Narasi Perjuangan - Achmad Furqan Agussalim

Narasi Perjuangan

Achmad Furqan Agussalim

Assalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh. Hi, my name is Achmad Furqan Agussalim. I am a new student in the Faculty of Medicine in Universitas Indonesia. I went to Dhahran Highschool in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia for my high school, and have been living in Saudi for over 7 years now. Here is my journey to UI.

Eleanor Roosevelt once said: “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams”. As a kid, I dreamt to be and do a lot of things. I dreamt of being rich, having all the toys in the world, and for my family to be happy. I will be honest with you, I did not want to be a doctor when I was a kid. Like many others, I aspired to be an astronaut, go out into space and meet aliens. If given the opportunity, my young self wouldn't have missed it for the world. But after several years, these dreams began to change. It shifted from astronaut, to a police, and eventually a firefighter. But what they all had in common is that each one strived to help humanity and better the world. It went on like this until I hit middle school.

During this time period, my dream slowly faded as I began to focus more on education. My parents would say: “what's the point of dreaming, if you don't execute it and work hard”. So those dreams, those precious moments were placed in the back of my head, under a pile of other tasks. In addition to that, my dads profession as a petroleum engineer didn't help either. Every few years, we would be forced to move to another country due to my dads job. Just when you feel like you're going to settle in and enjoy staying in a country, we pack, and we move on. This affected me the most mentally as I had to endure the pain of leaving my school, my house, and my friends. This went on for some time until we moved to Saudi Arabia, where i’ve been living for the past 7 years.

It was during my first year of highschool that my dream profession, what I wanted to be, was brought up again. This is one of the turning points of our lives because now we need to start taking our studies more seriously in order to go to a good college in the future. In my school, we were told to start considering what we wanted to be when we graduated as the courses that we would choose would be based on that profession. I decided on the path of chemical engineering. But slowly that dream died out and I found myself feeling pointless and studying courses that I didn't enjoy. But during this time, several events occured that changed my life. One day, my dad received a call from my uncle that my grandfather had a stroke which affected the right side of his brain, thus his entire left body was paralyzed. This was a huge shock for us, as he was a doctor and was very healthy. Through the grieving, I realized that I wanted to be something that would help others and help them go through this emotional pain. The second event, is my first time joining MUN. Model United Nation is where young students gather together and discuss current crisis and problems. The more I participated in the conferences, the more aware I became about the crisis going on. Syria, Palestine, school shootings, poverty, and hunger, are few of the problems that we as a united nation must solve. That's when I thought, I want to be an individual whose live goal is to help eradicate these issues. That is when I decided I wanted to be a doctor. The following year, I chose courses that were related to a degree in medicine. A problem that I faced was that I wanted to go to a med school outside Indonesia, for example United States, Singapore, or the United Kingdom. I had the belief in my head that medicine in Indonesia wasn’t good at all and refused to listen to what my parents said. What I didn't realize at the time was that I wasn’t looking at the picture as a whole, but rather in a smaller scope that excluded the others. Also I was thinking selfishly and was influenced by my peers who applied to the US, Canada, and the UK. It took a lot of convincing before I realized that going to university outside, as an Indonesia citizen has several disadvantages, including the fact that it takes longer to finish med school outside, and that when coming back to Indonesia to work, we must spend another 1-2 years studying and adapting before working in a hospital/ clinic. Now with this “revelation”, I began applying to universities in Indonesia.

My dad first told me that the best medicine program in Indonesia was in UI, even better it had an international program in which the courses are taught in english, so I viewed that as a win-win situation. However, the test wasn't until July of 2019, and it was still December 2018. So I applied for the international class medicine program in UGM and the medicine program in UNHAS, Makassar. One thing that I was not expecting was that, unlike other countries, applying to indo had to be done through taking an entrance exam, which was more difficult than applying with your grades. My first entrance exam was on February, for UGM. So i began taking “bimbels” in Indonesia during my school break. My first impression regarding the Indonesian curriculum is that it was super hard. The math and science that I studied there was harder than the one in my school in Saudi. So it meant that I had to put twice us much effort into studying in comparison to the other students. By the end of each bimbel session, I came out even more confused than before, and it kept going on like that. What made it more fun are the other students that I met and talked to, and it turns out that one even ended up making it into FKUI as well. A few weeks before the exam, I was extremely stressed, not just from the upcoming IUP, but also my school studies and pressure from my family. I'm a really competitive guy, and when I found out that my cousin was also trying out, I made it into a competition to see who would pass and get accepted. But things don't always turn out the way you want it. By the end of the exam, I was extremely sad as it was harder than what most of us expected, but that didn't last long. I stayed confident with myself and had faith that Allah knew what was best for me, and that only Allah knows what is waiting for us in the future. Time passed by, and the test results came a week after. I was hyped, yet nervous. Pressure was building up and my parents asking “did it come out yet?” wasn't helping. I finally found the courage to open it, and the result said: “maaf saudara, anda tidak lulus”. I sat back, shocked and depressed, and it increased ten folds when I found out that my cousin got accepted. I was truly happy for her, but the fact that I was not able to compete and do as well as her was the problem, I was so filled with jealousy that it affected my performance and how it functioned on a day to day basis. It took awhile before I was able to get back on track. I told my parents that I wanted to try out the second IUP test for UGM in May. But it proved to be even harder than before, because my final school exam was on the same month, and im taking a risk of leaving for a week to do an entrance exam. Many of my friends thought I was crazy, but in my heart I believed that ill show them that I am capable of doing great in both. But to make it short, I didn't get accepted. Once again. Now my parents were starting to get worried, because I wasn't capable of getting into med, they told me to apply to other universities outside for a different faculty as backup. I felt dejected because I thought that my parents had lost faith in me. This was what forced me to work harder than before. I promised myself that I would stop slacking and try my best for SIMAK UI. I grinded for SIMAK and instead of doing bimbel, I tried studying the topics with my own method. But when it came to math, I was grateful for my teacher, because he taught me math like never before, and it made my life easier. During the day of the exam, I just answered as many questions as possible, keeping in mind the minus system that UI has. Overall, I was proud with what I had answered and now I can’t do anything to change my answers, thus I shifted my focus towards praying to Allah and hoping that he gives what’s best for me. I studied hard, but I prayed even harder. One of the greatest moments in my life was the day I got an email from UI stating that I had past the written exam was told to do MMPI and MMI. I screamed at my parents to come and see the email. I finally felt like all the hard work that I’ve done for the past few months has finally paid off and now I would work even harder to ensure that I aced this interview. Overall, MMPI went smoothly but it was MMI that had a tough time doing. I was never good with interviews and even more, Im a shy and introverted person, therefore I forced myself to go outside my comfort zone and do all the hand signatures of a good communicator. There are times where I felt completely nervous and stuttered, but I tried my best to come back and finish as strong as possible.

