UNS — Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta students never stop achieving great accomplishments in the academic and non-academic fields. This time, a student of the Faculty of Cultural Studies (FIB), Misi Haryanti, was selected as the Top 22 in Jakarta Fashion Week (JFW) Region Yogyakarta and Central Java in August 2021. JFW is the largest fashion week in Indonesia held annually.
Before participating in the prestigious event, Misi won the Boyolali Tourism Ambassador in 2018 and became Adi Soemarmo Airport Ambassador in 2019. She also represented Indonesia in the fruits and vegetable festival in Ecuador in 2018. Her long journey shaped Misi into a model that has strong self-confidence in her ability. Uns.ac.id team received an opportunity to discuss with Misi and talked about her career journey to be who she is now.
Top 22 JFW Region Yogyakarta and Central Java
Misi shared with the uns.ac.id team that she had dreamed of participating in JFW long before 2021. She said that she wasn’t as brave and did not have the requirements to participate in the audition in Yogyakarta. Therefore, she postponed her participation, and this year she had the courage to participate after taking modeling school. Self-confidence is her key in achieving the Top 22 JFW Region Yogyakarta and Central Java, although she was skeptical due to the long waiting period for the announcement.
“It’s okay; I’m done. If I did not make it, I could try again. If I get the opportunity, I need to improve for the next selection. Then my friend texted me, congratulate me. I was lost; it turned out that my name was included in the shortlist Top 22. Only three girls, one from Central Java and two from Yogyakarta,” Misi stated.
For the next round, Misi was asked to prepare measuring and video uploaded to social media. Unfortunately, her journey needed to stop at the Top 22 Region, but this did not discourage her. “There was sadness, but this is also a lesson (for me). Included in the shortlist has brought great reward because it is the brightest achievement in my life,” she added.
What Makes Misi Believes She Could
Discussing the topic of self-confidence, uns.ac.id asked Misi on what gives her the belief that she will be able to pull out things she wants to do. The 21 years old student stated that it is God that makes her believe because what she has will not exist without God. “Then parent’s prayers and permission. I also believe in myself that I could. Because if I don’t believe in myself, I will not make it. The power of our thoughts, subconscious, made me strong and believed,” the Boyolali girl explained.
Unique Hair
Misi was born with certain characteristics that are generally not considered ‘Javanese’ in nature. Her uniqueness used to make the girl felt inferior during senior high school (SMA) when her senior said that her curly hair was not neatly styled. “I straightened my hair once, but it turned to be weird. I feel like I’m not myself. Finally, I try to take care of my curly hair to look better,” Misi said.
Personal Values
Further, Misi even stated that her personal value that she will always hold is the uniqueness of her hair because she often received a negative comment that she thinks her hair isn’t natural. She is also willing to learn new things and thinks that it is important to try doing something even though it will not be as good as the professionals. “Unique and willingness to learn things that people said I won’t be able to do it. Of course, you won’t be able to do it if you don’t learn. But I am willing to learn,” the final semester student stated.
Insecurity and How to Handle it
Insecurity is a plague that often exists in people’s minds and makes them uncertain or anxious about themselves. When asked if she had insecurities in the past, Misi shared that even the Top 22 JFW 2021 was not free from the insecurity feeling. Misi started that her insecurity was most prominent when she participated in the ambassadorial competition and competed with feminine girls. “While I am a tomboy. So, I think, could I become like them. Their visual is feminine; their fashion is feminine. My fashion sense was t-shirt, jeans, culottes, sweaters, shirts. And I was not updated like others. They always have good clothes and always change from one meeting to another,” she said.
However, the thoughts did not stop her from trying. The Miss Boyolali and Adi Sumarmo Ambassador tried to mix and match her outfits to look chicer and more fashionable. “The first effort was to try; if I don’t have and couldn’t afford, I try to find or borrow. If all fails, I tried to mix and match with reference from my existing clothes,” she said. “Whether it is good or not, number one is to be clean, then learn to speak and make friends. If we could socialize and be friendly, it could make up for our shortcomings,” she added.
