“My childhood was…happy. It’s
all I can say,” asserted the young lady in grey who sat in front of the class,
her smile shone up the room since the first step she walked in.
Long-haired, charming, fashionable.
The lady introduced herself as Olivia Sonya Aresta, a graceful name goes well
with her way of speaking. I wouldn’t have realized at first if she hadn’t told
us by herself. She is the extraordinary one.
All eyes on her, each ears
opened to listen as she brought in her story. Not a single time she made us dying
too serious over her story; she's got a knack to crack everyone’s laughter in the
class. Mbak Sonya, everybody calls her so, began to flashback her journey as a super
glad little lad lived in Klaten. While she played around with boys, she had
always gotten beaten, or at least always dirty, she said. That is why she would
rather get along with girls, who played clean, with their beautiful dolls and the
cook-wannabe games. Concisely, she did show her instinct of femininity since she
was a boy.
As she grown up, she decided
herself not to be a man, but a beautiful woman instead. “I wish I was born as a
girl, you know,” she said as adjusting her seat position. By her high school
days, sometimes she loved to wear any gown or skirt outside the town, but it
turned out that she encountered her schoolmates who later mocked her of being ‘girly’.
However, that feeling of
chagrin isn’t visible any longer in her. Mbak Sonya has gotten way more
confident with who she is now. A proud and beautiful waria—Indonesian term for “ladyboy”—is what she is. In spite of her
Mom’s disapproval of her identity, even as she hasn’t communicate for over than
3 years with her parents up to this present day, she still feels determined of
being a woman.
Of washing her thought of
her family who still don’t want to accept her, Mbak Sonya then busied herself
with a great deal of social activities. During her period as a volunteer in
PKBI (Perkumpulan Keluarga Berencana Indonesia), Mbak Sonya gave elucidation to
the society regarding HIV/AIDS and how to ward it off. As one of LGBTQ
(Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer), Mbak Sonya who has taken a part
in her people struggle to have the society approval, has given her all to be
heard, to be accepted as they are. Being a volunteer in a local village during
post earthquake of Mount Merapi, an ambassador of KPID (Komisi Penyiaran
Indonesia Daerah), and a series of the other humanity deeds, she has proven it
all. That waria doesn’t worth as an
object to mock. They are a subject who could actually do something to society,
the one that the average people might have no guts or will to do.
Ultimately, Mbak Sonya’s appearance
in the Creative Writing class last Monday closed with Mbak Abmi’s words. “It
doesn’t matter what you are; whether you’re a man, or a woman. What matter is,
how to be useful for everyone around you”.
I knew it since she walked
in with that smile upon her face. She is extraordinary. Not her appearance, no. But because she is the man.
