Reksyanti: Discovering the Meaning of Peace in Life

I am Reksyanti Ramana Nurdin. I am the second child of 3 siblings, I come from Bugis and Menado tribe, I am 22 years old, and my hobby is snacking and singing. At the moment I am an active student at Tadulako University, majoring in Public Administration. I am a very stubborn child, likes to be jealous if I’m not treated as a privilege by family or friends. I get a bad temper and selfish child, yes I realize this. 

One of my life stories was I experienced a very bad story and left me very bad feeling in my heart and my soul to now, that was bullying. Yes! I was bullied. This started at that time when it was the time to go home from school. My friend and I walked in the hallway of the school where many teachers gathered and many students took turns passing by, when my friend and I walked with a little smile to the teachers, it was not long when our footsteps were almost leaving the place, there was a teacher called me. I immediately rushed back to approach the teachers and asked “Yes Sir, what’s up Sir?”, then the teacher replied “You are so fat, how long you have not pooped?” and there suddenly I was so silent and heard so many people laughing that even other teachers also laughed and even made fun of it. Well maybe they thought it’s a joke, but not for me. 

At that time I tried not to cry in front of them and I promised not to tell my parents, but the sound of their laughter was recorded clearly in my mind which caused me to shut myself down in my room and cry. At that moment my sister accidentally heard my voice crying and she called my mother to ask why I was crying. At that time I was very hard to tell because I had promised but my mother was crying to worry seeing me and finally I told everything. Suddenly my mother cried loudly and called my father, and eventually my father got very angry and rushed me coming to the school. My father wanted to know which teacher could bully his daughter.

When we arrived at the school, my father and I met with the headmaster, asking the teacher who had bullied me, but the principal did not want to meet my father with the teacher who bullied me because my father looked so angry. My father asked “Why should the teacher did the bully? What is wrong with my daughter? My daughter is achieving well at this school, she won the Judo competition in South Sulawesi bringing its school name, why do you have the heart to bully my daughter? “My principal could only be silent. Long story short, for 2 weeks I did not go to school and was accompanied by a Counselling teacher to be able to go to school again. This experience really left me a deep trauma in me.

Blessings 

After the disaster September 28, 2018 in Palu, I actively participated in social activities with friends in my campus, this come to the point where I was invited to take part in the Board Game For Peace (BGFP) training program organized by Peace Generation Indonesia for 3 days at the Balaroa refugee camp. When I joined the program, there were so many lessons I could take and the feeling was so happy that it reduced my trauma a bit from the disaster. After the training process that I went through, I was very interested to pass this on to others, the basic values ​​of peace have made great changes in my life including my selfish, bad temper, even insecurity character. 

I am very happy and grateful that God took me to change myself for a better one by applying the basic value of peace in myself, to the point where my heart is tapped to share it to youngers in the camp of refugee in the Pantaloan by playing board games together and giving an understanding of 12 PBV through the book that I have. I am so happy to see them laugh out loud, their smile so peaceful. So many positive changes that I get in my life, where I become a person who is more patient, selfless, self-confidence and can heal my pain against bullying. 

This was when I started to continue spreading peace to the people who are close with me, I want the people around me to understand that peace and tolerance are beautiful. And one day I got the offer to be part of the team of Chapter Peace Generation Central Sulawesi, to be committed to spreading 12 PBV in Central Sulawesi, and without any further thinking I accepted the offer and thanks God, now I become a facilitator for the Breaking Down the Walls (BDW) program. Wow.. this is a very extraordinary achievement in my life where I can be beneficial for others. When I became a facilitator and was trusted to teach 12 PBV to the selected schools namely Muhamadiyah High School Palu and GKST High School Imanuel Palu, I felt very worried because this was the first moment in my life teaching teachers. I feel very challenged to this role, but thank God, it was successful and happy to be able to share many things about tolerance, peace in life with teachers. I hope that the BDW program that will be implemented later can break down the wall of prejudices against others. And may we live with tolerance and peace till the end. 

Writer: Reksyanti Ramana Nurdin, Agent of Peace Palu

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