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The Biggest Success in My Life

In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the most Merciful.

If I may quote our first President of Indonesia, Soekarno, who also one of the most inspiring
person in my life, once said that: “A thousand parents could only dream of, a young person can
change the world”. Personally, I strongly believe that the statement is true, in a sense that it is
the time for young generations to take positive actions and to be success in every aspect of our
life. For me, the biggest success in my life will be the three periods of thinking transformation
which started in my early childhood, my first experience to be an exchange student, and also the
moment of unity in diversity that I felt in university level.

The first success chapter in my life was the moment when my mother taught me how to read
Qur’an. For my family, religion is the core knowledge of any education form. Therefore, to be
able to read Qur’an is a must before you learn anything else. And success in this period of time
means that I can read Qur’an when I was very young, while others with the same age as me still
have difficulties to read their guidance of life. Furthermore, I had gained double advantages, for
the fact that I was not only able to read Qur’an, but also I got various rewards from the
competitions that usually took place in the mosque during fasting month of Ramadan.

The other success version for me was my lifetime experiences to be an exchange student. It was
during my first year in senior high school that I got opportunities to be part of the citizen of the
world. The Land of Vegemite, which is my own phrase to mention Australia, my home for one
year, a country that gave me second parents who I called Mom and Dad. From the moment of
cultural shock until the moment of togetherness with all of the people around the world, were
some of the unforgettable memories and the defining moment of myself. At that time, I realize
that being tolerant and understanding each others are the keys to live in harmony.

In order to be successful in your life, it means that you have to know who you really are, what
will you become, and how will you be useful for others. Those concepts of success came to me

Fathir Fajar Sidiq

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when I was in the Institute of Public Administration. From the first day in campus, I started to
realize that we are just ordinary citizen of Indonesia, who shares the same vision to build good
and clean governance. In addition to that, we also cherish our differences of ethnics, religions,
races, and groups, while in the same time we still live side by side peacefully. I do believe that
my campus is one out of many universities that tried to set an example to build the miniature of
Indonesia where all of the people from Aceh to Papua share the same goals in the same place.
Therefore, to be a civil servant is my way of life to serve my beloved country, Indonesia.

To conclude, even though we share different definitions of success, I am certain that we can
share the same vision of life on how to be useful for other people. I really hope LPDP will be the
answer of my prayer, so I can continue my study, to gain knowledge and experiences in other
country, and finally I could implement all of the positive things for the betterment of my country,
Indonesia.

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Fathir Fajar Sidiq