Reading and writing are basic skills that must be owned by young people and students in facing global challenges. There are many benefits they get when reading and writing a lot. However, the habit of reading and writing among young people or students in East Sumba is still low. Based on my experience, campus environment actually should be bookworms’ nest, but ironically I rarely find students reading and writing. The campus library is always quiet, not because of respect to other readers or writers, but students rarely visit it.
It is such a pity when an undergraduate student has no expertise in writing and reading books. Based on my experience, if we, as an undergraduate student or scholar return back to our home or village, we will be asked by village officials and community to help them in writing letters, proposals, reports and so on. Of course it is ironic if we cannot do these.
For me, it is not too late if we keep on practising in writing and reading. We can spend 15-30 minutes per day to write and read. It is hard in the beginning but if we are eager to do it, it will be easy and fun. We can start writing from things that we often see, hear, and worry about. It will be easy for us to start writing from our surrounding because we only retell everything that we often see, such as our village where it has high level of violence against women or children, the difficulty of getting clean water, electricity that has not yet cover all area, and so on.
The habit of reading and writing brings positive impact to the writer, such as, development of thinking skills, being able to think critically, improvement of knowledge, finding ideas, gaining new knowledge, and being able to get solutions to solve problems. While for someone who does not like reading and writing, he is unable to think critically, low level of knowledge, complaining when facing problems and unable to solve them.
It's time for youth and students in East Sumba to have writing skills and love reading, because the region requires good human resources, able to create ideas, care with environment, be critical, and intelligent. Quoting Pramoedya Ananta Toer, a novelist and human rights activist, said that people may have high intellegency, but as long as he does not write, he will disappear from society and history.
So what are you waiting for? Young people should be ready to do self-equip. ***