Our May Day

We grow up. We are not a student anymore officially. In our society, generally people who have graduated from school, they are faced by many choices; working, getting married, or even continuing the study. But we choose to work because of a financial need.

Dita has been working since 2011 for some different institutions. She began her career by joining a program  namely Indonesia Mengajar initiated by our Minister of Education, bapak Anies Baswedan. She worked as an Elementary school teacher for a year set in Sumbawa Island. After finishing her contract, while seeking for a new job, she worked for a research institution from her campus for two months and located in a district in West Java. After the program completed, she applied a job in a social company and she was accepted. Unfortunately, she felt that the job was not in line with her passion and she did not like her job that time so she decided to resign and looked for another job. Having some consideration, to survive her family life, she accepted her friend’s job offer as a Japanese translator for an international company in Jakarta. She was able to stand out there for about 14 months, and she ended her contribution there on April 2015.  What’s next then? Wait.

Meanwhile, I have definitely a different path with Dita. Though we are friends, it does not mean that we have to walk in the same path. After I graduated from a university in 2012, I worked for Dirjen Pendidikan Tinggi as a year contract teacher in a rural area in North Kalimantan. After that I took a scholarship offered by the government to join a year lecture program namely PPG (Teacher Professional Program). I finished the lecture on February 2015. Next, my struggle in looking for a new suitable job was started. I sent some job application letters and some of them called me to have a series of tests. So, from March to April I had spent my time to have some tests. Two courses and a company announced that I passed all the tests. The announcement of those three workplace happened in the last week on April and it began to be difficult time for me since I have to choose one of them. Which one did I choose? Wait.

The day had come. The first of May was a May Day. Dita had her holiday for a week and she spent it at home. Sure, I was at home too. So, we saw each other within Dita’s holiday.

“May is a new month for us, and a new life either. We will be a new laborer in a new institution. I am going to work for Tiga Serangkai company and you are going to be a civil servant in Ministry of Social Services”, I said to Dita.

“Yes Tami. Wherever we are, don’t forget about our mission, be useful for others”, She added.

Well, we both realized that we were not born from a rich family. We realized that we needed to be a financially independent woman. We realized that we have to survive.

We believe that working (red: being a career woman) is a part of praying. Therefore, we consider our activity right now is a praying though our work does not impact to people directly.