Mauliate Situmeang

My dad 's playing the guitar.

What I think a hero is, or what a hero should be is not so difficult. You don’t have to wear tights and fly around rescuing people with your heat vision, or even knock out bad guys and put them to jail to be a hero. Because from my point of view, a hero is someone who both helps, protects us when we’re hurt mentally or someone who inspires us. The first person who popped into my head when I thought of that was my dad. Not that my mom doesn’t count. My dad is my hero because according to me, his life is so cool, so far. He inspires me to make something out of myself, and he always protects me and helps me when I’m hurt.

Now, I will tell you about his life up until now. My dad's long name is Mauliate Pirmian Situmeang. He was born in Sipoholon. My dad’s family consists of 7 people, including himself. They are: my Grandfather, Doangsa P.L. Situmeang; my Grandmother, Christine Lumbantobing and my dad’s siblings. My dad’s oldest little brother has only 1 year difference from him, with the 3rd oldest is 2 years and with the 4th oldest is 4 years, yet with the youngest, which is the only daughter in the family, the difference is 7 years. My dad’s family comes from North Sumatra, Medan (to be more precise, they’re from Sipoholon). He is a Bataknese, and Bataknese has a lot of traditions. Like when a couple marries, they’re gifted with ulos, a traditional handmade weaving with complicated patterns, from each family. There are more traditions, like parties, the Bataknese love to party, they gather the family to talk, joke and laugh. For one thing, the Bataknese share a strong bond with their families. Also, since there are a lot of traditions, many of the Bataknese stopped caring and don’t go on in doing them. But my dad does. My dad joined in those parties whenever he could and often was picked to be the head of staff in the parties, which means he was trusted that he could do those duties and that was rare. My dad still kept his identity as a Bataknese by doing the Bataknese tradition, as well as speaking in Batak, (though he can speak the English and Indonesian language fluently) He also can sing many songs that uses Batak language. I appreciate him for this because nowadays, people in the modern world rarely appreciate their own culture and traditions.

My dad graduated his elementary at SD Negeri Kampung Rawa on 1976. Then, he went on to Junior High school at SMP Negeri 88, which he graduated out on 1979. After that, he went to SMPP 35 (later called SMU Negeri 78), which was one of the best there was in Indonesia and he graduated on 1982. After graduation, he was determined to go to a well known and one of the top-notch universities in Indonesia, Universitas Indonesia. They said that an that time, the chances of going in was 1:300. My dad made it, top 10 too, and went into the law faculty. He graduated at the age of 24. And later on, he became the head of the Situmeang and Situmeang law firm, which is owned by the family.

I forgot to say that my dad had gone to the same High school as my mom, but after graduation, they didn’t meet each other. Eight years later, they met by chance at a theatre, and who knew that only 2 years later, they started dating and then they got married. A year later, they had me. And 3 years later, they had my cute little brother, Joshua.

my mom, my bro, me and my dad

As he now has me and my little bro, he has the role of dad in the family, and he will also play the part as my hero. My dad, as all dads do, supports me from time to time. Like when I feel gloomy and hopeless, that’s when he comes in. He also trains me to think that I can do what I do, which was now, well, doing pretty good at school (He has some high demands for his children). Not just that, my dad is also kind and wise, and the best part is that he’s really disciplined with his children. He does punish us without hesitation. But he doesn’t punish us for fun, he punishes us for us to learn that what we had done was bad, and I shouldn’t do it again. Last but not least, my dad also cares and works really hard for his family. That is why he deserves to be called a hero from my point of view.

So to put it all in short, my dad is a hero because his life inspires me and he did his role as my dad real well (which was to protect me from harm, mentally and physically). He cares about his family and me, and always supports us with his funny but wise sayings.