EF #17: An Architect or A Designer?

Do you know tedhak siten? It is a Javanese ceremony where babies celebrate their first time stepping on the ground. One part of the ceremony is when the baby is put inside a chicken cage and he should choose one thing around him. The thing he chooses represents his future, according to Javanese belief. Can you guess what I chose? A pencil.

Tedhak siten

Although nowadays I don’t believe myth anymore, at that time I believed that my drawing hobby was related with the pencil I took during the ceremony. I really liked to draw anything. Thus, I wanted to be an architect like my father. I saw him drawing on a big standing desk. It looked so cool! To increase my confidence, my parents often took me in some drawing competitions. Although I never won, at least I knew how good the winners’ drawings were. Sometimes, I made interior mock-ups (maket in Bahasa Indonesia) using cartons and used boxes. Working with rulers and pencils were a lot of fun, as I also tried to make sketch of houses and rooms. 

My mock up wasn't like this :p

After some years I wished to be an architect, I changed my mind. Fashion designer was my next wish. My mom was a Femina magazine subscriber, and I was exposed to pictures of beautiful women and dresses. Moreover, I liked to draw girls and their clothes or even made my own comics. Honestly, making comic is difficult, because you need to think about the background also and should be able to draw varied body gestures. So, I prefer to make single pictures of girls.

This dream job last quite long. I remember when I was in high school I joined a fashion design workshop by Nivea FoYoDi (Follow Your Dream), with Barli Asmara (he had just started hos career I guess). She Fun Class was the next event that made me want to work in fashion industry when we visited LaSalle College Jakarta. Before graduation, I changed my mind (again). I had to be realistic and choose the major that is available in the university I wanted. It had no fashion major. 

So, am I now working in fashion industry? 

The answer is no, haha.. I’ve fallen in love in teaching for the last seven years. My passion in drawing has long gone since I knew that my belief says drawing human is forbidden. Well, sometimes I drew human in front of the class, under the reason of educating LOL. However, I still have passion for art. It helps me a lot in teaching creatively … and in living my life colorfully. Do you agree?

Share your childhood wishes by joining BEC’s English Friday Challenge. One day to go!