From joint extracurricular to an independence extracurricular that focused on Japanese languange and culture

I never thought that it will be a major change in my life because I never thought it still survives after I graduated from university. The very first thing that I thought when making this extracurricular is that I just wanted to do something new and fresh with my friends.

At first, when we founded this extracurricular, there’s a lot of opposition, so in the early days, we needed to negotiate and persuade our stakeholders to acknowledge this new extracurricular. But the challenge doesn’t end there, we also needed to create the foundation and reasoning why should other students join our extracurricular for the next academic period. It was challenging but fun at the same time because you never know what will happen next.

ONI Matsuri was the first Japanese festival that we made and was the first one to be held by a Bogor public senior high Japanese extracurricular
Meeting a lot of new friends from Bogor to Bandung. It's a never ending excitement for us.

The creation of a new independent Japanese language and culture focused extracurricular.

Being able to join an organization is a great thing, but being able to start a new one? That’s a new thing for me, a lot of unprepared and new stuff will come as the first brick has been plotted.

Why again do I need to separate the current Foreign Language Club and create a new Japanese-focused club? I don’t know, but I get the motivation to create something new after watching a lot of anime-themed school life. I’ve become more interested to create something new with my friend together in High School. Doing something that we love and encouraging us to step out of our comfort zone.

At the end of 2015, a new Extracurricular called Omamori no Shichi (7 Lucky Charm) was founded in SMAN 7 Bogor

There’s a lot of new things that me and my friends learn and do at this extracurricular. Here’s a list:

  • Initiated the first social environment act on our High School.
  • Created the first Japanese festival.
  • Proposed a Japanese extracurricular association in Bogor and Greater Jakarta area.
  • Ensuring this extracurricular get the attention from our school by meeting the school expectations.
  • and a lot’s more!

There was quite a lot of naming experiences that we encountered and I was very happy to be able to discuss with my friends what our name should be. I’m also very proud to put many moments into this extracurricular as it was our best effort to create something together.

I believe this is the turning point for me to really wanted to do something big and bigger. Other than that, by creating this extracurricular, I can create a community of a similar Japanese language and culture enthusiast that wanted to pursue their knowledge in term of organizational management or prepare them to pursue their higher dream to Japan, Japanese studies major, to anything that related to pop culture. This is an extracurricular that provide the resources and needed for all people that wanted to explore their liking.

Key Takeaway
  • Taking risk
  • Building from scratch
  • Diplomatic speech
  • Vulnerable from breakdown