“I have a tendency to surprise myself”

John Grogan.Marley & Me.

That words stung me. It’s amazing to have yourself surprising you. It means you improve! You innovate. You don’t hold back in doing your things. You use all your potential and keep improving. Isn’t that great?

That’s how the movie got my attention. I watched Marley and Me while I was having my dinner. It is a story – well, I can say – about an ordinary life yet meaningful. The man is a reporter – and then turn to be – columnist, and his wife is also a feature reporter. It’s a story about their life, their family, and their hyperactive dog – Marley.

Jen, the wife, loves to plan everything whether John, prefers to let things happen then be surprise. But they get along well. They live their life smoothly, well a bit fight can’t be avoided. In the earlier stage of life, they live in a middle-class neighborhood, both of them work in different newspaper. Every morning they read each other’s articles and give comments.

Then after having a baby, they move to a better and safer neighborhood which also costs more -but it’s fine, they can afford it. Every week, John writes 2 – 3 columns, one of them talks about his life and Marley. But in his forty, after having 3 children and live happily, he starts to lose challenges and passions for his work. Jen realizes it and encourages him to move to Philadelpia, where John gets an offer of a position for reporter.

In Philadelphia, when they already have a better living standard, they choose to settle in suburb, give some more space for the kids. Hahahahaaa, I was laughing when I saw that. What an american lifestyle! Many times in the class, the lecturers said that high-class people tend to buy a house in suburb to have a peaceful and space to relax. Ah! Sou da ne. Now I really got what my lecturers mean. (Well, people in Indonesia usually don’t do that kind of thing, they tend to get close to the CBD).

Well, yep, but the most important thing is now I learn that having a plan for your life is good, but prepare to be surprised of what life might bring is better. And I wanna surprise myself! for good things of course.

For all this time, I’m a planner type of person. Well, I planned since I was child. I had my first life-map when I was 9 years old. I planned myself to be the best in my elementary, to attend SMP 1, SMA 5, IPB to have my agronomy degree, and go abroad to pursue MSc & PhD majoring agronomy, and also to go Haji. Ah, but at that time I forgot to mention ‘getting married‘. Hehee. (Well, most of them became reality, except the majoring, I took urban & regional planning  instead. And the higher degree things, I hope I can also make it come true in the future). Yup, I plan everything and when things don’t go my way, I got frustrated and then giving up on my plans. Ugh, bad habit.

My friends once said, Life is unpredictable and full of surprise. Yeah, it’s more important to prepare yourself to be surprised than stick to your plan and get frustrated. We, human, can only do our best in the present and Allah will decide the best destiny for us. And most of the time, the best destiny doesn’t match our earlier plan. But I’m sure Allah knows the best. As long as we keep improving, I think it’s fine.

So, it’s free for us to have dreams. It’s important for us to have a plan, but just don’t forget that life will always surprise us in every way. So be prepared. Anyway, that’s what makes life fun-dynamic-challenging-and not boring, isn’t it? 😀