#8 Never just go with the flow
Because only the dead fishes that do. Take your time and a little step forward, if you hesitate, rest it away.
Welcome back! How was your first week coming back normally to office? Must not an easy one because things are still adjusting to be normal again. We hope none of you forgets to put on mask and brings hand sanitizer wherever you go. It’s a hard fact that the numbers of positive cases keep increasing in Indonesia, and it needs a great commitment to protect ourselves first. We hope you stay committed!
On our previous newsletter, it was that SalMonday segment again where Cantin asked us to wrote our own ways in enjoying our life and nature. Click here if you missed it!
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Meiska
There’s always something to take home from movies or series we watch, isn’t it? Well if it didn’t happen to you, I must have overly absorbed them and create my own theory. I was encouraged to start to binge-watch Hospital Playlist (2020) because it is written by Lee Woo-jung, who also wrote Reply 1988 (2015). A series that tops my most favorite K-drama list! The signatures of both of series are it is almost impossible to hate any character and there is no antagonist. They are also portraying relatable adulthood issues such as; family, friendship, romantic and professional life, and relevant values of life.
I keep deep touch with my circles from senior high school to work. There are WhatsApp groups for each of them of course! It gets intense when one of us told our story or mentioned hot issues! Suddenly my WhatsApp notifications has 283 new messages haha! Apart from feeling our friends are always around even though we grow apart, it’s great as well to feel the difference because we grow and has become mature and wiser along the way.
Referring to Hospital Playlist, here are the lessons I learn of adulthood friendships from the series:
Room for privacy
In the series, Kim Joon-wan was in complicated and backstreet relationship with Lee Ik-sun (Lee Ik-joon’s sister). Of course the gank made fun of him when they realized Joon-wan smiled all the time. But they weren’t forcing Joon-wan to tell who actually is his girlfriend nor tried to find out, even though they really want to know haha! On the other hand, when unsolved problems kept coming, Joon-wan did not consult to anyone from the gank. As a mature man he must have had his own reasons and believe his friends will support him no matter what. Even though happiness are felt when shared, doesn’t mean it is less special when kept.
Find ways to have real quality time
The gank is consisted of five independent and single medical specialists with fast-paced and full working schedule each focusing on their fields. It amazed me no matter how busy, they would spare time just to be together, be it activating their “band” mode (especially when not everyone knows how to play the instrument at the first place but eventually make it), going out to karaoke, and having quick lunch or dinner together. When one of them couldn’t make it, the other didn’t cancel the plans nor the one who couldn’t come get angry because the plans still going without them. I guess that’s how my adult life started to feel real reflecting on this, being presence is no longer the main reason to have “real” quality time nor to support each other.
Not taking things for granted
There is one episode where Chae Song-hwa came in the middle of the night to Lee Ik-joon’s house because his son had bad fever. The hospital called Ik-joon because of emergency and he had to leave immediately, Song-hwa was Ik-joon’s one call away. Their friendship taught me that it’s such a blessing to have friends we can count on and vice versa. But it also force me think that how shameful if we took our friends’ kindness and loyalty for granted. The real friendship will felt so pure and sincere without bringing up who is helping who, counting who do more good deeds than who, because when you think it’s wrong to have friends who only come to you when they need help, it’s actually and honestly right.
Honestly, I am far from experiencing the whole package of adulthood friendship itself and still learning. I believe that my friends are kind, smart, and supportive individual (which why I made friends to begin with) each with unique strengths and weaknesses and so am I. We must have met for some reasons beside having something in common, thus we must cherish our time together by helping, supporting, and reminding each other, and most importantly by protecting our friendship!
I hope you will find the right time to watch Hospital Playlist on Netflix. It’s really a light and easy to digest series reflecting on daily activities of Hospital life, it felt real especially when it came to handling patients with different problems and backgrounds.
Elsa
Happy weekend. For this Salmon Mentai edition, I am going to tell you a little bit of my real story.
How do you feel if you have a personality’s assessment result slapping unto your face and it even comes from your new office? For me, I am toppled and dead. Would it be possible if they terminate my contract, perhaps to stop risking their investment on this frustrated talent?
I am now in my first year of two years Master study in Western Europe on Food Technology. In a transition to my final year of Master, I was applying to a summer internship in a Swedish startup company and starting to work this week. It is a pretty cool company focusing on smart packaging to detect shelf life of meat to reduce food waste. Honestly, I feel really grateful to be a part of this team and collaborate with other five lovely bright interns.
But, let me give you background of my current state. My final year of Master will be in Sweden specializing on food packaging, yet I felt like it was not my core strength in packaging after all. That is why, I was thinking I need to prepare myself grappling with it before my final year starts. Moreover, the internship is also my first experience to work abroad. By this point, I realize that I put high expectation on myself for this internship. Now you can feel how I put pressure on myself as a ton of ship anchor chain.
My first three days were even more arduous compared to the moment I dealt with stacks of assignments and exams at university. Two days of hammocking at the park by myself did not even solve anything for me to get better. Then I had a spare time to wander around on Netflix trying to calm myself and evaluate, “What is actually happening with myself?” I finished Suits new seasons and watched the Breakfast Club, but it brought nothing to a better state of myself. Thus I was questioning, what else should I watch? My roommate Sisca was reading book ‘Becoming’ by Michelle Obama and it turned out that there was Becoming documentary movie in my Netflix homepage, so I gave a try.
I made peace with myself by this movie. If you know myself in person, in a real life I am outwardly quiet, reserved and detached, yet inwardly absorbed in analyzing problems or situations. I am ambitious yes, but I cannot be dominant. Perhaps my first three days were too much sharing each other’s personality and I was not comfortable to share mine. I was exhausted and feel I was wrong to be myself to show my vulnerability and to be seen like lack of leadership and drive.
“Through the lies and the stuffs they said about us, all we could do was wake up every day and do our jobs, and let our jobs and our lives speak for itself. It takes so much energy to go high, and we were exhausted from it. The people would be surrounded with each other, of all different backgrounds, and they would go, ‘I am not alone in this.’ I like the feeling of not being divided. If we can open up a little bit more to each other and share stories, our real stories, that is what breaks down barriers. But in order to do that, you have to believe that your story has value. Be vulnerable. Dare to be vulnerable.” — Michelle Obama
We would like to hear your thoughts on experiencing adulthood friendship and making peace with yourself. Do not forget to leave some comments below <3
John Sellars on Lessons in Stoicism book ever said, “We can strive to act as best as we can, but we can never completely control the outcome. If we tie our happiness to achieving the outcome, we run the risk of being frequently disappointed, but if we make our goal simply doing the best we can, then nothing can get in our way.”
