The Past

How to Come Back

Where to begin –

I am sorry for the radio silence. I wish I can say that I have not been writing because I have been busy writing elsewhere but unfortunately not. I do not even know what I have been busy with. Work and stuff, but that is a classic bullcrap. It should hold no justice of justifying months of absence – nothing is, not even heartbreak. All I know I am becoming more and more Millennials, choosing social media as the source of distraction from doing everything else that is soul-fulfiling because hey, it is so much easier (and mindless). Times I spent for writing have been taken away for, well, whatever it is. Of course, here by writing it means hours of drafting and drafting and drafting and re-writing and so on, you get the idea, other than it is time-consuming, it is, too, soul-consuming with the ever growing of self-criticism. So.

I thought of it, writing I meant, but it goes as far as a white blank page and blinking stripe. Then soon the arrow aims for the x, close tab, and the light shuts. I tried to compensate by doing more reading. Mostly news, first thing in the morning, as if understanding politics would make me more of an adult and that should make me feel better of whatever it is. Might as well jump in when the water is cold, I thought. Sometimes I read short fiction, too. Anything's under four minutes-read. Because somehow I always feel in a hurry of being somewhere else, having something else to do.

Other times, I am trying to read more of Indonesian writings. Poetries, short stories. It's beautiful. I jolted down a shitty rhymed paragraph or two, as if it is my first time learning the language – or even the culture, too. It's awkward, and raw, and stupid. But most often, I find myself looking back to old photos. The ones on the Beach. At the Whiskey Bar. Park. Under the English sun. Listening to playlist of The Long Walk to Campus or Wish I Were Here Soundtrack. Which ultimately leads to a thought of perhaps: I don't live in the now anymore. I am somewhere in between 2011 and 2016. And I don't know how to come back. What if, what if the only place you'd feel happy is in the past?

A piece by : Fiya Muiz
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Ada New York Hari Ini

Hari itu aku menunggu penyair favoritku di antrian yang panjang. Diluar matahari masih malu malu untuk menyapa sehabis hujan. Sampai pada akhirnya di bubuhkannya tanda tangan pada halaman paling depan buku hitam putih bertajuk cinta dan adanya kota yang tidak pernah tidur. Terima kasih ku ucapkan tiga kali dengan nada manis, dia memberikan tatapan kembali kasih yang sederhana seraya menutup buku itu dan memberikannya kembali kepadaku. Namun, bagian favoritku bukan pada saat itu – tetapi ketika kamu berbisik sambil menunjuk ke arah tempat duduk penyair itu, "Suatu hari nanti aku percaya kamu yang akan duduk dibangku itu." 


A piece by : Fiya Muiz
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Dialog Dengan Malaikat


Originally published on Medium

Dulu, aku mengutuk kepulanganku ke Ibu Kota. Secara diam-diam, aku menyalahkan nasib. Aku mengutuknya karena aku sudah terlanjur jatuh cinta kepada kota kecil di tanah Ratu Elizabeth itu. Dimana rasanya empat tahun melebih 18 tahun. Dimana aku merajut awal dari masa masa menemukan apa itu sesungguhnya arti dari matahari dan cinta. Aku pikir, kepergianku adalah akhir dari suatu cerita cinta. Namun, ternyata aku salah.

Aku hanya sudah terlalu lama lupa.

Tuhan mengingatkanku melalui datangnya kembali sosok pria dari ujung jalan Masa Lalu yang hampir terbenam dalam kenangan masa SMA. Namanya Timothy, panggilannya Timmy. Dari nama dan tajamnya lekuk rahangnya, bisa di lihat dia tidak berasal dari pulau Jawa. Tetapi, tata bahasanya sehalus orang Solo.
Dia menyapa kembali dengan kehangatan yang sama sambil membawa buku berwarna merah di tangannya. ‘Judul buku ini mengingatkan aku padamu,’ Bidadari Yang Mengembara karya A.S Laksana. ‘Baca ya.’ Aku tersenyum dan menyeselesaikannya kurang dari dua hari.

