Week Three: Adaptation

After three weeks, I’ve made something of a routine here. I wake up, workout, and eat breakfast. Then, I go to work, work, come home and make some kind of food in my rice cooker-and-microwave kitchen. On weekends, we go to restaurants and explore the city. Aside from hearing a mix of Bahasa and English at work and being served beer in mugs instead of glasses because of Ramadan, life here isn’t wildly different than life back home.  

I guess after a while anything can seem normal.  I don’t fear for my life every time I cross the street anymore, I just power through oncoming traffic like the other pedestrians. I’ve learned where to shop for groceries and been warned against which street foods to avoid because they “have marijuana in them chopped up like celery.” I’ve learned to take my own initiative in the laid back culture here.

Lanterns in Kemang, South Jakarta

I guess you could say I’m adapting. Last Sunday, I was planning to spend the day at this outdoor museum in East Jakarta, but every time I tried to leave it started to monsoon. Hashtag South East Asia problems. After about two hours of torrential downpours, I gave up. Instead, I stayed home and started watching this show called Scorpion that I’d picked up on DVD from a roadside stand for about $1.50. It’s a nerdy show about a team of geniuses who work on a Special Forces team for Homeland Security.  In one of the episodes, they talked about adaptation, and how their team has to adapt to become stronger. One of the characters quoted Leon Megginson, a famous evolutionist, saying “its is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.”   

I’m not used to living in a city where the smog is so thick it blurs the skyline. I’m not used to being asked to be the spokesperson for my country, and fielding questions about racial tension in the U.S., about Trump vs. Hilary. I’m not used to living alone in a city where I don’t know many people. But according to the geniuses on that show, adaptation is a rough process, but it makes you a better version of yourself. I think that's what this summer, and really, what real life is all about. It’s easy to keep doing the same thing, to stay in your comfort zone, but sometimes that's not enough. You need to change it up to grow, and that's hard part, but I think it’ll be worth it in the end. 

Smog over Jakarta