The Wedding

Chapter 1: Steps of Life

All human being starts their lives in a woman's womb. We are born and  taken under a good care of our parents or guardians for about 16 years before finally they 'let' us live among the society. According to Eriksons, we grow up from infancy to adulthood with different mastery in each stages. We all follow a life cycle. Born, grow up, finish our schools, get married, have a baby, then another baby, our child(ren) start the cycle too, and we become old. Finally, we die. That's the life cycle.

One of the most difficult part in that life cycle is when you become an adult. When I was young, I always dreamed about becoming an adult. I could do anything I want, go where ever I wish, and have everything I demand. I would work in a famous company, got the job I always dreamed, flew to French with my love, got married, had children, and lived happily ever after. When the time to become adult finally came, I just didn't know it would be so dramatically different from what I imagined.

Some people might say that the first hint of you being an adult is when you reach 17 and got yourself a citizenship card. Others might have the same thought. For me, being adult meant when I got into the university I chose. I was still 16 at that time and had not had my citizenship identity card, so I cheered myself up when I got into university which meant I would be seen as an adult by the society. Going into university meant you don't have to wake up at 5.30 in the morning just to catch the bus to school, no more yelling from your parents to ask you submit your homework, no more prohibitions, and many more. To conclude, you are free from your parents and you are able to do anything you like - well, almost everything.

I was proud of my class. This is the university and the department I chose. State University of Indonesia. It was not easy to get into a state university, and even more difficult to get into English department. The department only accepted 20 students but there were about three hundreds registrants. I considered myself lucky as I was able to enter Class A. There were only two classes, A and B. Class A mostly consisted of distinguished honor students - those who were in the first rank when they were at high school - and those who passed the National University Test Entrance. Class B consisted of all students who passed the National University Test Entrance only. In other words, I was among the national's bests.

Well, it was awkward on the first day of school. I was still a freshman and I knew no one from English department. My friends from high school chose different paths from me, moreover, different universities. They went to economics, law, business, or medical school. I chose something that never crossed my mind before, a Language and Arts Department. In other words, I knew almost nothing about this department and the people inside it.

The first person I became friend with was a small girl with glasses. I saw her when she performed a dance with the other freshmen during the 'Welcoming Freshmen' event. When she danced, she looked so confident, bright, and outstanding. After that, almost all students from our department knew her. She was the star of the event. That time I still didn't know much about her but her name, Quinn Athalia.

We were in the same class. I recognized her instantly from her looks. She was only about 140cm with this sweeping pixie cut hair just like Anna Hathaway when she played Les Miserables, and a warm smile. She was a bit talkative on that time and I was a little shy. It just happened that one day we sat side by side on the same position in our classes. We then ended up to go to the same classes all the time. I could not really recall the first conversation we made. I just remembered that although she was popular and made friends easily, she was able to stay by my side, the unbright and unrecognizable student.

It's a bit different from Quinn, I knew Nadya because she was the first one that greeted me. Nadya was always together with her four other friends from high school, also her classmates now. She rarely looked at me nor talked to me. But one day, I called it as destiny, she sat beside me. Her name was Luna Diantari Yasmine but she introduced herself as Nadya as a shortened for LuNA Diantari YAsmine. Nadya was clever with a good personality. She had honey skin tone, long straight hair, and a dimple on her cheeks. She was calm and a bit shy to strangers but can be a bit wild if you know her better.