Many people would not believe and rather laugh when we are talking about how cheaper labor has the ability to send a child to university. However, it is the reality that no one could not deny when my father who was cheaper labor in a factory could send me to the university. Let's see what my father did in order to prepare for my future.
Once, our life was in the golden age where we did not have to worry about daily necessities, health care, education tuition fees, and retirement; everything was under control until someday all those we had was gone in the glimpse of eyes. We did not expect the nightmare would happen and we did not prepare for the worst day either. The direct effect was that my future education suddenly just disappeared in the thin air. My dream to study at a university looked impossible. That was the reality that I had to embrace. I could not see my path, my future anymore. Everything was burned into the ashes.
To be honest, I did not know what to do as I was just 9 years old student in 5th grade when my father had been busy fighting for his right in court. He did not have any interest in my academics anymore as he needed to focus on his case. Every day, for about a year (until I graduated from primary school), the only thing that caught his eyes was the pile of paper. Nobody talked about what my next study should be as I would finish my primary soon. Since then, I had made my move by deciding my life including my education future, and how I earned money to save my study.
After a year, no matter how tough my father was to win the case, he gave it up as "they" threatened him; if the target was him, he would fight until the end, however "their" aim was my future. My father was a tough cookie, he would never give up so easily, however, if something targeted his children's future, it became a different story where he needed to save his children first on top of anything even though he would be lost anything that he built from about 20 years career. Therefore, my father pulled off his confident moves, gave everything "they" wanted. Since then, he worked as cheaper labor in a factory in our neighborhood. Although the money that he earn was only about $ 4 a month, he hold to this faith. Why? The reason was he had believed that every small step we start would bring us to the next steps. My father resumed his job at almost 40 years old and he did great!
The first thing after my father lost everything, immediately he made a move by asking our family friend if any job vacancy. He would like to take it as long as a permanent job even though the salary was the worst part. Why he was willing to take the cheapest occupation when nobody avoid it? In the beginning, he had no choice, the second was to have a permanent job much better rather than wander around aka jobless. One of those people who choose to become jobless was his brother and drop-out teenagers in our neighborhood. They would rather be jobless and did nothing than take this filthy job; working in the worst smell environment, needed physical and mental strength. Most people do not see what he saw. He had a long-term plan when he took the job. You will see later what were the benefits that my father obtained by keeping this worst job.
After taking the worst job where no one was not interested in it, the second move was to settle down the goats. What did it mean? he decided to rise the goats. After his shift at work was over, he went to find grass by riding an old bicycle. In total, he rode his bike for 20 km and more a day as he also jump on his bike for work every day. While many people were commuting by local bus or transportation or rather buy a motorcycle by credit and pay installments each month, my father chose to ride the bicycle every day. The first reason was to save money, the second reason was that buying something with installment was not his cup of tea. Rule number one in his life was that "do not buy something that we could not afford." Additionally, it was not only goats in our back yards, my father had also risen hen and roaster, duck as well. Whenever we needed quick money that day, we just sold one of our roasters or hen. Moreover, the hens provided the egg supplies. On the special occasion, cooking the chicken menu without spending money as we had plenty of chicken in the backyard.
Another pertinent thing is that my father did the gardening. People might think that gardening is just a hobby to fill their spare time. On the contrary, this "hobby" thing became my father's side job as he could earn some money from whatever he grew in the garden and yards. The fruit and plants that helped us a lot were jackfruit, lemon, lime, pineapple, and cassava. Those fruits had economic values that whether we sold them or barter them with other food sources we needed one example was that by bartering jackfruit with tempeh, vegetables, and other ingredients. And you want not to believe that my father managed to buy a crop field even after losing his decent job. How? He planted cassavas in the one side garden of our house. Each year this small farm made an excellent harvest where within 2 years the money from this cassava was enough to buy crop field. Thanks to my father's gardening skills, my brother and I also enjoyed the abundance of fruits from our own garden such as mango, pineapple, soursop, guava, rambutan, starfruit, jackfruit. Moreover, we could also cook something from our garden for instance boiled cassava, fried cassava, any snacks from cassava, dishes that were made from young jackfruit, young papaya, or cassava leaves dish. Anything from our yards and garden was useful to fill our stomachs. Well, what I can say, although we had not much money yet we were happy.
Other skills that my father developed to help our difficult life were the ability to color and cut hair. My brother and I had never gone to the salon to have hair cutting since my father could do it at home. In addition, he was also able to color and cut his own hair. I have always wondered until these days, how does he do it? 🤔 I have tried it at home too, yet the result is not that great. Besides having hairdresser skills, day by day he was an expert to repair bicycles so that we did not need to spend money on them whenever our bicycles broke. In my opinion, this is a good lesson where we have to learn many things in this life. Who's knows, it could be useful in the future in order to survive in this world. Other skills were he was able to make simple furniture and made a piece of art.
many people thought that my father was only a worker and not able to do business. In contrast, he opened a small business at home when I was in my second year of high school. Of course, he did not have any time left to handle the business as his plate was full, so that his partner had to take of it and he helped to find the materials. What business it was? We made handmade flour crackers, banana & cassava crackers. With this business, we did not too much worry about daily expenses. Therefore, even though my father's monthly salary was not enough to make living for a month, this business covered those lacks in the household needed. When talking about business, after losing his decent job, my father made a small investment in a business that had been handled by a new citizen in our hometown, and they were the couple who gave me school assistance monthly since I was in the first year of secondary school. So both my father and the couple got the benefits from the business relationship, we called it a partnership even though my father invested a small amount of money in this business compared to how big that business was. So, my school assistance was related to the business partnership? Yes! My father got his revenue each month and the business owner added some money to help my school situation (monthly tuition fee, pocket money, or transportation).
