If you don’t know me, here’s a little gist. I am an artist and designer. I was born in Indonesia in 1986 in a town called Surabaya. My ancestors were migrants – mostly with Chinese and Javanese heritage. My ‘Oma’ spoke Dutch, and my ‘Mak’ cooked the best Peranakan Yellow Chicken Curry. They call us “Chindo” in Indonesia. Both sides of my family are rather matriarchal – not by choice, but by necessity. I am very privileged that my middle-class parents bought me a design education and sent me to Sydney, Australia in 2003 and I guess that made me a third culture kid. The feeling of belonging was often blurry to me, and when you’ve somewhat felt like a minority – and you want to make sense of it – resilience simply became a natural act.
In the observations formed through my creative pursuits and personal life in general, I’ve witnessed a multitude of those laden with talents and privileges, but somehow resilience remains a rare spectacle. I believe that it is a rather accurate reflection of the wider world. Humans are the most intelligent beings and I think that each human is born with a taste of their natural superpowers, but to amplify those superpowers often resilience is the missing ingredient, and often not many prioritise to build upon resilience and unlock these superpowers. In my experience, to gain resilience often means taking the way less traveled. Why is seeking resilience worth the while then?
1. Resilience as a form of curiosity
Have you ever gone through an existential crisis? Me, probably all the time. Why so? I think the universe is a fascinating place and whilst it’s 99% impossible to get an answer of why I existed by my deathbed, I persevere to find my place in the smaller worlds that exist within the universe. I’m happy to report that what I get back is an understanding of myself and others, an open-mind and heart, many ways to contribute and many purposes to keep me entertained along the long journey. These come in forms of mastery of crafts, a strong feeling of belonging, professional and social roles in communities and questions to seek answers to. All combined they have become a self-designed purpose that will keep me engaged with the worlds surrounding and within me.
2. Resilience as a form of optimism
Don’t we all love to complain, and fear? Rightly so, the modern human worlds are complex and things are often not just. Will it ever be better? Probably not. Do we give up? Absolutely not. To practice resilience is to not succumb to hopelessness and passivity. I am aware I may be spreading Toxic Positivity. But if there’s a sliver of hope, wouldn’t you rather try to find out and see what good things may be on the other side, and maybe fail, or dare I say succeed? More than ever we need resilience, to seek for truth, to protect what matters and to act for change. Resilience is activism.
3. Resilience as a form of creativity (and having an open mind)
No, I’m not talking about the 10,000 hours – although I do believe that you do need to spend similar amount of time to get to a certain point of (any) mastery, and it’s your choice whether you want to invest time earlier or later in your life – or decide if you actually want (any) mastery at all. But hear me out, you don’t stay young forever, you can’t turn back time, live your every second.
Back to it, I am talking about creativity in the sense of having an open mind and being active in problem solving. In the beginning, there were books, now, we have the internet and with those came the bombardments and ease of access of all these valuable information. It’s easier to just do what “we’re supposed to do like those who came before us and what the world expects of us” but surely, it can’t be the only way nor the most truthful way. Yes, to think differently can be a bother but more than ever culture, politics and technology are evolving in the most rapid speed that it is imperative to embody open-mindedness, and to challenge and question. To be creative means to embrace the chaos and explore possibilities of positive change. Scared? Don’t be. Why? We’re all figuring it out as it comes, we all have a chance to write our own positive future, but only if we bother and prioritise. And to do so I guess we need some kind of resilience.