Prompt: Describe the world you come from — for example, your family, community or school — and tell
us how your world has shaped your dreams and aspirations.

ESSAY:

I came from a world where money greatly dictates life and death. A world where the rich and the poor are so distinctly divided on the same street.

One moment you could be turning a corner to see an up-kept Garden of Eden sitting in front of a lavish apartment with resilient pillars to house their residents. The next moment you would turn to witness opened gutters running through the street, engulfing the neighborhood with gunk and stench. Only frail iron sheets to shed families through the scorching sun and rainy days. Unsure about when the next meal is going to be. Emergency wards crowded with people waiting for days to receive urgent medical attention, only to find their fate lies on their credit card types. I came from a world where human needs turn into luxuries.

I feel very fortunate to be given the opportunity to now live in a place where I can see changes in the government to provide equity for the people. Education made accessible to scope a range of socioeconomic families. Schools that not only accentuated academic excellence, but also the importance of service, with initiations of beach clean ups, bringing free music to the public, tutoring the juniors and checking water conditions on the local creek that streams to the open ocean.

I grew up having Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. as my heroes. You could say their persistence and ambition for equity has rubbed on me as I try to provide clothes and a taste of school in the neighbouring villages of my homeland soil. I may not own as much as Bill Gates, but I try to send shoeboxes filled with books, pencils and drink bottles to children in Africa during Christmas time from the little money I gather during the year.

Going back to Jakarta will always ignite the reasons why I feel so strongly about equality. Jakarta becomes a reality check to the commodities in Auckland that I take for granted. I find myself once again as a bystander to fathers holding their sons with their bones sheathed only by a thin layer of skin. Crippled women sitting by the sidewalks begging with their hungry babies wrapped around their shoulders. And houses preyed by mosquitos breeding in their open drain systems that flood in rainy seasons.

I could end up becoming Mrs. President, a human rights activist, or a billionaire. I might soar through life being famous or completely unknown. But I do know two things for sure; I have a dream for equity, and I’m not afraid to make it come true.