Tidak lama setelah itu, tepatnya hanya selang beberapa minggu, pada suatu malam Sabtu yang penuh tawa di suatu kedai kopi di Cikini, aku menemukan sesuatu. Di tengah menu-nya tertertera puisi pendek dari Sapardi Djoko Damono, judulnya Aku Ingin. Lapisan laminating menu itu sudah lusuh, entah berapa ratus tangan pernah dengan asal melipat, atau meremas, kertas itu. Namun diatas kertas merah marun diketik dengan tinta putih, puisi itu tetap terlihat hidup. Pernahkah kamu membaca puisi itu? Akan aku bacakan sepenggal baitnya:
Aku ingin mencintaimu dengan sederhana; dengan kata yang tak sempat diucapkan kayu kepada api yang menjadikannya abu.
Aku tersedak dan langsung menaruh menu itu kembali ke meja. Dengan terburu buru aku mengambil telfon genggamku lalu menggerutu kesal kepada Timmy.


Sudah pernah baca Aku Ingin? Bagaimana caranya seseorang bisa menulis puisi seindah itu?

Bukannya aku sudah pernah bilang? Kamu baru baca?

Iya. Gila! Kata yang diucapkan kayu kepada api yang menjadikannya abu?
Kok bisa saja terpikir apa yang dikatakan kayu ketika dia sedang terbakar?

Ya, hanya orang-orang yang sering berdialog dengan malaikat
yang tahu, dan bisa, cara menulis seperti itu.


***

Disitu aku tersadar, bahwa kepulanganku ke Ibu Kota bukan kutukan, tapi berkat. Aku hanya terlalu lama lupa pada keindahan Ibu Pertiwi dan bahasanya. Aku hanya butuh di ingatkan kalau ini bukan akhir dari cerita cinta, tapi awal dari perjalanan aku mencintai Sastra. Sastra Indonesia.

Dan semoga saja juga untuk berdialog dengan malaikat.


A piece by : Fiya Muiz
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Island in the Sun




"And me? I still believe in paradise. But now at least I know it's not some place you can look for. Because it's not where you go. It's how you feel for a moment in your life when you're a part of something. And if you find that moment... It lasts forever."
(The Beach 2000)











A piece by : Fiya Muiz
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A Matter of Heart



2015


This is the hundredth attempt of me writing this story.

The first one was at the Gatwick Airport lounge as I sat on the leathered-iron chair, waiting with thousand other passengers. I had just gone through a long debacle of two overweight luggages at the check-in counter, where I'd like to tell the chubby-cheek man in uniform, "I'm sorry for trying to fit in all of four years worth of my life into two luggages. And I might've miscalculated the weighing measure. Sorry! Can I just get through? I've got nineteen hours flight ahead of me!"

Second, was at Schiphol International Airport. With two hours to kill, I sat next to the window facing the runways. I remember the scent of airplane engine waste, and the summer sun casted shadow on my brand new notebook, a parting gift from Marta that says Carpe Diem on the cover, written in shiny gold ink.

The following attempts after that were all blur. I only remember it was never longer than two sentences and involved a lot of uncomfortable feelings.


Since I stepped on the plane, I thought I was a time-bomb – I'd explode anytime soon. I imagined floods of tears, uncontrollable rage, emotional waves. But I waited only to find out, it was far bigger, quieter, deadlier than a bomb.

My body began to weaken. There it happened; regular headaches, diarrhoea, and throwing up every two weeks for one consecutive month. I often found myself face down on my pillow, or in a foetus position, holding both of my hands on my tummy, secretly asking for my mother's attention to rub minyak kayu putih on my stormy belly.
"It's psychological, Sayang." She said. "Are you unhappy?" I looked away, could not come up with an answer. So, I stayed silent.

I then remember when I looked at their eyes, when I said I loved it there, it has been difficult moving back in, I could tell to them those were just strings of words. An exaggeration. Nothing more than a statement. But to me, it was real. England had made me feel something that Indonesia couldn't and I wish I could explain how dear it felt, but I couldn't. I wish I could explain why but I couldn't get any farther than one perhaps: because it's my choice. I wasn't born to it. I chose to love that place and I found most of the things in it are larger than life, even when sometimes it doesn't make any sense.

And that what makes saying goodbye to England is beyond heartbreaking.


**


Nevertheless, it would be unfair to define 2015 only by one goodbye. I have said hello to the other part of continent I never thought in my wildest dream to visit last April, North Africa! To the people I met at youth hostel when I decided to travel on my own up to Liverpool and Cardiff, where I learned how to not feel uncomfortable ordering table for one at Nandos on a rainy Tuesday afternoon in Liverpool One. To a local beauty on the east side of Indonesia with a dear friend, where I learned peace does come from within. And last but not least, I did, too, say hello to the bachelor degree I finally earned after four years of great hard work (and play, of course). And all the tough love the age of twenty three has offered.


**

But my God, it's 2016!

