Raissa Mauly Basmine

I was born in Mataram, Lombok on the 21st of july 1999. Born given the name Raissa Mauly Basmine. I like the way my name sounded. Basmine was a combination of my parent’s name, Bastoni Purnama and Mince Purnama. Raissa supposedly meant roses, but i don’t know for sure (there’s a lot of meanings to it. Including ‘carefree women’ which i don’t deny).

Anyways, i grew up constantly moving from one place to another (pretty nomadic). I spent the first three years of my childhood in Lombok. I had an awesome childhood. My parents took me to lots of cool trips, we went to the beach a lot. It’s why i like spending time in water so much. I absolutely love snorkeling and anything that involves the ocean. Also travelling, food, and art too. I adore it very much so.

 I was very mischievous and prankish as a child. I think it’s because mostly my friends are boys. I never really liked playing with girls back then. I play with my dolls differently than with how they do it. They play ‘pretend wifes and family’, i like to play a fight scene that involves power rangers, hot wheels, and dinosaurs. And they don’t really like me that much either. I remember having a fight with one girl, we pulled on each other’s hair. Also, I used to push people off the swing sets because they wont take turns with me. Yeah, i had a little bit of an anarchist streak. But anyways, still an awesome childhood.

After three years living in Lombok, i moved in to the big city, Jakarta. I remember being so awestruck seeing lots of tall buildings. Also the first time i went to Ancol. The condition was totally different with the beaches in Lombok, which is clearly far more beautiful. Even back then when the water was still pretty clear, Ancol is still beaten by many. People of Jakarta is so careless about their environment. If only they took more care of what they have, Jakarta could’ve been way better.

So i started my play group days here in Jakarta. I used to live in the west part of Jakarta, at Slipi. My house back then was small and simple, very different with what i have now. Everyday my mom would take me to the play group by foot, since it was near my house. I really like play group. All you do is just play, eat, and repeat. I wish life was still that easy.

Give or take a year and a half, i had to move away again. This time i moved to Lampung, South Sumatra. Lampung was like 180 degrees different than Jakarta. It is literally a village kind of scenery there. The house was much bigger than my house back in Slipi, it was my grandma’s house. I was pretty awkward at socializing  there because majority of the kids are much older. But everyone was really nice to me and always asks me to join their games. I also developed my hobby for cooking there. During lebaran days, my grandmother would teach me how to bake cookies. Often all i do is just messing things up, and eating the cookie batter. But i helped molding the cookies into shapes and sprinkled some chocochips on top.

Overall, everything was fun. But i started getting bored being alone all the time. My grandma or my parents was the only ones to keep me company. My mom noticed this, so that’s when she started asking me if i wanted a sister. And i was jumping for joy. So after some months, my mom announced that she was pregnant. I was so jittery and anxious about it even though it was my mom that’s pregnant, not me. I keep on pleading with my mom that it has to be girl. Because i always thought that having a girl younger sister would be cool. I imagined that when she’s older we could share our stuff together (which we did up until now). I was so awed with my sister the first time i see her. I went gushing over her, i thought she was so cute and tiny. So my parents decided to name her Alya Alania Basmine, back then i thought the name was ugly. I wanted to name her Robi, stupid little me thought that name was so cool. It’s not even a girl’s name. Sometimes i wanted to slap myself everytime i remember stupid things i did back when i’m a kid.

After some time, we moved back to Jakarta. This is where i start my primary school. This time we lived in the house i’m living in now. Much bigger and spacier, my house has two stories. Back when we just moved in, my room was in the first floor. I grew up here having lots of different pets. I love animals. I used to want to be a vet when i’m older. I had owned tons of different animals, constantly changing because they die of my lack of caring skills. Squirell, rabbits, cats, fishes, turtles, hamsters, even frogs.

Primary school was fun times. I’m so enthusiast about studying, back then when every subject was a total piece of cake. Believe it or not but my favorite subject was science and math (ofcourse, back in primary school). Sure, when learning math the first time i got really frustrated, but it gets exciting when you get the hang of it (why i never felt like that anymore now is beyond me). Science was fun to me because i love learning facts about the nature that i never know of before. I grew a hobby in painting and drawing too. Its basically all i do when i’ve got nothing to do. I enjoy drawing or painting landscapes and portraits of people. I never took any lessons though my parents suggested me to. And i should say that i’m pretty good for someone who self taught (boasting).

Overall, primary school was great. We went to lots of fieldtrips, outingclass, and most people was nice. I eventually got to the sixth grade as the time flows by. And that is when hell is raised.

As i got to the sixth grade, my days was filled with try outs and preparations for national exam. I was exhausted and anxious about facing the national exam. It got me wondering why do we have to pass it to graduate. To me, someone’s ability is not to be judged by numbers. Me and my friends were scared. I think its because it is different from any other exams we did. But then national exam passed like a breeze, and it wasn’t as difficult as my expectations. I passed with a statisfying results.

 It now comes to the part where I have no idea where to go for middle school. My friends were already signing up for many different prestigious schools. Some were even already registered in their new school. My mom was puzzled, because i haven’t signed up for any school, and i also don’t know where i want to go. So my parents decided that i will get registered in Al-Azhar Syifa Budi again. And i didn’t refuse because i don’t know what school to suggest to them either. So then i got accepted there and turns out many of my friend are there. I quite enjoy middle school. I even got the acceleration class, so i only spend two years of middle school (which explains why i was a year younger than everybody in highschool). I expected that acceleration class would be a total burden, but honestly it is way easier than i thought it would be. My class had a lot of free times, and we mostly study by ourselves. After school me and my friends would hang out somewhere (since our school was in the area of kemang we had a lot of hang out spots). And we didn’t get overly lots of homework so after school i could sleep early.

 I already thought it all out that when i’m in highschool i will choose the science field, because i want to get on the architecture major as soon as i graduate. So when i got accepted at SMA Labschool Kebayoran, i was dying to get in the science major. Turns out i got in the social field. I was really lost at first, I don’t know what i’ll do, i don’t what major to choose for college. But now i realize that social field is a good descision made. I know that i wouldn’t make it in the science field.

So highschool was pretty rad to say the least. I had experienced pesantren, observation trip, bintama, and participated in the rohis community and palabsky. Labschool was great, they have lots of activities that really helped me out building my discipline, teached me to be strong and to never give up facing anything. This activities also made me learn how to be a leader, how to listen and respect other people, to be more mature and independent. Labschool teached me what real life is like. Life is rough, but if it’s easy then you’ll never grow up and learn something. I had experienced my downfall and uprising here in Labschool Kebayoran, and i still have a long way to go.