Now the big enquire is that how those things were able to send me to university. The worst job that my father took, at first, it looked useless as the monthly salary was not enough to make living. But, the factory gave my father 20 or 25 kg of white rice each month since the first time he joined the factory. How hard our life was, as long as we had enough rice at home, we were grateful and joyful; we just needed to barter jackfruit, lemon, lime, and a big pack of banana crackers and flour crackers with tempeh, vegetables, some treats. Fortunately, my father could eat freely at work as the factory had a canteen for the worker. For this reason, he did not need to spend money to buy meals in the workplace like before. Another intriguing thing was my father often brought back home leftovers from the factory's canteen, sometimes 1 portion or 2 portions meals. Many people who avoided this job might be thinking that free rice, free meals at work, and leftover foods were not worth compared to the daunting tasks at work. However, my father was grateful and I was happy for him. For us, all those small perks sounded good enough to keep us stay alive day by day.
Indeed, from the first year of joining this particular factory, my father's wage was only $ 4 a month. However, after a few years, the wage was increased by around $ 40 a month. It was when I started my first year in the university which meant this salary could cover my cost of living in the city on another island. Meanwhile, money from a business partnership was able to cover daily expenses for three people in the household (my father, his partner, and my brother) and other things. Besides providing my cost of living, each year my father paid my rent room directly for a year. Where did my father get the money to pay for my rent room? He sold a goat to do it. My father's goat was an excellent breed, he called them Australian goats, no wonder the price had always been higher in the market.
Now, how about my tuition fees at university? Most people in my hometown were scared when talking about university. Everybody knows even until this day that sending a child to university needs a big fish and golden egg (a big money). Therefore, only children who were born into silver spoon would get degrees from the university and have a bright future. However, my father changed that mindset by breaking those walls; he was a game-changer!🤩 I am proud of him!👍👊 Not everyone in my hometown has the courage and is brave enough like my father. Believe it or not, among the children in my hometown who succeeded in studying at university were only a few at the time. Mostly drop out from secondary school or high school even though their parent were able to send them to university. They did not believe that school is important to upgrade our life in the future. They thought school was only a waste of money and time. Back to the topic, where did my father get the money to pay my tuition fees? My father was a good planner, every step he made, each of them had one goal; the goal was to save money month by month before the time to pay my tuition fees, he sit back tightly. From crop field, sold some goats, business, little by little he accounted the money wisely and made such meticulous plan. Yeah, sometimes he borrowed some money from the community and paid it for a few months. That's the only debt he took. After all, he had never had been in a debt in his life.
That is what my father did to preparing my university study. I realized that my father cared about my study when he stood behind me to support my decision to study at university. Everybody was against him and hated me. However, one of his colleagues at work followed my father's step by working on something else after the work shift was over for instance driving a trishaw, raising goats. He wanted his twin child to follow my step by studying at university, getting a degree, and changing the future to a bright one. The cheapest labor became a role model for another labor to change the future; that is my father!😍🤩💪
If you have been told that 11 years old me would study at university in the famous city for study in our nation, and get a Bachelor's degree, no one wants not to believe it. But the reality is the opposite as my father sent me off to study at university in another province where this city is the famous city in our nation to study. I do still remember, everyone got jealous and busy told my father to pull off his decision as they consider that sending me to university was only a waste of money. But after seeing me succeed in my academics, some crawled to follow my steps or asked their children to study at university. Unfortunately, what they got is far below their expectation where none of them get the achievements like I was.
One day, my father met someone that he knew from his old company somewhere where my father sent off me to go back to the city where I studied. While he was talking with this person with lots of big smiles, confidence, and proudly standing, that person often looked at me and perhaps this person felt surreal about what he heard from my father's mouth. I sit about 2-3 meters from them and I did not clear what were they talking about. However, looking at that person's facial reactions, it was obviously clear that my father talked about me that I was good at academics. Well, it was the right time to send a message to "them" who framed my father that my father survived, did great, his child great at academics, study at university, and have a big dream.
If my father were still around today, he would be proud that my brother has also finished school even though he has a down syndrome child. Furthermore, he would enjoy his retirement life with joy. I bet he would go on vacation each year and open a flower shop. He loved art, and I would like to send him to learn painting. My father's achievement surpasses and beyond any rich people in our village; he should be proud of it now.🌈🤗
Note:
- Written by Acik Mardhiyanti
- Do not copy this article without permission
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