I know I was gonna be the winner. I mean I’d say I know my writing is good not that bad.

A friend of mine knew this story and I told her I’m gaining confident in writing right now. And I want to practice my writing (and my english not to mention). She suggested me to write a blog. I did, actually. Long loooong time ago. And it ended up on hiatus. I don’t think this one will work either. But giving it a second try wouldn’t be a sin.

So, let’s start the practice for only God knows how long :p

P.S: if you're curious about my essay, go visit here.

A Brand New Page

Welcome

After not in a blogging for about......................hundred years zzzzzzzzz