"He" is Beautiful (Edited Version)

Because our creative writing class’ lecturer, Mas Dalih, had been gone to Bali for two weeks for an important business, he has sent her friend, Mbak Abmi as the substitute teacher. We already met her before when she came as a guest. Last week, she played the movie “Bag it” that I reviewed previously and today, she brought a guest with her, a beautiful guest with a long hair, pointed nose, and proportional body. The first thing that I have felt for the guest was she is beautiful…but…I don’t know her ‘beauty’ felt strange, it make me wonder whether the guest is female or male.

My wonder was confirmed when Mbak Abmi said that today we would interview the guests and did you know how she address the guest? She addresses her with a ‘he,’ that means that he is a transgender person, better known in Indonesia by waria. The guest’s name is Olivia Sonya Aresta, or Mbak Sonya for short. She lives in Yogyakarta until now since she was in her vocational school. Sure she is a transgender but who knows that behind her status as a transgender she is actually a wonderful, hardworking person? She is activist in Perkumpulan Keluarga Berencana Indonesia (PKBI), a beauty consultant, a seller of online shop, and a make-up bride. She is so wonderful, right? Even not many women or men can reach her level in this world.

Yet her life was not as easy as her success now. His mother, who is a teacher that is supposed to be followed, had against her decision to be a transsexual until now. There are people who assume that he went out of Klaten to Yogyakarta because her family had thrown him yet, she refused the assumptions. She was the one who went away because she wanted to be free from the restrain of inconvenient that her family felt for her decision to become a transexual.

Lived in Klaten until her high school time, Mbak Sonya was not allowed to play together with boys, afraid that they will be mocked him, that’s why they preferred her to play with girls. It seems that it caused Mbak Sonya to become girly, like to do make up, dressing like a girl, and playing dolls, even in junior high school she start to hang out in the night dressing like a girl. There are funny story when he was still in a high school, he met her friends from the school when she went to the mall in Yogyakarta, dressing as a girl, and called her. She was so shocked that she threw a shoe at them and ran away and after that... well, let’s say the end was not too good, they mocked her and she must hide herself to avoid mocking and laughter at the school until she graduated.  

 As a transsexual, Yogyakarta is not the only towns that she has gone to prove her identity as a transgender, she also went to Solo, Bandung, Jakarta, and Bali, yet, for her, Yogyakarta was the only pleasant place where the atmosphere felt different than the other towns. In Yogyakarta, she found so many things to be learned. She found her confidence when she volunteered in Bantul, the meaning of friend, when their transgender friends stayed in her side when she was sick, and many other things.

For Mbak Sonya, became a volunteer in PKBI is a contract that she signed forever. She wants to help people, especially the transgender, against HIV/AIDS. One thing that she want to proof is that a transgender person have a real contribution to change the world, with do something beautiful. Always willing to dedicate her life for the sake of others…isn’t that the true beauty of human? That’s why…even though she is a transsexual, she is a very beautiful person. A beauty that give people, including myself, many great inspirations of life….

The real link of the article: http://tiyannuno.blogspot.com/2013/05/he-is-beautiful.html