I’m an Introvert, and in Panic to Join Bangkit Academy Class…
Tapi boong wkwk.
I admit that the title is “clickbait”, but it’s true… before I came to the class on the first time. To you who haven’t known what is Bangkit Academy yet, it’s a program conducted by Google Indonesia to train people (so called technologist, they say) to learn machine learning and become a world-class digital talent. I don’t know if the words are too much but let’s see, haha.
In Bangkit Academy, we have to study on online class and attend all the offline workshops. The first time I know it will have an offline workshop session, I have a waduh-matek-aku feeling. Because I can’t even get to know to new people and adapt to the environment that fast. I can remember back when in Digital Talent Kominfo, I am so anti-social that I can even count new friends I got in there. Lol.
That’s why I write many things about the fearness of being introvert on my first online assignment in Bangkit. It’s an assignment to do a SWOT analysis of ourselves. I feel a bit relieved when I submitted the assignments because I know they would read it and I expected they would understand. As a side note, I really love that our assignment is not only for the sake of formality but they give us feedback. Anyway, if you are also an introvert, I think we have common difficulties, which are:
- Shy to greet and talk with a new people
- Do a public speaking
- Afraid of being judged
Right? Do you have more? Haha. Let alone that this program will be using full english both for speaking and listening. Oh no. Lol.
However, the time had come…
My first impression? Whoa, the people in there are so nice. Especially when William Florance, who are from Google Education Programs for APAC, welcomed us. Even he played game with us and he stood beside me at that moment and we did a high-five (it’s a part of the game, tho xD)
The Bangkit Team and all of the instructors are incredible. They never judged us if our answer to their question was wrong, having bad english, or did some mistakes in our assignments. They encouraged us to just try to speak and be active. Since the class is using english, I felt the experience of studying abroad even I haven’t ever done it yet. Especially, our instructor is an Indian and he is so pleasant and smart.
Besides materials, we also have a lot of games in ice-breaking session, even it’s so fun for me who always hindered workshop because it usually contains a games where we have to know each other. Lol. But I remember what my friend ever said, “gue orangnya introvert, banget, tapi kalo udah ikut acara trus ketemu orang baru masa gue diem-diem aja”. That’s why I tried to be active and defeat my fearness in there. Because, hmm yeah, since Google fulfilled their promises that it would be fun and no bad things would happen, there’s nothing to be afraid of. I think it’s also the key of how an extremely introvert people like me is : feeling that we are accepted.
I still will have 6 more sessions of Bangkit offline workshops. I will try to learn as much as possible from this program and share what I thought and got in this Medium. I actually enjoy it a lot. Praise to all of the stakeholders who make it happens.
So, how do you think of being an introvert? :D
