@america Inspiring Woman: Mom In Chief

Last Friday, accompanied by a friend of mine, we went to the @america at Pacific Place, SCBD, to attend a talk. This actually has been a routine for me and my friends to participate in @america events.

If you never heard of @america, quoted from the website, it's actually a U.S. Embassy's American Center located in Jakarta, Indonesia that provides a space for young Indonesians to learn more about the United States and to share ideas about issues that are important to both Americans and Indonesians. They held classes, workshops, talks, to movie screening that's usually free of charge so everyone could come and participate.

This time, we went to a presentation about working moms and their motherhood journey, juggling between career and taking care of the family. I was totally interested since I think every mom has a special story and motherhood is truly not an easy job, moreover to balance it with a career. The speakers came from a Director of Titan Infra Energy and an Ambassador to the United States to Vietnam and moderated by a women activist. The audience was mostly women that's equal to my mom and even my grandma and came from some women clubs in Bogor.

#LevelUpShaula And About Investing In Ourselves

I came across this particular Aida Azlin's instastory a few days ago. Anyway, if you haven't followed and subscribed for Aida's Tuesday Love Letter, go check out her website here because believe me, you won't regret it. Now back to the story, I'm not sure if I have mentioned in this blog, at the beginning of the year I usually create some challenges for myself and I've been doing so since 2 or 3 years ago. Even though I didn't make it for most of the challenges but hey, at least this girl is trying :p

Some of the challenges are:

1. Reading Challenge.

This one is pretty much inspired by Goodreads Reading Challenge where people set how many books to be read throughout the year. On 2017 I only succeed 2 books out of 20 and for 2018 result can be read here. I might be only able to finish 5 books in a year but actually, I was reading more than 5 books but they didn't make up until the end.

The reading challenge actually tells me a lot about myself. I didn't know by tracking my reading can be turned into a self-discovery. By tracking how many books I successfully finished until the last page shows me what really caught my interest; the metro pop and romance novel really bores me while self-help and biography books giving me life. 

      2. 10 New Knowledge & First Experiences.

All I can remember for 2017 right now is I came to a makeup class by Wardah at the end of 2017 to tick my 10 lists. On 2018 I went to a beach camp for the first time, learned floral drawing on youtube, MC-ing for office sports competition, started Journaling, made special Raya pockets, met Allyssa Hawadi and Liah Yoo in person, joined a cooking class trial and others. This challenges me to always open for new experiences, to learn new knowledge and to never ever limit myself. In my opinion, in the end, life is about experiences and while we have the chance, we should go for it.

      3. Savings Challenge.

The hardest of them all. LOL. Fellexandro Ruby (of Thirty Days of Lunch Podcast) gave an idea in one of his sharing to give a birthday gift in a form of a challenge, and one example of them is by completing an emergency fund! Considering how important for us to have an emergency fund, I've successfully tracked my expenses but to stick to a budget is really hard. Well, I'm on my way, guys. I'm on my way.

Best of 2018, the reading challenge result and 2018 gratitute journal

A little disclaimer: this post is on draft since early of January 2019 and only had the opportunity to post it late in March 2019 (I know, my bad).

Congratulations to all of you who have passed the year 2018! To begin the fresh year of 2019, let us thank yourself that we've made it this far. I know, time passed really fast and it still feels like yesterday we celebrated the new year 2018 but look at where we are now, it's 2019.

Firstly, I'd like to share the 2018 Goodreads Reading Challenge result. I challenged myself to read 10 books in 2018, so much lesser than in 2017 (challenged myself to 20 books) because I knew how hard it is for me to finish a book currently. I've lessened the challenge to 10 books for 2018, yet I only managed to successfully finish half of it. Well, actually there were more books that I read in 2018 but most of the reading stopped in the middle and I didn't finish it until the last page. If you're curious about what's in my reading list, check out my Goodreads account here.

Actually I kind of feel ashamed to show the books I finished reading throughout 2018 because the books were mostly a light reading. Marchella FP's Nanti Kita Cerita Tentang Hari Ini was a graphic book that could only take 15 minutes to finish while the longest book was Sitta Karina's first of her Magical Seira series, Seira and The Legend of Madriva that consists of 240 pages. All in all, I take it as a punishment for not keeping my commitment so I promise this year would be better!

Next is a series of The Best of 2018. Here I gather you my favorite things throughout the year, just because I like reading and watching (on youtube) other people's annual favorite.