Passage

Many of us think that living a healthy life requires expensive costs or heavy, exhausting workouts at the gym. To be honest, I used to think the same way. Every morning, I watched my 57-year-old mother routinely go for a morning walk as physical preparation to build her stamina for her upcoming trip to Mecca. As a young person, I couldn't help but wonder: how effective is walking for our bodies, really? Doesn't it feel kind of useless if we don't go jogging or running instead? However, a major study led by researcher Lili Liu and published in the National Library of Medicine recently shattered my doubts. It revealed a shocking fact: when it comes to walking, speed is actually far more important than duration or the type of exercise. Source:  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40744164/ The main strength that makes this study so credible and trusted in the scientific world is its incredibly long tracking period—over 16 years. The researchers did not rush to conclusions withi...

After I broke up with my girlfriend on good terms, I continued my daily routine as usual. Every morning I went to my internship place until the afternoon. But during that time, I started getting even closer to Cutina. I even started cooking for her. One time, I cooked food at home and brought it to her boarding house. The menu was fried catfish and sayur bobor. But yeahhh… to be honest, I only cooked the sayur bobor, I bought the catfish HEHEHEHE. Then I also started realizing our date plans, starting with our photo booth date on March 19th. But that day, we didn’t just do a photo booth session. We also went to a bar because I felt like hanging out once wasn’t enough WKWKWK. After the bar, we moved to a café again. Basically, we kept going from one place to another, and I think we only got home around 3 AM. After that day, while we were at the internship place, Cutina also invited me to hang out with her friends at a café. She didn’t force me to come or anything, but I was the one f...

Maybe my mind immediately goes back to March 8th, 2025, two days after I confessed to Cutina. It was a Saturday, and it was also the day I had kinda... slightly promised her we would go on a night ride together. But that night, I didn’t actually meet her because I had something else to do with another person, aka my own girlfriend WKWKWK. But after I got home, I immediately sent Cutina a haunted house reel ckckck. If I remember correctly, she replied around 30–60 minutes later, and she only said, “maybe sometime later.” And I think our chat ended there with some unnecessary small talk from me🫠. After that night, I didn’t really text Cutina anymore. So maybe I’ll just skip straight to Monday, March 10th. Like usual, I went to my internship place with Tara. I did my teaching activities, continued with coffee until noon, and when I felt satisfied enough, I went back to the internship place. When we arrived, Tara and I approached the fashion design girls who were sitting in front of the...

After having coffee with Cutina that night, I went back to my boarding house as usual. When I arrived, I immediately sent an anniversary message to my girlfriend because at that time we were in a long-distance relationship. At the same time, I had also prepared everything for her birthday, which was only two days away. Finally, the day came, my girlfriend’s birthday. In the morning, I went to my internship place like usual. When I arrived there, I met my mentor teacher, let’s just call him Mr. Iwan. Suddenly, he came to me and said, “With that many girls around you, none of them can be your girlfriend?” Meaning that none of them could “get caught” by me CKCKCK. At that time, I casually answered, “Relax, sir. Soon there will be one.” “Who?” he asked. While smiling, I answered, “Maybe Cutina HEHEHE.” After that conversation, I continued my activities as usual. Because it was Ramadan, most of the activities were only classroom sessions, so honestly it was pretty boring because we staye...

March 3rd, 2025 That day felt pretty normal. After my internship shift ended, I went home alone. Tara was still back in her hometown, so from the morning until that moment, I had been by myself. Somehow, going straight back to the boarding house felt a little lonely. Instead of heading directly home, I decided to stop by a coffee shop first. Just to wait for Maghrib, hehe. Sitting alone, coffee on the table, the atmosphere was pretty calm… while thinking about meaningful things — which basically meant playing games. In the middle of my boredom, I suddenly remembered Afi’s invitation to hang out for coffee earlier that afternoon, hehe. So I immediately texted Cutina, just to ask whether she was joining or not. But I didn’t ask casually. I explained things at length — you could say I was slightly provoking her so she would come along. Basically, just a lot of small talk 😊 Long story short, Cutina finally “gave in,” maybe because my messages were way too long and painfully stale, and s...

On March 1st, 2025, it was the beginning of Ramadan, and my internship place was on a long holiday break. I was still at home and planned to return to my boarding house on Sunday because work would start again on Monday. On Saturday night, my WhatsApp suddenly rang. When I checked it, it turned out to be a message from Cutina. “Are you coming on Monday?” I simply replied, “No.” Even though I had actually planned to come on Monday 🙂 I just wanted to surprise her somehow, maybe for attention, maybe like a small surprise. It’s weird—whenever it has something to do with Cutina, I start feeling like a little kid again. I get excited over something as simple as meeting someone I like. But after that, Cutina told me to come anyway. “Just come. Bring your badminton racket too.” She insisted that I bring my racket, so in the end, I agreed. The next morning, on Monday, she texted me again. “Are you coming today?” And I replied… “No.” Even though I was already near the internship place 🫠 Sin...

That night finally came. Tara and I started getting ready to go to the badminton court. But at that time, I still had a girlfriend. So before leaving, I took a moment to think about what I should say. In the end, I told her that I was going to play badminton with my internship friends. Once again, my apologies, everyone… I didn’t tell her that it was actually Cutina who invited me to be her doubles partner 😌. I also didn’t mention that there would only be four of us playing, and that we would be paired up as doubles teams. Looking back now, I honestly don’t know why I felt uneasy about telling the whole truth. I guess I just wanted to enjoy playing badminton peacefully without making things complicated. Long story short, Tara and I arrived at the badminton court. That night, there were me, Tara, Cutina, Ani, and one more girl who hadn’t originally been part of the plan—Risa, a friend from the same faculty as Cutina and Ani. As previously decided—though honestly I don’t even remember...

