A Sip of Cappuccino in 2021

 Hello 2021.

It is been a while. It still feels like yesterday I thanked God for giving me one more chance to pass 2020. Since 2020 was a survival year for me. I was being away from home, alone, amidst of COVID-19 pandemic situation. And now I have to say goodbye with 2021 in no time.

 

For me, 2021 is like drinking hot cappuccino with double shot espresso. It smells nice; roasted and nutty. When you hold the cup, it feels warm. And when you take a sip, it tastes sweet and creamy at the beginning; then going bold and strong in the middle; and finally here comes the bitterness in the end. And for some people who love coffee, they also can detect a hint of fruity note or sour note in the aftertaste from the selected coffee bean.

 

That's how I recap my 2021.

And I will never forget the taste journey.

I started this year in Malang. I stayed in Malang for almost 2 weeks since end year of 2019. It was rainy season but I felt warm because finally I could be with my family after many difficulties to go home in this pandemic situation.

We went to a beach for holiday even though we saw news about people drowned at the beach a day before. We also brought our lovely cat, Bocil to that beach. We were lucky because on that day the beach was not busy so we can have like a private island for ourselves! We had a picnic with a beach view and Bocil played around.

 

After 2 weeks day off, my heart was full with those "sweet and creamy taste". My brain was fresh and ready for work in Bogor!

When I came back to Bogor, I realized that I already work as a Foodtech for 2 years. And after 2 years of working, surprisingly I felt that I love my job more. FYI, I was working as a Foodtech who formulates food and beverage product before it launched to the market; which always difficult to be explained when I was in the family gathering, and Bunda always said that I work as Quality Control to end the conversation and make the other relatives understand LOL.

 

I used to complain about every single rock in front of me. Since it was my first time professional working experience, I already cried 3 times in the office (which I exactly remember, I forgot the rest). I was very weak before, but in 2021, I think I am getting stronger and wiser LOL. 

Somehow I can easily handle my emotion like magic! And I became more logic that everything happened in my life must have a reason. Because we are only human, guys. We sometimes get angry or we make people angry. Because life is about choices. We also can choose to not angry and move on for good. #saveenergy #saveplanet

 

Since I had that thought in my mind, I become enjoy with my job. In 2021 for the first time, I got a new beverage project, which should be developed from scratch. The product was new category. Therefore, I need deep research. Sometimes I felt overwhelmed but I became stronger than before. I love the process from interviewing the target consumer, brainstorming to create concept, formulating the product, sensory evaluation; through many trials, difficulties but still happyy.

 

The year of 2021 also makes me grateful because I am not that lonely while working far away. I still had great colleagues/friends around. Especially during Ramadhan, in the middle of trials in laboratory and factory, we still had a time to escape for a while. We went to Bandung and had enjoy Bandung culinary for a few days. I also had more time to catch up with my friends again from high school and university since the covid cases decreased.

After Eid Al-Fitr, I went to the beach again with my family! I finally can had proper "mudik" compared to last year. The reason why I love beach holiday because that was the only place where my entire family member can gather. Seeing ocean and waves was calming and suitable holiday for the elders. Meanwhile the youngsters still have enough space to play around the beach.

However, at that time my annual leave was not as calm as that beach view. Because I had two big presentation coming all of sudden. My friend and I were selected to join a competition as representative of our department. We had very limited time to prepare the material, revision, and presentation training. Meanwhile, I also accidentally chosen to present my project for idea screening in regional as well. Everything was so quick but finally with God blessings and supportive teammates and supervisors we made it *tears of happiness*.

After that, here was the journey of bitterness.

Remembering all the sweets alaways makes me flustered. Because life can be so funny like two kids playing sesaw. When you already go up, there's no other way to go but go down. 

It was the month when I had 4-5 times of swab antigen test. We had Covid Delta variant in Indonesia and sadly, some of my colleagues were infected at the same time. It was so scary for me but thankfully, my test result was negative. Everyone had difficult time, including my family who were feeling unwell but refused to take swab test. They were afraid that their immune will drop if they knew the result. I was so worry about them since I was far from then and can't take care of them. But at least they wanted to have self-isolation and take medicine. And their condition were getting better.

 Then in the next month, I had do "tahlilan" for days since the owner of my dorm passed away. In next several weeks, we also lost one of our colleagues in our department after she gave birth. Then in the next month I didn't expect that I will lost my beloved father too.

 

It was like serial of sadness. 

I was going to go out with my friend when Bunda called me that Ayah was admitted to the ICU. I was shocked, Bunda only cried and asked me to pray. Bunda said that Ayah was suddenly unconscious during check up with doctor. I still can believe that it was real. Because Ayah never told us that he had pain or sick.