Alhamdulillah, all my hard work had paid off, because now I've managed to make it into one of the best medicine schools in Indonesia, and I can’t wait to work even harder here, in order to achieve my dream and become a great doctor. I just want to thank all my friends and family for supporting me all the way throughout my journey and being able to see me pass and go through to my next chapter in life.

During my time in UI, I hope to achieve many feats. I want to force myself to go out of the comfort zone and try new things that I’m not familiar with. I want to make sure that my old high school habits, such as procrastinating as well as being lazy will be eradicated during my time at the University. I want to change my living habits 180 degrees and make sure that I am as productive as can be. I wish to be able to join and be an active member in STUNICA as well as other clubs around UI such as MUN. University is going to be filled with temptation, thus I want to strengthen my faith by joining islamic clubs. I want to be the best in UI, the ideal student, the person that younger students look up too. I want to be a source o pride to both my family and my university.

I hope I can bring happiness towards my family, to inspire both my siblings as well as my cousins and show them that through hardworking and perseverance, anything is possible. I wish that my family will always have great health and live long so they could see me progress through the years in UI and see me achieve awards and other achievements. I wish that my siblings and cousins will work that so that one day they could be in the same position as me.

In the class of 2019, everyone is considered family. We all must be respectful and helpful towards each other. I believe that if we stick with one another during tough times and help others during when their down, well grow stronger and better. I believe that with a leader like Geraldus Sigap, who possess great leadership skills, he can guide us all to success. I want to be a key role in this new family of mine, one who they could look up to, one where students can talk to to discuss their problems and worries. The day in which one of my peers falls down or gives up, is the day I have failed my duty as a friend and as a supporting figure.

In addition to that, I have high amounts of respect towards all the faculties of UI for trying to move on and help with the environment. I take pride in being part of a university that tries to help and participate in solving the issue of plastic waste in Indonesia. The fact that UI is trying to be plastic free is a great step towards the future. Hopefully other universities and individuals can be inspired by this and take charge as well.

My plan for first year, is that I will try to settle in my apartment, have a comfortable living space alongside a good studying condition. Furthermore, I will try my best to adjust to the amount of studying and homework that is given to us. This will be done by creating a set of task planning and prioritizing the most important tasks in order to always stay 1 step ahead. I also aim to familiarize myself with all of my peers, both international and regular program, with hopes that I know all their names and become close friends with them all. By my third year, we all as med students should have studied and analyzed majority of the human body as well as started working on more complex things, even visiting the hospital. I see myself as a smart and independent student, where I am able to spend my time wisely and prioritize what’s most important for me. Furthermore, the third year is the last year in Indonesia because we’ll be spending a year overseas with another university, thus I hoped to be top 20 in the student rankings as those students are given the opportunity to study in the University of Newcastle. After 10 years, I see my self finishing studying my specialist (cardiologist) in a top ranked university overboard and have begun applying for jobs. My ideal job, is to be accepted into the United Nations and work as a field doctor in areas where there is a crisis, such as present day Syria, Palestine, or Kashmir. Furthermore, I want to become an Ambassador for Indonesia within the UN and discuss the problems within our country and help solve them. Finally, after 20 years, I would be a senior member within the United Nations and have work alongside other companies such as the Red Cross and UNICEF. But now, I would most probably have a family thus need to divide my time between patients as well as my son/ daughter and wife. In addition to that, I want to delve into other fields such as business and economics in hopes of creating clinics, hospitals, and schools for the people.

This is my journey, an unfinished one, but planned meticulously so that I have a clear view of what I aim to achieve. And now, whoever is reading this, its your turn to dream. My journey to Universities Indonesia was not an easy one. It was filled with dedication, sweat, and tears. There are times when I felt I should give up, but those are the experiences that strengthens you and builds your character. Remember, when you have a dream, a will, there will always be a away. Its not always easy, but as long as your put 200% effort and have faith, you will succeed. Dan Pena once said: “Life without a dream is like a bird with a broken dream”. I once lost direction of my dream and left it for a long time, now Ive picked it back up. Don’t make the same mistake as me, keep dreaming!