[Perjalanan Menuju FKUI] Dhiya Surya Tarina

My name is Dhiya Surya Tarina and I’m a student of the Faculty of Medicine in the University of Indonesia. I previously studied in the Gandhi Memorial International School and took part in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program. Throughout my 18 years of living, 10 of those years were spent contemplating on several occupations involving the hard sciences. My fascination for marine aquatic life was evident by the ages of eight to ten. As I grew older, however, my love for social work grew as well along with my apt for science. I knew then that the way for me to get into both was to become a doctor.

I enrolled in the Gandhi Memorial International School for high School. Working my way into high school, my subjects narrowed down into mostly science-focused subjects and less of any commerce ones. However, even then I was unsure of whether or not I was fit to become a doctor. I was constantly undermined by teachers and consistently got below average grades, especially in the first year of high school. I had no motivation from my consistent failures and became known as the least likely to survive a medical course. Teachers would disregard me and I never gained any respect from anyone (in a school full of overachieving Indians, respect is gained only through hard work and intelligence), until my second year of high school.

My second year of high school was my first year of taking the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program, and I was bombarded with assignments the minute I sat down in my classroom. We were told to write on average over 15000 words per week for several different assignments. Paraphrasing and citation became second nature to everyone except for me. My second year of high school was affected because of my personality in my first year as someone that could not find any sort of motivation for anything. But with the proper support group and help from a few teachers, I was able to push my way through the first year and make it count by being as hardworking as I possibly can given the circumstances I was in previously.

I knew that there were several ways of getting in through to Fakultas Kedokteran Universitas Indonesia (FKUI): Talent Scouting and the SIMAK entrance exam. Several factors were in the way, however, as my school hardly helped with the applications, merely giving us a month to prepare all the paperwork to fill out. That’s why in the third year of high school I decided to really work hard for my grades so that at the very least I could try to make it into the interview process, which is part of the Talent Scouting entrance. But I was still realistic that my application would even make it past every other intelligent student that enrolled for talent scouting, let alone pass through the interview.

I decided to train and study as hard as I can for the SIMAK entrance exam. At least in this way, I would ensure myself as deserving for the spot. Still, I was pessimistic. Because once I started studying for the SIMAK exam I realized that the Indonesian syllabus was completely different from the International one, and so along side studying for the entrance exam, I was simultaneously taking entrance exams in several different universities, some of which I was accepted to, and others I was rejected.

That last year of high school was the hardest year I’ve had to face yet, and maybe the year where I had my lowest point. It was the year when I realized that maybe this isn’t the right path for me. I had the spirit to help but feared that I had no skill. And so I realized that there must be other ways in which I could help. The dream was to get into FKUI so that I could get as much patient exposure as I possibly could and help the people that couldn’t get any help. That’s what’s special about FKUI, their constant push to encourage and drive their students to do social work.

In the words of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, “All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days. Nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.” This quote stands out the most because it really signifies what is expected of us as we enroll in this university and this faculty. The country will not change its ways of handling health care in just a few years. But we should start anyways. That should be our motivation towards joining this faculty.