Look at all of the bright places we have been to! All the emotions we have felt! People we have met! Lesson we have learned! Bands we have seen! Old sweaters we have thrown! Lips we have kissed! Tears we have shed! Well done for getting through another year in one piece with a little bump of emotional damage here and there! That's great! We're here, aren't we! Let's raise our shot glass full with liquor of your choice to get through another set of 365 days!



   

A piece by : Fiya Muiz
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The Ultimate Life Lesson

Originally published on Medium.

Sh*tty Boyfriends: The Ultimate Life Lesson

It’s Tuesday noon, around 1.30 p.m, and I’m idling between tabs, giggling at a video of a monkey laughing at a party trick. Then, I stumbled upon this clip; The Ultimate Life Lesson. What an incredibly promising title, I immediately ignored the monkey, and rush into clicking the link.
Somehow the blue loading line under the tiny white box of link on my Safari moves so slow as if it teases my patience. Tap, tap, tap. I rest my chin on the palm of my left hand, while my fingers tapping the side of my cheek. What is it, I ask, as if the answer of my current lost-self hides in the link and it will save up years of my life trying to figure things out.

The clip is from a short web-series called Sh*tty Boyfriends. Sandra Oh played the smart-looking boss, sets in an all-white decorated, creative agency-like office. She begins the pep-talk like a wise old woman.
“I’m going to tell you the most liberating thing you’re ever going to hear in your life,” she held a momentarily pause, clasping both of her hands in front of her chest before dropping what seem to be the golden advice of life.
“No one is thinking of you,” the shot now shifts towards this twenty-something girl with pouting mouth, “which should be a relief, because it’s your life. Do whatever the fuck you want. Stop thinking and enjoy the moment, have real reactions to things!”

This isn’t the first time I have heard such an advice but strangely, it still does have the pinch to it.
Of course doing whatever the fuck we want at this age doesn’t mean vandalising school property, skipping class, be a bum, or drink till our throat burns, well maybe that occasionally, but things that have bigger meaning for the long run. Things that we have been wanting to do but haven’t done, things we often dismiss over something else that seems more immediate because it seems like it.

It’s almost like, it’s never been just our lives, it’s the life of others, too. The society or those ‘external factors’ often holds greater power in controlling our lives, stops us from unleashing this inner power to be whoever we want to be — or according to Pressfield, finding out who we already are and become it. So, we follow the stream and let whatever that is burning inside our chests to die in the chaos of conformity, what is socially accepted conventions, until one day we all stop questioning.

To me, that’s one of the scariest, most dangerous places to be. I don’t care, be elsewhere. Swim through against the current, be like salmon.

Often, those external factors affect the single most important variable in the equation, that is ourselves. The weight of “no one is thinking of you” is rather contradictory because at the end of the day, we live in the society where the currency of success, of worth, is through others; when we are noticed, which means someone is thinking about us. And then, we look at ourselves less than we are.

But other than that, perhaps along the line of wanting to prove ourselves, maybe others, too, we hurry ourselves into life, to be the hero of our generation, of our society. There has been an article shared all around social media recently, Stop Rushing Life. And I am surprised seeing how viral it went. Mostly shared, retweet-ed by most of my friends who are around the age of 20s.

Perhaps at this prime age, we’re all trying so hard to get everything right all at once. At life, at career, at relationship. We’re too eager on achieving something big as soon as possible, and forget maybe it’s not about getting it right at the first try. It’s not about pleasing everyone else but you. Because nothing good will come out of it. That way, we’ll never be enough to others, to ourselves. Maybe we can do whatever the fuck we want, and be great in time.

It goes without saying that this ultimate life lesson acts as a force, that tiny little push for us to do what we have always been wanting to do and stop slouching. Stop being the puppet of consumerism, capitalism, the external factor, whatever that is that holds you back from being all the pretty things you could ever be.

So, promise me that you will always stay curious. Be bigger than your fears.


This is the time to be like the salmon.
A piece by : Fiya Muiz
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2015: Favourite Ones



Marking the last week of 2015, I compiled "All of the Year" from the past entries and discoveries in the last 365 days. Hope these will make a good use in your life as I've heard great things are meant to be shared, so:


Top 5 Lessons From 2015






Favourite Track of the Year:


by Gleemers

Favourite Book of the Year:


(originally published in 2014)
by Marina Keegan

Favourite Album of the Year:


(originally released in 2014)
by From Indian Lakes
A piece by : Fiya Muiz
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