Personal Journal

March 11, 2016

Today, I got a lesson about describing myself in my writing class. It was very exciting as I could tell people about what I like and hate. I learned about gerunds which have to be used after some verbs such as like, hate, enjoy, can’t stand, etc. Since gerunds are verbs which are changed into noun, we can also use them as subjects. 

After an interesting lesson, I came into an unpleasant situation. My lecturer announced that according to the result of a discussion held by all writing 1 lecturers, we were asked to make a brief autobiography and a journal as requirements to have a midterm test on writing 1. When I heard that announcement, I was so outraged, but grateful of that. I felt that way because I had my own reason.

Last week, actually we had been explained about our final tasks before the midterm tests. My lecturer told us about the autobiography project was supposed to be written in 2000 words. In my opinion, that announcement was so sudden because we had not given any syllabuses yet. At that time, I was extremely shocked and worried whether I could finish it in a week or not. 

Without any certain and further information, I had been working on it gradually for about three days. As a matter of fact, I did it until midnight that I felt sick and tired because of lack of sleep. I had done the task because I was afraid that it would be submitted on the following week.

Despite feeling disappointed, I realized that my lecturer had tried his best to help us. Saying honest, I appreciated his effort that our task had finally been reduced. Over all, there is no use crying over spilt milk. All I can do now is to start doing all the tasks so that I am able to join the midterm test. I have decided to brace myself and face whatever ahead as well.

Part of Me

This is me

First things first, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Gabriella. I am sure that you must wonder how short my name is. In fact, I do not have any last name, but that makes me unique. I am an Indonesian and I come from a city in East Java, called Malang. I will be 19 years old next month, exactly on April Fool’s Day. In spite of being born at the same time as that day, I hope that my life is not a mere silly trick. 

I go to Widya Mandala Catholic University, which is located in Surabaya. Therefore, I moved to Surabaya and I have been living here for almost a year. Now, I am in the second semester in the English Department of Teacher Training Faculty. In my opinion, learning English is difficult but very exciting. On the other hand, I’d better have sophisticated approach to become a qualified teacher. 

If I can finish my education on time, I will successfully become a tough girl and win over myself. In fact, it is hard to win over myself as sometimes I can be so pessimistic that I will be lying in my bed all day without doing anything. I can get distressed very easily because I often overthink things. However, I am able to overcome those things by giving my best effort and others’ help.

I have an effective way to help me relax from a lot of stressful assignments and my unpredictable life. I am really keen on listening to music. There is not a day without listening to my favorite songs and sometimes I even sing to complete my enjoyment. My favorite singers and bands are Owl City, The Script, Coldplay, Taylor Swift, Maroon5, etc. Recently, I have been listening to Troye Sivan’s songs, which are suggested by Widi, my classmate. The lyrics of his songs are completely mind-blowing because they are full of deep meanings. 

I am easily captivated by poetic lyrics, which are filled with rhymes and meaningful words encouraging individually interpretation. Because of those lyrics, now I start to read some poems and they are very complicated to comprehend, but I am challenged to find out the real meanings. I am interested to write a poem and prose as well in spite of its difficulties. 

In addition, I also enjoy reading some novels such as “The Chronicles of Narnia” by C. S. Lewis and the trilogy of “The Wolves of Mercy Falls” by Maggie Stiefvater. I once read an awesome novel, entitled “Neverwhere”, that was written by Neil Gaiman. I spent more than 6 months to finish that novel. I think it is the most difficult novel which I have read since the writer used complicated and advanced words in English.

Whenever I have a lot of leisure time, I am fond of watching Korean dramas. Some friends of mine have the same interest in Korean dramas, so we like sharing new dramas with each other and talking about Korean actors, actresses, and even singers. Although I like it very much, I still consider Hollywood movies as the best movies in the world. I suppose that those movies are worth watching because of their outstanding quality.

While I am watching my favorite movies, I love eating some snacks. I like eating savory food, for instance, lasagna, meatballs, and noodles. Most girls enjoy eating sour and spicy food such as rujak manis in Indonesia, but I cannot stand eating that sort of food. I also hate eating mango and starfruit. Most of all, I love my mother’s cuisine as she is the best cook for me.

I have some close friends in class. Their names are Pipit, Osa, Tina, and Ammy. We like eating our lunch together and telling stories about our daily life. They are not completely good friends because they can be so annoying once in a while. Despite that fact, I just feel comfortable when I am around them.

My Lovely Dog

This is Sensen, sitting on my mom's motorcycle.

My family loves dogs very much although sometimes they argue about who should take responsibilities upon our dogs. We have five dogs in our house in Malang. My father, mother, and little brother share chores of feeding the dogs, cleaning dogs’ cages, and walking the dogs. My mother does not allow me to help them to look after our dogs for some reasons, but I still can interact with them.

At first I was afraid of dogs, but my little brother, who likes animals so much, brought our first dog home. My father and mother had forbid my brother to adopt a dog, but eventually they changed their minds and started to take care of our first dog. Our first dog is a female and we call her Sensen. We have considered her as our family member for years. Now, I want to describe her because she is my favorite one as well. Please excuse me that I prefer using “she” to “it” when I describe about Sensen since for me she means more than a mere dog.

I suppose Sensen might be a beautiful girl if she were a person. I did not like dogs with dark fur as I once thought that all cute dogs had white fur. However, Sensen has proved to me that dogs with black fur have their own beauty which cannot be replaced. Her fur is very soft and shiny. Her fur is so long that looks almost like human hair. I like to stroke her fur whenever she is around. She does not have tall body, but her body is quite long. She has pointed muzzle and it is always wet. In fact, dogs’ muzzles are wet if they are healthy. She also has two big round dark brown eyes, but sometimes I cannot see her eyes because the color of her eyes is the same as the color of the fur on her face.

Sensen is a good dog. She is so smart that she recognizes her own name. Whenever we call her, she always comes to us. There is an armchair in front of our terlevision and she loves to sit on it. It is her favorite place in our house. If there is a person sitting on that chair, she will wait until that person leave the chair, and then she will jump onto the chair. Sensen is so close to my mother that she always follows my mother wherever she goes, especially when my mother brings some food. Sometimes, I also give my food to Sensen, except chocolate, bone, and spicy food as it can damage her digestive system and kill her. She is very energetic and she likes running around.

There are lots of things that make me love Sensen. She is a very cute and witty dog. She is also very faithful. Even if I rarely meet her lately, she still does remember me whenever I go home. That is all I think of Sensen, my lovely dog.