He is Beatiful (Edited)

Mas Dalih, my lecture, had to leave for Bali last Monday. Regarding to that, he was substituted by Mbak Abmi, we've met several times before. She was not alone coming to class, but she invited a beautiful guest. I oddly thought the guest was a woman, as the appearance was like one.

Mbak Abmi opened the class by dividing us into five groups and preparing ourselves in practicing interviewing. She also introduced us to the guest. I was very upset at first, knowing she was a transsexual. But that would be fine. 

Olivia Sonya Aresta, a vocational school alumna, sat and smiled beautifully in front of us. Coming from Klaten, Sonya started her career as an activist in PKBI (Indonesian Family Planning Association) Yogyakarta. She continued her career as beauty consultant, online-shop seller, and freelance bridal makeup.

Beyond her funny stories of being transsexual, there laid a tough journey. The refusal from people she loved, her families, was one of her obstacle in finding her true identity. No exception for her mother. A rejection from her was Sonya's tough homework in gaining her hapiness.

Spending her childhood in Klaten, Central Java, gave bittersweet-stories in her life. As a little boy, her parents disallowed her to play with other boys. They were afraid if she would have been hurt and bullied. Playing with girls, Sonya started liking putting some makeup, dressing like a girl, and playing dolls. Secretly, she hung out by dressing as a girl. This was not easy for her.

Her friends mocked her after finding out that she worn feminine clothing. They laughed at her whenever they saw Sonya in school. Therefore she had to hide himself. After she finished high school, Sonya moved to Yogyakarta in hope she would be free from people's negative judgment.

She had tried to move to several big cities such as Solo, Bandung, Jakarta, and Bali in order to have her identity as transsexual. But, she could not stay out of Yogyakarta, as what she said “Jogja is the pleasant place for me and the atmosphere is different from others”. There, she found herself enriched by new life-lessons. When she was volunteering for earthquake victims in Bantul, she found lessons that she might not get in other occasion. She found the true meaning of friend as when they awaited her in hospitalization. She also realized that her helps were very precious for the victims. She firstly found her confidence as a ladyman when she was a volunteer in Bantul.

Her patience of being a volunteer in PKBI was waking her up that people like her needed her help. Being a volunteer was not about the contract, it was about humanity. She wanted to help people, especially, waria against HIV AIDS. He also wanted to prove that the identity of waria was not a mere marginal society but they have real contributions to this world by doing something useful. 

That is no doubt again if at the first sight I said she is beautiful. Although she is a marginal, she still keeps his beauty inside. 

Thank You Mbak Sonya for your inspiration... 

 

 

This edited version, from Listiyaningsih, is a partial fulfillment of  Creative Writing class.