27th ninth of november (2022)

So, we’ve encountered another 9th of november. This year, I turned twenty seven and I still have no friend, no girlfriend, no whatever, no nothing whatsoever. I am writing this on a sunday afternoon right after a Zoom meeting with a professor in which someone I am really looking up to and admire in scholarly universe and that I have been planning and dreaming of requesting him to be the chair for my thesis, in which I just requested him yesterday and he said yes directly. Well, technically more like three hours after I sent the email because maybe he needs to read my research proposal that I attached together with the email first before said yes. Getting this particular professor to guide me through my future journey doing the thesis starting spring next year would be one of the best things ever for real. This is because I’ve been stressing out about doing the research proposal this semester and trying so hard to make it good so I keep delaying to email him. I’m also second guessing myself a lot and keep thinking of what if he said no and I should reach out to other professors but I’m not sure who else. So, I’m really thankful. Speaking of being thankful, I’m experiencing my first Thanksgiving, of course nobody invited me over for dinner, so I bought some microwave-able turkeys from Walmart.

Well, I also attended some sort of turkey dinner at Islamic Community Center near campus but a lot of people came and I can only taste a little and it tastes a lot like chicken. So, I ate the walmart turkeys when I got back home last night. And it doesn't taste exactly like chicken and is pretty hard to chew if I’m being honest. Also, the way I see it, Thanksgiving is similar to Idul Adha but with turkeys instead of goats or cows. So, Christmas can probably be similar to Idul Fitri I guess. It's funny how my classmates and professors complain about meeting their relatives during thanksgiving because most of them are annoying and remind me of Lebaran. In terms of getting a chair for my thesis, I’m happy for one day and then I got worried and overthinking again the next day, which is today. Well, I can do this, we can do this. Bismillah.

It is now three days before November turns into December. I rarely write anything here recently so I feel bad so maybe this post can make it up at least writing about my November this year. So, as usual, nobody celebrated my birthday because nobody knows and I don't want anyone to know it. My mom and my sisters sent me a chat which is pretty sweet since they're the only humans on Earth who actually knows and maybe hopefully cares about my existence.

What have I been doing during November other than the usual constant overthinking about everything? I cannot really tell since I rarely upload any insta story during November. Even on my second account as well. Well, what I can remember at least as some of the highlights of my November this year was getting invited to be one of the speakers for a webinar hosted by The USINDO which is basically an NGO about the US and Indonesia as the name might suggest. I talked about my experience at ASU so far and it happened at 6 am in the morning Arizona time so I had to try so hard to wake up early. I also could not choose between either watching Black Panther Wakanda Forever or One Piece Red so I watched both of them back to back.

And then, I actually finally have my once-in-a-lifetime experience of watching a K-Pop concert, which is a BlackPink concert in LA. I flew to LA on Saturday morning and got back on Sunday evening. I didn't bring any backpacks whatsoever. I stayed the night at my friend's place in LA and that friend was currently in San Fransisco at that time. Super random stuff I know. There are other things going on before November but I only wanted to specifically talk about November. So, I just wanna thank myself for staying alive this far. This is totally surprising, am I right?