When I was little until I grew up, I often saw my mother monitor her health by herself at home. One thing I clearly remember from my childhood was when my mother pricked her fingertip with a needle. I asked her, “What is that for, Mom?” and she answered, “To take a little blood and check my blood sugar because I have diabetes.” Diabetes? Since I was young, I always kept asking questions in my mind: “What is diabetes?”, “Why does she have to be very careful with sweet foods?”, and “Why can diabetes exist inside our body?” After entering college and studying sports science, I started reading studies and articles about diabetes, and I began trying to explain in a simple way how diabetes can occur. In simple terms, diabetes mellitus is a long-term metabolic disease characterized by high blood sugar levels. This condition occurs when the body cannot produce enough insulin or cannot use insulin properly. Our body has a system that works in an organized way. When we eat or drink, the food ...

As usual, my routine back then was pretty much the same every day. I went to my internship in the morning, came home in the afternoon, and repeated everything again the next day. Sometimes it was fun when there were a lot of activities, but when things got quiet and I just had to wait for my teaching schedule, honestly, it could get pretty boring. So whenever I had free time, even before break time, I always looked for something “productive” to do. Which basically meant… getting coffee at the stall across the street😄 I usually went there with my boarding house friend. We even made an agreement so we wouldn’t spend too much time hanging out there: “Let’s keep it between 30–60 minutes only.” Even though, in reality, we somehow kept improving that limit into almost two hours… hehehe. That day, I only stayed there for about an hour before heading back to my internship place. When I arrived, I sat down casually in front of the office with my friend. Not long after that, Cutina and her tw...

Protein, right? Lately, I have been hearing many discussions and watching a lot of content about the effects of protein on the body, especially its role in maintaining muscle mass and supporting children’s growth. In several of my courses, my lecturers also frequently emphasize the importance of training and maintaining our muscles. In addition, many social media contents explain that after the age of 30, muscle mass tends to decrease by around 1% each year. Because of this, I started trying to maintain my muscle mass by consuming more protein and doing strength-training exercises. I also began reading scientific articles about the functions of protein in the body, such as the article below: source: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00394-024-03575-9 This is a research article discussing the effects of protein intake on muscle mass and muscle function in older adults. source:  https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00394-024-03575-9 The study divided the older adults...

At that time, I finally got a new routine. Before this, going to campus was pretty flexible—sometimes I had morning classes, sometimes afternoon, depending on the schedule… and honestly, depending on my mood too lol. But now everything changed. I had to leave at 6 a.m. for my internship and only got home around 3:30 p.m. At first, it was kind of shocking because my daily rhythm changed instantly. As the days went by, it didn’t actually take long for me to get close to the people there. Coincidentally, they were all girls, so for me it felt easier to start conversations and get along. Maybe I was also influenced by my boarding house friend. He’s the type of person who can get close to anyone easily—basically has no shame 😁. Whenever there’s a chance, he’ll start talking to the girls at the internship. You could say… yeah, he’s pretty flirty. One day, my friend decided to mess around. He asked one of my female assistant friends—let’s just call her Ani—to swap ID cards. So he wore Ani’...

 Working out at home, huh? Let me go back to February 2025. At that time, I was still very consistent with home workouts. Because of my tight schedule—from morning until evening at my internship—I didn’t have time to go to the gym or a field. So I just trained at home with push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups. I rarely trained legs, because honestly, I thought they were already big enough 😂 PUSH-UPS I only did three types of push-ups: standard push-ups, chair dips, and incline push-ups—each for 12 reps with 3 sets. I chose standard push-ups because they train the chest and front shoulders. Chair dips target the triceps, and incline push-ups also help develop the chest muscles. SIT-UPS / CORE For core workouts, I did crunches, bicycle crunches, planks, and elbow-to-knee movements. I picked four exercises because, for some reason, I felt like my abs were hard to build, so I added more variety for that area. I did each exercise for 12 reps with 3 sets. I chose crunches because they’re m...

The first day of the teaching assistance program finally arrived. That morning, it was raining heavily while we were on the way to the placement site. I was riding with a friend, and we decided to pull over for a while and have breakfast at a soto place—pretty good timing to recharge, hehe. Around 6:30 AM, we continued the trip. Once we arrived, we immediately joined the Monday flag ceremony and started meeting the other teaching assistant participants. After that, we had introductions and did some observation, looking at the environment where we would be carrying out our activities. Towards midday, we gathered for a small meeting. We discussed plans for taking photos for our ID cards. During that time, I also started paying attention to the new people around me, trying to understand each of their personalities 🙂 In the middle of that, I whispered to my friend and asked, “Which one is the girl you said was funny—the one who just says random things?” He just responded with a facial exp...

Maybe the beginning of this blog journey started on February 8, 2025. It was the rainy season in my college town, and I had just entered my 6th semester. In this semester, all education students in my department were required to join a teaching assistance program, commonly known as PKL. It was a Saturday. I started the day like usual: waking up early and doing something “productive” on the weekend—playing Mobile Legends for 6 hours 😊. On that same day, the teaching assistance group chat suddenly became active, discussing plans to gather at a café. At first, I had no intention of going, for the classic reason: being “busy”… which really meant being lazy 😊. I sometimes feel reluctant to join gatherings that aren’t about playing games, because the conversations often feel like a waste of time. But in the end, I went anyway, hehe. My housemate insisted I come along. Long story short, we arrived there around 7 PM. Some friends were already there: a total of 13 people, 3 guys from my depar...