Kneeling down near my mother’s bed, I passionately ranted “Mami, Eka mau jadi dokter kalau

sudah besar nanti supaya bisa tolong banyak orang”. Simply put, I told my mother that I wanted
to become a doctor.
Such a not-so fantastical blabber coming from a 13 years old little fella. I am utterly sure that I
don’t need to give you any statistical evidence to point out that plenty of Indonesian children
want to become a doctor. A noble and generally financially advantageous aspiration. Arguably
the most sought after career highly appreciated by not only your parents, but also your
prospective parent-in-laws. I am here to say that I was also one of those children. Grew up to
become such an ambitious and academically driven individual, I strived to become the very best
in every way, everywhere, and in every opportunity. Ranked second in my high school, I
confidently attempted to enroll myself to the best medical faculty in the country. I failed
miserably. My father also just recently passed away a month prior to the announcement and I fell
into the abyss of depression. Well, to be blunt, I stopped dreaming to become a doctor right at
that moment. Nevertheless, I still chose to study medicine as my top priority when taking the
national university entrance examination, but I landed onto my third choice instead – The
Department of Biology, Universitas Indonesia. As someone quoted, “the escape route of a failed
students who wanted to get into medicine”. This marked the first checkpoint of my journey as an
aspiring plant scientist.
I received almost no opposition from my mother nor my family members in general. Everybody
believed that I chose Biology as one of my options because I knew what I wanted to do in the
long run. Such overestimation surely left me a good space to reflect on what had happened,
because the truth is I was truly lost and as clueless as a stray puppy. I spent my first few months
at Uni quite half heartedly, still debating whether I should retake the national exam to get into
medical school. At this point, you may think that I secluded and dettached myself entirely from
my environment and grind my way up to eventually resign from the department and left for
medical school for good. No Sir/Maam, that was exactly when my other side came into the
picture as I probably break apart your prior assumption that I was a typical uptight and strict
student. As ambitious and studious as I could be, I was also quite the talker and was generally a
social butterfly. Being depressed at one point of my life did not necessarily stop me from
showing my extraverted side to the world whilst climbing my way out from the pit of self blame.
Albeit still in the process of recovery, i made some good friends, established peer groups, and
quickly found a spot for me to lean on. All those bustling mental health recovery, self
contemplation, reality check, and lots of distracting fun with my outgoing personality as the main
motor. The ability to adapt so rapidly with my surrounding slowly eroded my will to retake the
exam. Long story short, I survived my first semester and went on to forget that I ever thought of
retaking the exam. Now you can let go of the dramatic first paragraph of this essay, since being a
doctor was already out of the question at that time. Changes happen and sometimes it happens in
a blink of an eye. I needed to move forward from all the pain.
After successfully anchored myself in the new environment and slowly regaining my spirit, I
planned to just let go of the model student mentality and just live my life as an average student. I
started to volunteer in various events just as I entered the second semester. In the midst of
freshmen euphoria, it coincided with the first time we ever touch the subject of specialized
subjects in biology. I can still vividly recall the first time I studied plant structure course. That
was the first moment where I felt so affined to a subject. It reawakened the drive within me to
engange with everything related to studying. I’m not exactly sure whether it was because of the
professors, the learning system, the subject, or just a mix of everything. All I know is that was
exactly the moment where I embraced the fact that I wanted to continue studying in the
department. Focusing myself on the plant science related courses, I enganged in various
activities to deepen my understanding and skill related to plant research. I became a laboratory
assistant for plant sciences lab education courses for almost 4 years straight. In no time I became
a plant science aficionado.
Times went by almost instantly and I was already in my final year. I joined Dr. Retno Lestari
research group to proceed with my thesis. I was lucky enough to be able to become one of the
research students in the research collaboration project with Rikagaku Kenkyūsho (RIKEN) Japan
and Indonesian Rubber Research Institute (IRRI) under the Science and Technology Research
Partnership for Sustainable Development (SATREPS) program funded by the Japan International
Coorperation Agency (JICA). We aimed to mitigate and implementing sustainable solution to the
ongoing massive outbreak of the novel Pestalotiopsis Leaf Fall Disease (PLFD) in the rubber
plantation in Indonesia. I was tasked with the symptom and plant structure analysis related to the
novel disease. I managed to present my thesis about the general symptom analysis focusing on
the disease morphology and contributed my research findings to the project. From fleeting a
aspiration to become a doctor to thriving in a completely unexpected circumstances, I eventually
graduated with satisfactory result and has been continuing my endeavor as an aspiring reseacher.
The moment I set foot in the “real” researching world, I was already aware that everything that
we do is to inflict positive changes to our surroundings. Experiencing the real endeavor
awakened a whole another level of awareness within me, especially in the project that I’m
currently working on. The existing threat in our rubber plantation is as real as it can be. The
novel PLFD was first reported in late 2017 and has been rampaging and destroying the rubber
plantation all over the country. In Sumatra alone, this disease has caused a massive 200.000+ ha
of total defoliation. Considering how the disease has the ability to cut off natural rubber
production up to 45%, it is definitely a serious threat for one of our most precious commodities.
Furthermore, throughout my visits in affected sites, I found out that it directly affects the life of
the rubber farmers. Not only does it cause production loss, it also causes quality decline. The
decline in natural rubber quality affects the market price. It was recorded that in 2014 until early
2017, the price of natural rubber was still Rp10,000,00/kg compared to the recent price of
Rp6,000,00/kg, a whopping 40% drop. Agonizing cries and complaints from farmers pierced me
with a sense of responsibility and a strong drive to become a great researcher in the future. The
moment I delved deeper into this project was the exact moment where I decided to firmly
become a future plant pathologist.
As an aspiring researcher, I am aware that there are still so many things that I need to improve . I
believe that ideally, a well rounded plant pathology researcher needs to have an adequate
research skill, exposure to technological advancement, a keen knowledge in running a green
house, and a decent level of mastery in fieldwork, ecpecially in an agricultural research setting.
Throughout my time as a research assitant, it is most unfortunate that some of the
aforementioned aspects have not been instilled properly. The lack of proper knowledge, skill, and
management in running a greenhouse specifically designed for plant pathology research have
been qute the challenge for us.

[Notes: maaf ka, memang baru ini konten yang aku bisa tuangkan karena ada banyak hal yang
harus kuriset lebih dalam terutama bagian pemilihan universitas, knowledge gap, dan rencana
jangka pendek dan panjang]
Note :
1. penggunaan essay dalam Bahasa inggris untuk PTN dalam negeri itu bisa jadi boomerang
soalnya bisa jadi interviewernya ga terlalu bisa Bahasa inggris dan khawatirnya malah ga
paham denga nisi essaynya
2. Ceritakan juga Impian jangka pendek, menengah dan Panjang saudara sebagai kontribusi
saudara kepada Indonesia
3. Beri alasan kenapa LPDP harus memberikan beasiswa ke saudara
4. Penjelasan lengkap terkait univ tujuan harus dijabarkan lagi