Heroes’ Day: Make Time for Them and be Grateful

How many of you remember what do we celebrate on November 10, 2019? Today, we mark the celebration of Hari Pahlawan (Heroes’ Day) of our country, Indonesia. These days, we, as millennials, often consider those who are precious to us as heroes. Our Timmy named Novita Santoso as the Head of Audience Development will share with us what the meaning of a hero is for her.  

“I see a hero as a struggler who has brought us into our best condition today,” she said when she was asked about what a hero was for her. Novita explained how she couldn’t imagine how our lives would be without those fighters. However, since heroes didn’t always literally mean a person who had done something very brave to reach our independence, Novita had her own personal hero. She mentioned, “My parents are my heroes as well.”

Getting more personal, Novita revealed a piece of her story to us, “Because of a certain personal reason in my father’s family, he struggled on his own without anybody else’s help. Both my father and mother also put so much trust in me so that they never limited me to do something that I wanted—as long as I could be responsible for what I took.” She flashbacked to the good old days when her father was still alive that without them, she knew exactly she would never be here.

As parents who were aware that education was one of the important things that children deserved to get, Novita’s parents were really giving their all out for the sake of it. “They wanted to give anything best for me, for my other two siblings. My parents never expected me to give something in return,” she told us. Surprisingly, we also had the privilege to know the thing she could never forget: being too busy with her work, she didn’t even know that her father was severely ill. Two weeks after her last visit, her father passed away right on the same day when she sent him a present. 

Leaving a word for millennials out there, she said, “Take a look at the people around you who have less than you. Try to reflect who has made you get what you abundantly have today? Remember every person who plays a role in your life. Make time for them and be grateful.”