My undergrad years: busy, messy, and some of the best years of my life

When I think about my undergrad years, I remember all the unusual places where I studied. I once gave a presentation from the middle of a forest. Another time, I hiked up a volcano with a ppt file on my phone and hoped the signal would not disappear. I did assignments at the beach, travelled between deadlines, and ended one day of fieldwork by lying under the stars and looking at the Milky Way. Those years were busy, tiring, and sometimes strange. But they were also some of the best years of my life.

I started university with one simple goal: meet people. I said yes to almost everything. I talked to students from many departments at ITS, made friends from other universities, and joined trips that I had never imagined doing.

One of my first trips was a biodiversity survey in the highlands of Pasuruan. The area was quiet, green, and managed by the local community. We walked slowly and stopped whenever we found something colourful birds between the branches, butterflies on wet leaves, or beetles on the plants. I kept stopping to take photos with my old Sony camera.

We ate salak straight from the tree. It was sweet, a little sour, and crunchy. Later, our hosts gave us a delicious home cooked dinner and let us stay in a guesthouse. That night, I photographed the Milky Way. We sat together and talked about MaxEnt, coffee beans, birds, and how people find research funding. It was very cold, so we slept in sleeping bags.

Another time, I joined an overnight camp at a mangrove site in Gresik. We walked along muddy paths, watched birds, cooked together, and talked late into the night. We slept in a simple hut near the sea. The next morning, we helped with a small event for local kindergarten children. I also lost my water bottle along the way. I never told my foster mom because I knew she would scold me, lol.

In Bangkalan, I joined a project called Mangrove Sister School. We taught primary school children about mangroves. Explaining science in a way that children could understand was harder than I expected, but I enjoyed it. We planted trees, visited the beach, and ended the trip with a plate of bebek hitam Sinjay. For me, nothing beats bebek Sinjay.

One of the most difficult projects was in Kediri. We monitored tree mortality and returned to the forest several times over a few weeks. We started early, walked through thick vegetation, and stayed until sunset. We found huge trees, rare terrestrial orchids, many cute fungi, and once, a snake. During one visit, I had to give a class presentation while sitting on the forest floor. Bugs were flying around me, and my phone signal was only just strong enough for the call.

Before all these trips, there was kaderisasi. At ITS, it is more than a student orientation. Senior students plan the program with input from the faculty to help new students adjust to university. We talked about our values, expectations, goals, and areas where we wanted to improve. We answered surveys, joined discussions, and used gap analysis to set goals. It was intense, but it helped. Senior companions, mentors, and classmates were always there to check on us.

One part I still remember is malam keakraban in 2019. Our whole class rented a villa in the highlands and spent the night together. We played games, shared food, and talked openly about our lives and hopes. Many of the friendships from that night stayed with me for years.

Even our practical classes could become small adventures. Sometimes we had to bring live specimens, such as ferns, guppies, birds, and even a monitor lizard. Once, we travelled two hours from Surabaya and hiked near a waterfall to find the right specimens. We caught guppies and tried to catch a monitor lizard. In the end, we gave up and bought one instead from the local seller in bratang market.

The workload was serious. The fifth semester was the hardest. I took 24 SKS, around 32 ECTS, including five lab courses. Every week, I had to write five complete lab reports by hand. Each one needed an introduction, methods, results, discussion, and references in APA style. There was no copy and paste. I spent hours bent over the paper, hoping my hand would not cramp too early, hahaha. i survived tho.

On many nights, we worked from one coffee shop to another. We started around 7 pm. When one shop closed after midnight, we moved to the next one and continued until morning. At 2 am, it was normal to see students still working around the library.

We also had to earn credits from extracurricular activities. ITS tracked both our academic results and our non academic activities, and we had to meet the minimum for both. It was exhausting, but somehow we kept going.

At the same time, I joined competitions in scientific writing, business proposals, debating, and anything else that looked interesting. In my second semester, I represented ITS at a national debating competition at POLINEMA. Once, I submitted three proposals in one week. After a while, that kind of schedule felt normal.

Some courses required us to present scientific papers. We had to read difficult articles, understand them, and explain them clearly to the class. I still remember one day when I presented three different papers for three different courses. Honestly, I barely remember what I learned. I was just trying to survive the semester, lol.

During the breaks and sometimes during the semester when I had time, I managed tp travelled. I visited Ijen Crater, Baluran National Park, Bromo, and Mount Penanggungan. I went freediving at Ketapang Island and birdwatching at Mangrove Wonorejo. I also joined beach clean ups, mangrove restoration activities, and fundraising events. I was always doing something, anything almost.

My exchange program in Thailand was not calm either. While I was collecting insects, a group of dogs chased me and I had to cycle away as fast as I could. I was not used to seeing dogs so I panicked. On another day, I almost stepped on a cobra chilling in a bush. I froze even though I actually like snakes! These stories are funny now, but they were scary at the time. I did not expect insect sampling to involve escaping from dogs and nearly stepping on a cobra.

When I look back now, I still cannot believe how much happened during those years. I never planned to make my university life so busy. One thing led to another, someone would invite me somewhere, and I would usually say yes. Sometimes that meant long days, late nights, and not enough sleep, but somehow I kept going.

What I remember most now are the people and the small moments in between. Sitting around talking after an event, laughing about something stupid, going somewhere I had never been before, meeting people who later became important to me. At the time, many of those moments felt normal. I did not think much about them. Now they are some of the memories I miss the most.

I learned a lot at university. I learned from the people I met, the things I tried, the competition I failed, the mistakes I made, and all the unexpected things that happened along the way. I went there hoping to get a degree, and I came home with so many stories.

Sometimes I miss that version of my life. It was messy, tiring, and full of things happening at once, but it was also a lot of fun.

And to all the friends who shared those years with me: maybe “sorry” will never be enough, but I will always wish you happiness, good health, and good things ahead :)