Bunga Hikmawati
My Little Journey of Learning, Growing, and Giving Back
“Be Unique, Do the Best, and Be Useful” is my motto that I hold onto in my life. I would like to use this motto to introduce myself. I believe through this approach, I am able to show you for being a unique individual. Regarding “Do the best”, I am eagerly to demonstrate all my effort for dedicating this letter. Last, my attempt to live abroad for enhancing my experience is part of being a useful human to the society.
My name is Bunga Hikmawati, I was born in a small and unwell known countryside, namely Kebumen, Central Java, Indonesia. I had lived my own childhood until teenage years. I am the youngest of seven children, due to financial limitations, my parents could not provide a decent education for all the children. However, we cannot choose where, when, and to whom that we would be born, but we can choose what path that we take. As time flies, I became determined to help my family’s financial condition and it has gotten stronger when the reality crushed my life. My father was passed away due to a traffic accident causing my family was messed. By the hands of my teachers and friends, I found out how to survive the situation, one of the ultimate attempts is by accelerating my intellectual growth.
Therefore, I was barely finished my school by gaining lots of positive attentions from people who wanted to support my education at the time. Through the phase of struggling on paying the study fee, I believed there is always be a way for completing my education. As we know that having a better academic status could improve our lives. Not only that, the process of achieving the education can deepened my insight for seeing the world. So, I am able to assist people who need my skills as if I have a “weapon” to protect them and empower others.
After I was graduated from Senior High School, I could not continue my study to go to college-an upsetting moment to be accepted. Then I decided to move to Bogor due to an offer for doing internship as a kindergarten’s teacher. But I felt something empty just spending my time only teaching and it made me choose to join Yayasan Cipta Mandiri (YCM) in order to learn freely in 2017. This is the best decision that I would have never regret for the rest of my life. Being part of YCM raising hope that having a big dream is not a sin or mistake. The founders (Gesine and Putu), the tutors and the vibes of the learning session encourage myself to pursuit my big goal to live and study abroad. Then, I committed as a student to attend the English class, Tour Guiding Class and Creative Writing Class regularly.
Still holding onto my dream for earning a bachelor’s degree, I kept nurturing my curiosity and utilize the knowledge to be a skilful individual. Then, in 2019, I was offered a scholarship by YCM to proceed Bachelor of Law until third semester in Pakuan University, Bogor. For continuing it, I applied a scholarship to Die Brucke, PMD (Projek Masa Depan) under Die Brucke (Social organization from Germany) in 2021 and finished my bachelor on May 2023. Despite my busy schedule, I still tried to make a time for sharing in YCM as paying forward the support that I had received.
But life did not stop there, I found myself at a crossroads : should I seek for a job and take care of my mother or pursue master’s degree abroad. After such a long consideration, I came out with a decision to submit Lembaga Pengelola Dana Pendidikan (LPDP)-Indonesia’s Scholarship. My mother and my closest brother supported me to follow my dream because it can be an essential step to improve our economy with one condition from my mother that just 2 years, the limit of finding scholarship. Once again, there are plenty of people who believed in my plan like my beloved friends, lecturers, YCM Tutors, Mba Putu and Ibu Gesine as my motivators.
Nevertheless, some people doubted that I would succeed, I held onto the believe “you never know if you never try”. In the end, I passed all three phases of selection as an awardee and also supported IELTS preparation, enabling me to apply to top universities. I was accepted by both Leiden University and Utrecht University, but I chose a Master of Laws at Leiden University, specializing in Public International Law.
I know the journey is not over, more challenges lie ahead, but I have learned that as long as we keep swimming, no matter what the difficulties, we will eventually reach our best version of success.