The Origin of Neo

December has always been a bit daunting for me somehow. In December 2023, I felt immensely lonely where my phone would literally just sit in silent even when my DND is off. I feel like all my friends are very happy with their life without me. It’s almost like no one cares about my existence anymore.

It didn’t happen without any reason, though. Someone betrayed me. And then the Universe suddenly bombarded me with dissatisfaction. I lost access to my beloved LineageOS phone and all its memories, a month before it turned a year old. All I feel is disappointment. Laziness. Regret. My heart was broken. How fun. In all seriousness, I hate December. It feels cold to me even in a tropical place like Indonesia.

But yeah, it’s always great to feel that way once in a while. Those moments always make me rethink about all the precious things that I have had in my life. I start to pay attention to things that I wouldn’t usually look at. It’s great to get challenges once in a while from our dearest Universe.

And even if I had to end a friendship, end an operating system that I deeply customized myself and really love, end my student council position, end 2023.. I kept reminding myself that every end to something is always a start for something new, if I have the willingness to look forward. To look at all the new opportunities and chances.

Universe gave us 2024 and to me, January 1st was super special.

Somehow, all the circumstances made me look at a stand of cute keychains at a mall. I couldn’t remember what I glanced at first, but I knew I’m gonna like at least one of those. And apparently, they are INSANEly cheap. Just so you know, I was in a big shopping mall where a cup of smoothie can cost IDR 50k or something like that.

I looked at the bottom of the whole rack and I saw some penguin keychains.

They looked so cute 🥺

I didn’t need to pick anymore, I will definitely get one of those penguins.

I knew it Nature, I knew it. Thank you.

I bought the penguin keychain for IDR 19k (like $1.2) and came back home admiring the cuteness of my new friend, Neo.

Surprisingly, I have gotten so many new friends since then.

It’s amazing, I lost many but got more. Pretty grateful for that. And Neo was the start line of that.