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And, No.. There’s No Magic Involved.

I didn’t like English.
Wait... No, I hated English.
Since elementary school, where English was first introduced to this plain little 3rd grader girl, I hated it already. Unimportant, I insisted. In addition, my English teacher was sooo unbelievably annoying; an old man, lame, and like a fairytale bed story, always made me sleepy. I almost always slept in that English class. Homeworks were done on the morning by looking at the others’ works. Don’t ask about my textbook.. sleek, clean-cut, and stay still; a forever new book. I made jokes when studying the English vocabularies and phrases, never took it seriously. About studying at home... Ugh, ain’t nobody got time for that?! Dictionary? That most boring thing ever exists in the world? No, thank you. I still had my conan and doraemon comics to be read interestedly. Just being honest, it deeply didn’t make any sense for me, why do we have to learn the others’ language? It’s not like I’d be living in that country, well I even didn’t think I’d really use and need to talk in English for real.
                That was what I thought on my white-red age.

One day, I saw that girl with curly brown hair and smart gaze on her eyes. Hermione, that’s how her close friends —Harry and Ron— call her. A Gryffindor, and a half-blood. Hermione Jean Granger, that’s how the professors called on the attendance list checking. Listening to her when sharply answers the professor’s question in classes, had word-fight with the blonde pure-blood Draco, or just casually converse with Potter and Weasley, managed to wake me up! Her way of speaking so confidently and her reasonably strong long talks, unconsciously hypnotized me. Along with her full-of-spirit voice tone, ambitious gaze, and tireless active moves, her British accent was hanging and kept popping up on my mind. It was undeniably confusing at first. I mostly didn’t even know what was she talking about, I just knew that it felt lovely to my ears.

 

But hey.. the next days I surprisingly found myself enjoying and being attracted to it.

Ever since knowing her, I got motivated out of nowhere. Highly-motivated. My competitive spirit said that I had to at least be exactly like her, then beat her. Yes, I’m just as ambitious as her. I didn’t think of anything and just decided to make it truly happen. I started learning English seriously, and magically, with pleasure. I anticipated and looked forward to every English classes. I read the bold and heavy dictionaries routinely, exactly everyday on 6.30pm. I finished all the tasks assigned, and studied for real every night. On the 4th grade, I was personally taught by my English teacher (who’s different with the first one above) some song lyrics, and even told me to sing them on my seniors’ graduation ceremony. On that annual big event, I also did a speech and read a poetry, all in English.

“I’m so glad seeing you this diligent, darling. What’s up with the miracle, anyway?” – Mom
“What happened with this magic, dear? Did the school finally force you to study?” – Brother
“Are you alright? What’s the matter? Are you cursed by the English God?” – Friend
“You did quite well in my subject lately. You didn’t cheat, did you?” – Teacher
Yep. Everybody was THAT astonished. Countless wonderings, amazements and praises were thrown and blown towards me regarding this ‘change’. It must be the magic, they wondered.

Growing up, I joined the English speech and debate club on middle and high school. Winning various English speech, news-anchor, and debate competition was not a rare phenomenon. Now that I’m on university, there are barely any Indonesian textbooks used, almost all is full-English books. Currently I’m doing an international research and working on a book-translation project. I also have gone abroad with (mostly) my English skills influence; writing essays, or confidently facing the verbal interview... the art of convincing people. And by that, further opportunities are surely within reaches, because I know ‘When the language is in our tongue, the world is in our grasp’.

I was only seeing her through a monitor, indeed. Time flies relatively, and now, she isn’t a Hogwarts student anymore (neither do I, since the beginning...)


I’ve always wanted to meet her in person, and express my gratefulness that can't be phrased in any words. Over a decade has passed since first time spotting her, I have to go to England —yes I need to! She should know that she holds one important role, made such a huge impact in my life.

                I used to hate English
               Now it’s my inseparable company
And, no. There’s no single magic involved
Thank you for burning and blowing my spirit up, and be the initiator to boost my skills, Em.

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