The Beginning

 

In 2018, I decided to continue my study and chose Phytopathology for my master's degree. Something extremely different from my bachelor's degree, but made my study colorful. From here my story was begun. Just the first day of college had surprised me because there was a quiz about the diagnosis of plant diseases. Having to answer questions that I never gained before in my bachelor's degree was a nightmare. The worst part was our answer corrected by our friends and should be read in front of all, I was embarrassed to the bone at the time.

The first semester was time to adapt to all the subjects and environment in my new faculty, the Faculty of Agriculture. When the lecturer explained in the class, I didn’t understand and felt so brainless. There were many new terms for me such as isolation, transcription, gene silencing, etc. Consequently, I should attend basic subjects, which should have been taken at bachelor degree level. About the environment in my new faculty, all facilities such as laboratory, canteen, and a mosque were good, but I didn't feel comfortable with all those facilities. Ordinarily, after class was over, I went to the faculty of agricultural technology (my faculty when I was in bachelor degree) just for studying, eating, or praying.

In this semester, I was busy with the practicum of mycology (fungi) and the diagnosis of plant diseases (includes viruses, bacteria, and fungi). In practicum mycology, we observed fungi beneath a microscope and then drew those fungi in the paper. Another practicum was a diagnosis of plant diseases, like a doctor we should find a patient, but for a Pathologist, our patient was plant with symptoms. The next assignment confirmed that the plant was infected by fungi or not. Until there was the moment when I saw food as if it were fungi, whereas there were no fungi on that food. I kind of thought perhaps practicum almost every day had driven me little stress (lol). Gratefulness, after I had struggled to adapt for one semester, I closed my first semester with a GPA of 3.52.