First blog post

FIRST post as myself, not Saluna. Yay!

I'm accepting myself to write in any way I want again, after 10 years or so, now.

Yes, I've been blogging for more than half of my life, now (Well, you do the math:

It's 2010. I'm 1990-born. 20 years old.

Half x quarter of ave. life-span = more or less 10.)

IN A NUTSHELL: Used to be about a tool for publicizing real-life teenage drama series, truths in-between high-school hearsays and gossip W-O-Ms, and my opinions. Ever since I was 10, or so. Used to blog on GeoCities (which is now down), then moved to Blogger (where I posted artsy-fartsy stuff and general, nonsensical ramblings during my first move to San Francisco), then moved to VOX (which recently went down), then invested on my own domain that now ties my lifetime commitment to blogging, thus branding myself: The Blue Boots, The Pink Sleeves, and, here, The Lucky Hat.

NOW I only have to find my life's purpose, using the things I already have, and state the important things the general public needs to know in order to make a difference in this world.

It's cool growing up freewriting for a time, since I get to time-travel using the English language (and other languages that I'm literate in, too).

But, alas! Life is not that simple.

I'm 20 now, and there are enough differences between the melodramas we all get between age 20-something and the 16-going-17 times. Imagine the number of voices you hear in your mind when you were given the freedom to write so many words, in so many languages, driven by high rushes of adrenaline that travels through your body in a matter of nanoseconds. Every friggin tick of the clock, something new always comes up.

COMING-OF-AGE stories are always a favorite genre among readers, just because it is meant to stay long enough for as long as we all live. It's a period of those changing times that later on significantly changes who we shall become.

Right now I'm standing in the middle of that story. In Public Relations speak, I'm struggling with crisis management, stuck in my quarter-life, totally sucking at it, just right before the legal age of 21 here in the first-world party, Democratized-territory United States (The legal drinking age in my country, Indonesia, is 18. Fact: I first social-drank when I was 16-going-17).

I am aware of what I have: Above-average intelligence (Well, at least I think so, I'll clarify that in a moment). However, I do not know what to do about it, and therefore not knowing the ultimate purpose of my life - What's to say when there are so many global issues to tackle today?

Genius: one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. - Thomas Edison

It takes huge efforts to make a difference. It takes a nanosecond get my endorphin-running adrenalines to jump-start creating mental ideas, stating my objectives that are in line with my passions, most of which are ideas encompassing my dedication to humanistic values.

IN OTHER WORDS, I care a lot. Sometimes too much. To the point of not doing anything about it and forgetting to take good care of myself, maintain my well-being, and take a second look at what are the things within reach in the meantime.



Whatever life holds in store for me, I will never forget these words: 'With great power, comes great responsibility.' This is my gift. My curse. Who am I? I'm Spider-Man!



Which is why I'm hoping that venting my young-adult fumes on this blog would serve as a means to that end: Realizing that there are little things around me that I can jump-start my adrenal engines with, and hopefully yours too.

Before I go on about the darkest details of my crisis, let's take a look back at the bright side on intelligence.

SO FAR, I have never taken an IQ test. So I Googled up local areas in San Francisco that offers the test, and I came upon MENSA, a high-IQ organization of intelligent people "for intellectual exchange among its members", or what I would say, whoa. If you have a higher-than-average IQ, then you are eligible to join the clever club. Not geeky like me, but clever. The official site says that there are a number of other qualified tests they can accept for membership eligibility, including above-average scores from college-entry tests such as LSAT, GMAT, GRE, ACT, and SAT.

Now, I should tell you that I took the SATs twice when I was 15, back when I was still in Indonesia graduating from secondary school, dreaming about my future, yearning to get out of the country, suffocating from the heavily-polluted air we have back in our islands.

That made me log in to my dusty CollegeBoard account to see my past test scores.


