From: Ajeng Sarasvvati

Dear Tante Kristy,

I know we are not that close so I could call you ‘my friend’ or anything with the same closeness level with friend. You’re still my idol and I am still a huge fan of you. This is not a letter that I would send to you, and I am not asking you to read this as well. It might not be important but I just want to say thank you.

You might wonder, why should I thanked you and why am I writing this right now. But, if only you know, being able to know you as a person, not just a famous air-talent, or a best selling book author, or anything that can describe you, is such a huge pleasure for me. Even more, you allow me to share stories with you. You don’t hesitate to tell me your stories as well. Thank you.

It has been 9 years since our first meeting. At that time I was so young, and you were young as well. My first impression was, “Gosh, I thought it was only her voice that’s pretty, she is so gorgeus in person!” and you were there accompanied me and Yanny (still remember her?) in Cipaganti 159 (still remember that place? haha). You were so nice, you didn’t treat us like you were the star and we were your fans. You treated us like friends.

Then, I started to annoyed you maybe. Couldn’t stop sending requests to be read by you, couldn’t stop call to have an on-air request in the show that was hosted by you, and kept coming to Cipaganti 159. I adored you so much. I wanted to be like you.

Years later, you and your band, Infinity had a very nice broken-hearted song titled “Bagaimana Jika” right when I was totally broken-hearted. And I thought, “God. Kill me now. My idol sings this broken-hearted song with a very right theme ‘bagaimana jika kuberkata aku rela ‘tuk menjadi yang kedua asal kita bisa bersama…’” I cried a lot. That song was one of the best soundtracks of my life.

I love writing. I love writing diary, not fictions. But I always wanted to be a writer. You are a writer. You might read some of my craps in multiply (a blog provider which later turned into market place website then closed by 2013) yet, everytime I told you, “I want to be a writer.” You never let me down. You said, “It might sounds cliche, but believe me, practice makes perfect. Don’t stop writing.” You said that while other said, “Stop writing. You got no talent.”

You graduated from university, you moved out from Bandung to Leeds. I cried. I had this secret dream to be a radio announcer. Just like you. I wished that someday I could make it to be an announcer and work with you. I didn’t come true. But at the end, even though you weren’t there anymore, I made it. I became an announcer in the same place, and my tutor said, “You’re a new generation of Kristy Nelwan.” I couldn’t stop smiling for days. Haha. Silly me.

I thought, I would not be able to be as close as we used to be when you were still the announcer, and I was the listener. But I was wrong. You are awesomely nice even after you went back to Indonesia. I thought you wouldn’t remember me.

It’s been years, and now both of us live and work in Jakarta. We met again last year, 3rd of June 2012. Talked about love life, books, works, and others. And yesterday, 7th of June 2013 we met again. Maybe we could make annual appointment, Tante? Haha.

Well, anyway, it starts to get out of topic. Once again, I just want to say thank you. Thanks for inspiring me. Thanks for not judging me. Thanks for all of those advice you gave. And thanks for being one of my biggest idol, and always treat me like one of your friends. It’s a pleasure to know you. I wish I could be like you someday 🙂

Love,

Your huge fan