Representing Indonesia in Festival in Ecuador
The uns.ac.id team then probes further on Misi’s experience as a representative from Indonesia in fruit and vegetable festival in Ambato City, Ecuador 2018. Indonesia was represented by two teams from Boyolali and Bali to participate as the invited country for two weeks. In her first mission abroad, Misi participated in the carnival wearing costumes that represented floral patterns. “There were also performances from six invited countries, Indonesia, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, Ceko, and Ecuador,” Misi recalled.
Miss Boyolali and Airport Ambassador
In 2018 Misi also had a duty as Miss Boyolali 2018, which is unexpected due to how tomboy she is. This duty was followed by her winning in the Airport Ambassador selection, which again demanded her to be feminine because she represented Solo with its soft, gentle, calm, smiley. Due to her powerful and energetic character, Misi also did not expect to win the contest. “But I won,” she said. Although new to the contest, Misi has skills that most girls nowadays don’t have. “I could put my own sanggul (hairpiece extension), I could wear my own jarik (traditional Javanese clothes), all traditional Javanese clothing I put them on myself. So, I did not ask help with this and that,” Misi said.
Role model
Each person has their own role model from which they look into and want to learn from. For Misi, her role model is the supermodel, Gigi Hadid, Kimmy Jayanti, and her teacher Arby Vembria. Misi explained that she is amazed by Gigi Hadid’s perseverance to achieve her modeling skills now. “She trained herself until she is well known like now,” she said.
Parental Support
Explaining to her answer on what makes her believe that she could do what she wants, Misi shared how her parents fully support her and give her freedom to choose her next steps, as long as she stays on the positive path. As an only child, Misi said that her parents always emphasized responsible freedom for her, she is free, but she needs to be responsible with her choices. This value shaped Misi into someone who always is responsible for her choices and does not disappoint her parents.
“You know what you want, you know your options, go take it. As parents, we could only pray, only support you searching for schools. If you could get into school, automatically you know how to live your future,” Misi shared her parents’ message for her.
Turning Point
Looking back on her achievements, Misi stated that she never expected that she could go this far. Her insecurity with how her hair looks turned into her uniqueness, her dreams that were ‘could I be that, were achieved and opened golden opportunities for her. “After reaching this point, I think, oh, I could. Oh, I got the opportunities. God is generous. Alhamdulillah. I never expected that I could reach this point now,” she said.
When talking about the turning point, Misi stated that all beauty competitions she went through were her turning point that showed her her way to the modeling career. With her achievements, the Airport Ambassador was also involved in many campaigns or modeling works, such as community service ads from the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, Pertamina, Delmonte, Djarum 76, Moreskin, Lacoco skincare, Cozmeed, Nimco, and many other products.
Acknowledgment
There is just so much one person could achieve alone. Misi fully realized this and delivered her gratitude to people who have supported her, her parents, friends, and university teachers. She specially thanked her friend, Berliana Himawaati, who had encouraged her to participate in the tourism ambassador competition. “Turned out from there, this is my way,” Misi said. She also thanked her seniors and teachers in the Indonesian Language and Literature Program FIB UNS. “Maybe if I am not admitted to the Indonesian Language and Literature Program, I won’t be like this (successful),” she added with teary eyes.
Misi also thanked her undergraduate thesis supervisor, Dr. Dwi Susanto, and Dr. Wiwik, who have trained her public speaking skills. “Thank you to me for willing to learn, for willing to fight to this point. Now I know what life is like, and not just staying in my comfort zone. Thank you for being fearless, the setting will, mental to learn, to change, and fight the fear of failure, and could accept failure,” she added.
Hopes
Her current achievements do not make Misi stops planning and dreaming for her future. The girl from Boyolali hopes she can complete her study at UNS soon and continue her modeling career further at the national and international level. “I also hope to build a business because I don’t want to live solely on my modeling career. I need a business because I know my career will dim with my age,” Misi stated.
Messages
Misi has messages for everyone fighting in life. She mentioned that it is better for young people to try everything and exhaust their shares of failure while they are young, have energy, and have time to improve themselves. She also emphasized the importance of having a dream and target as not to be trapped in the stream of life. She also added that a journey would have shares of a difficult time and a happy time. Therefore, she stated that it is better to move forward with all the challenges that await in the journey. Humas UNS
Reporter: Bayu Aji Prasetya
Editor: Dwi Hastuti