Have I Survived Jakarta? Probably..

Photo Source: Saepul Jamal

Dear, fellas.

I was born and raised in the capital city of Indonesia, Jakarta. It's been 21 years I've been living in Jakarta, it's sort of love-hate relationship anyway. Yesterday, my cousins who come from Semarang came to Jakarta for business purpose and I made a time to get them up. They rarely came to Jakarta and they only know the traffic in Jakarta is pretty sucks by watching or hearing the news, until they experienced it themselves yesterday. They kept asking me whether the traffic in Jakarta was always like that all the time, like the road seemed like a huge parking area. Unfortunately, I said yes, and it even worse when it was time to go and back from the office hour. They gasped. Yeah, they gasped. They gasped, even more, when they knew it took 1 hour and a half to reached the nearby mall from their hotel when it supposed to be only 15 minutes. I could clearly imagine what they had in mind when they originally lived in a place when there's no traffic at all and they had to face this kind of thing, even only for several days. I had no wonder if they complained or anything because if I were them, I probably would do the same thing.

After saying goodbye to my cousins, I find myself thinking whether I've survived Jakarta since I've been living here for about 21 years. For facing the traffic, well, I'm sort of cheating because I live in a suburban area, where it's about 20-30 km from the downtown city. Basically, everything I need is already there in my place. For going to campus, I rented a room nearby the campus and it's a walking distance, so I don't need to face the traffic everyday. It's been 21 years I've been living in Jakarta but never been I face any kind of flood, simply because I live in the suburban area where it's about 90 meters above the sea level. I'm sort of cheating on those two things.

Traffic and flood are both common things as a consideration whether you've survived living in Jakarta or not. Well, in this post I try to point out things that you might not found outside Jakarta, and these are things I've been experienced so far. Perhaps, these things could be your consideration whether you want to settle in Jakarta.

By living in Jakarta, I've learned that "don't judge a book by its cover" is utterly bullshit. Especially for women, they compete to be as beautiful as possible to be recognized by the others. I remember when I was in a modeling course, the coach told us that no matter what kind of job we (a woman) had, we had to be as fashionable as possible, as stunning as possible, as glamorous as possible, we had to dress up and put makeup on all the time, and that was how society respected us. I was in high school back then so I didn't really take it personally because I wear school uniform most of the time. But when I grew up, it utterly changed my mind. I remember when I got less service from the staff store because they were busy serving the other customer who looked more stunning than me. I remember when my friend told me that she was not accepted for the job vacancy she applied because her competitors physically look more appealing. And my mom told me that if we dressed up well from head to toe (especially if you wear a lavish brand item), our client would not negotiate our fee. My dad also keeps reminding me to upgrade my closet once in a while. I'm not gonna lie but this ironic fact is something that I need to accept and somewhat I agree with this. I know this thing can occur in any cities in Indonesia. But in Jakarta, the pressure is much higher.

By living in Jakarta, I've learned to keep on time no matter what. I know Indonesian people known as being unpunctual. In Jakarta, 15 or 30 minutes late sometimes still considered tolerable. Among the other cities in Indonesia, I still consider Jakartans on the highest rank on keeping on time in any occasion. I remember when I was attending interior gathering from all the campuses around Indonesia in Bandung, the gathering event supposed to be held on 7 pm, but they late until 10 pm without any apologizing or felt guilty at all. I thought there was news of rescheduling the event that I didn't know before, but I was with the LO of the event all the time and she didn't feel like there was something wrong. Up until now that event still linger in my mind like how could that really happen. I also remember my friend who studied in Yogyakarta told me that her lecturer suggested all the students should do an internship in Jakarta to learn how to be punctual.

By living in Jakarta, (mostly) people are individualist so that what makes me independent and mind my own business. Don't ever think that having princess mentality will save you. Only the strong ones survive living in Jakarta. Everyone is busy with their own shit so you gotta get up and do it on your own.

By living in Jakarta, I've learned that if I'm in the room of people where I'm the smartest one, I should get out from there. Living in a comfort zone is a trap. In Jakarta, the competition is extremely tough. Your rival is not only the ones who have the same skill or field as you but also the kids from filthy rich daddy who gives everything for their kids, including his company. So these kids would instantly be the CEO of the company when their daddy retire, and the rest of the poor people struggling their ass off for the sake of a spoonful of rice. I know this sounds exaggerating, or envious, but this is the fact. Indonesian people said "di atas langit masih ada langit", it means that no matter how good we are, there always be people who much way better than us.

Actually, the list is endless but if I mention all of them I would end up writing a book. Maybe I would write the part 2, maybe, if I remember. Well, I'm not trying to make you agree with my statement, I'm just trying to point it out what I've been experienced so far. I'm pretty sure everyone has a different point of view. Feel free to share your experience living in Jakarta in the comment section below and tell me whether you survive or not. :))))

Yeah I gues that's all, I need to go back to the reality. Bye!

Regards,
Sita.