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Romantisasi Papa Pensiun

Hari ini hari terakhir Papa kerja setelah 31 tahun menjadi jurnalis di Suara Pembaruan. Tiga puluh satu tahun. Di kantor berita yang sama. Wow.

Gue adalah salah satu orang yang dalam suatu masa dalam hidupnya pernah sangat mengidolakan bokap sendiri. Bahkan 3/4 tahun hidup gue diisi dengan mengidolakan beliau, dari SD-SMA gue percaya kalau ketika gue dewasa gue bisa mengikuti jejak beliau, gue harus jadi jurnalis. He made me fall in love with writing. I spent my entire childhood writing countless of unpublished short stories, I even dedicated my whole time in high school as an active member of the school magazine. Pada masanya, gue merasa bahwa nulis adalah hidup gue (lebay banget, but doesn’t make it less true).

Gue masih inget banget betapa hancurnya gue di masa-masa akhir kelas 12, dengan melesunya industri media cetak, menurut bokap ga masuk akal kalau gue tetap mau on track buat jadi jurnalis. Being the typical Indonesian dad that he is, menurut beliau gue harus bisa jadi lebih sukses dari beliau. Jadi yaudah, FTI ITB it is. Bokap dulu lulusan teknik mesin, dari situ gue diem-diem masih berharap bisa jadi penulis (probably as a side job) meskipun jadi sarjana teknik. Life happened, I was nowhere near a writing career after I graduated, I can’t even write a proper piece in the last six years. Being a writer only sounds like a childhood dream that I would never be able to revisit. The only thing that I write right now is SQL queries (haha). Yang mana 100% salah gue, bohong banget kalau alasan gabisa ngehasilin tulisan yang bagus 6 tahun terakhir karena ga ada waktu.

Apa gue berhenti mengidolakan bokap setelah membuang mimpi gue sendiri? Ngga. At some point, I did stop reading his articles, but that doesn’t mean I stopped looking up to him. Sampai hari ini gue akan bilang kalo tulisan-tulisan bokap adalah tulisan favorit gue, yang gue yakin biased, karena gue gatau tulisan artikel ekonomi kayak apa yang bisa dibilang bagus haha. Mungkin buat sebagian orang kerja puluhan tahun di suatu bidang bukan hal yang menakjubkan atau hebat, tapi menurut gue bokap tetep orang yang keren dan beruntung untuk bisa punya penghasilan utama dari hal yang dia betul-betul cintai.

Even if it wasn't something grand or exceptional for some people, I am still grateful to witness him doing the only thing he loved with such great passion and dedication up to this point, I hope one day I get to do that to: dedicating my life to do something that I’m most passionate about. Maybe it’s writing, maybe it’s something else, who knows?

-

Selamat pensiun Deda, semoga sehat-sehat terus dan masih bisa melanjutkan melakukan hal-hal yang disukai di masa pensiun ini!

di kantor Cawang, tahun 90an, dengan kumis andalan

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