Selvira Spirit with Other Participants (From Left to Right: Althaf Amazing, Ratih Resilience, Selvira Spirit, Amal Akrab, and Rereh Romantis, photo by Arie Asyik – Lin Junyan) 29 October 2023
My name is Selvira Spirit. I was born and raised in Palembang, South Sumatra. I am 19 years old and I am a student of Hadith Science Program at the Faculty of Ushuluddin and Islamic Thought at UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta. Beside studying, I am also secretary for Research and Member Development at the Islamic Student Association of the Ushuluddin Faculty and Islamic Thought Commissariat.
I learned about the Creating Cultures of Peace/Alternatives to Violence Project training (27-29 October 2023) from Ida Istimewa at the Islamic Student Association, when I participated in the Power of Goodness activities three times. I was very excited about the agendas to be practiced in Creating Cultures of Peace/Alternatives to Violence Project Training at Peace Place Pati. This training invites young people to practice nonviolence. Previously, I didn’t have any knowledge or experience about this, so I was very curious.
My friends and I traveled for 9 hours from Yogyakarta City to Pati by bus. When I arrived it was late at night. My body was so tired. I enjoyed dinner and went straight to sleep.
Coming to Peace Place is my first experience of meeting people of different faiths. Petrus and Nanik are very welcoming to us and they are very friendly. I felt safe there because they accepted young people like us even though they had different faiths. In the past, I had an experience of going to school with people of different faiths, but they and I were not very open to communication and interaction. We are very rigid at the moment, so when we meet Nanik and Petrus it feels very different.
I can say that the training is very meaningful for me, and I love all the activities. I really like the affirmations and positive adjective names. This is an uncommon activity, so we feel strange bringing out good things in ourselves. I often feel inadequate about myself. After doing affirmations and positive adjectives name, I realized that I should respect myself first before taking steps to care for others.
I felt a lot of pain in the trauma story activity when I told my story. I love the way the facilitator helps us to do a grounding and says, “That was the past; this is now.” This gives me confidence that the trauma that happened is in the past. Now we are here. It helped me to be able to look forward and not use the rigid patterns of trauma that I experienced in relating to other people.
During stories of violence activities, we heard friends’ stories. It turns out that everyone has their own trauma. Often when I see others, I tend to think they are doing well, but it turns out they all have had their own difficult experiences and have their own ways of responding to the violence they have experienced. I learned from their stories: No matter how bad the experience of violence and trauma, it cannot be changed, but we can always get a lesson learned or positive values from it.
Now I have more respect for myself. Realizing that each person is valuable and has their own past. Even though our ways of getting through problems are different, we are equally strong because even at this moment we were able to get through it to this day.
After the training, I want to practice good adjective names and encourage myself to be at peace. Learning to be at peace with myself is very important. If I am not peaceful and accepting of things in myself, how can I be peaceful and accepting of others? I have to accept myself, I can’t be too self-critical of myself. I have to practice accepting my own weakness. Previously I often felt inadequate and lacking. Even though I have weaknesses, I do have a lot of potential that I can develop.
I can feel the change in me after the training. Now I can control myself to not talk harshly to other people anymore. I pay more attention to the words I want to say to other people. I plan to bring some of my experience at Creating Cultures of Peace/Alternatives to Violence Project training to activities in the Research and Member Development at the Islamic Student Association of the Ushuluddin Faculty and Islamic Thought Commissariat, especially to encourage my friends towards self-empowerment.
I want to say this loudly: whatever happens in the future, I have to tell myself that today I have done my best. You don’t need to be number one among other people, just be the best for yourself!