This was back in January 2006, when I was 15-going-16:

Critical Reading: 470 Math: 570 Writing: 500 | Multiple Choice: 48 Essay: 8

Critical Reading: SCORE RANGE Your performance is best represented by the score range. PERCENTILE AND AVERAGE SCORE National: 39 The national percentile for your critical reading score indicates that you did better than 39% of the national group of college-bound seniors. Average Score: 501 This is the average score for college-bound seniors in the class of 2007. Math: SCORE RANGE Your performance is best represented by the score range. PERCENTILE AND AVERAGE SCORE National: 66 The national percentile for your math score indicates that you did better than 66% of the national group of college-bound seniors. Average Score: 516 This is the average score for college-bound seniors in the class of 2007.

Writing:

• SCORE RANGE

Your performance is best represented by the score range.

• PERCENTILE AND AVERAGE SCORE

National: 53
The national percentile for your writing score indicates that you did better than 53% of the national group of college-bound seniors.

Average Score: 492
This is the average score for college-bound seniors in the class of 2007.

• ESSAY PROMPT

Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below:

I do not feel terrible about my mistakes, though I grieve the pain they have sometimes caused others. Our lives are "experiments with truth," and in an experiment negative results are at least as important as successes. I have no idea how I would have learned the truth about myself and my calling without the mistakes I have made.

Adapted from Parker Palmer, Let your Life Speak

Assignment: Is it necessary to make mistakes, even when doing so has negative consequences for other people? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.

• ESSAY IMAGE

This was back in October 2005, when I was 15:

Critical Reading: 440 Math: 530 Writing: 510 | Multiple Choice: 52 Essay: 7

Critical Reading: SCORE RANGE Your performance is best represented by the score range. PERCENTILE AND AVERAGE SCORE National: 29 The national percentile for your critical reading score indicates that you did better than 29% of the national group of college-bound seniors. Average Score: 501 This is the average score for college-bound seniors in the class of 2007. Math: SCORE RANGE Your performance is best represented by the score range. PERCENTILE AND AVERAGE SCORE National: 54 The national percentile for your math score indicates that you did better than 54% of the national group of college-bound seniors. Average Score: 516 Writing: SCORE RANGE Your performance is best represented by the score range. PERCENTILE AND AVERAGE SCORE National: 57 The national percentile for your writing score indicates that you did better than 57% of the national group of college-bound seniors. Average Score: 492 This is the average score for college-bound seniors in the class of 2007. ESSAY PROMPT Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below: Nowadays nothing is private: our culture has become too confessional and self-expressive. People think that to hide one's thoughts or feelings is to pretend not to have those thoughts or feelings. They assume that honesty requires one to express every inclination and impulse. Adapted from J. David Velleman, "The Genesis of Shame" Assignment: Should people make more of an effort to keep some things private? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. ESSAY IMAGE

Judging from those scores, at those times, I was just an average joe.

THINGS CHANGE. New ways of expressions have emerged, especially in the blurry lines between journalism, public relations, and marketing.

Depending on an individual's stand-alone opinion, which then should be exhibiting his or her creativity, promotes innovative ideas for the general public, and is subjected to the brighter side of life, preferably for the Greater Good, a highly-intelligent person can make a difference.

It's all a fairplay.

My to-do list: I want to know whether I have the capabilities to become that kind of person or not.

Or whether I'm just a geeky, girly nerdy, Literary Spy, acting as Saluna the Student.

I'm giving myself 2 months to pick a date:

Saturday, Dec. 11, 2010		Benicia Lutheran Church, 1:00 PM: standard test
Saturday, Dec. 11, 2010		Berkeley - Newman Hall, Gallery Room 09:30 AM: culture fair test
Saturday, Jan. 08, 2011		Redwood City Public Library, Small Meeting Room, 2nd Floor 1:00 PM: standard test
Saturday, Jan. 08, 2011		Berkeley - Newman Hall, Gallery Room 09:30 AM: standard test
Saturday, Jan. 22, 2011		Benicia Lutheran Church, 1:00 PM: standard test

For more information about MENSA, what they do, how to join, and more test dates, click me.