THOMAS ALVA EDISON STORY

Hai, hai! Ini aku mau post kisahnya Sir Thomas Alva Edison. Teks ini aku pakai saat aku join story telling competition di salah satu universitas di Indonesia yang mengharuskan membawa kisah tentang inventor/ penemu. Saat aku tampil kisah ini, aku selipin joke. Tepatnya di bagian Tommy menawarkan koran ke penumpang kereta. Gini nih:

Tommy : Newspaper Sir, Newspaper Madam? Please buy this newspaper, there is a hot news.

Madam : Oh little boy, give me that newspaper!

Tommy : Of course Madam, how many newspaper will you buy?

Madam : Three newspaper.

Tommy : Three? How about Five?

Madam : Five? That’s too much. How about Four?

Tommy : Four? No! Three, yes or not?

Madam: Oh my Gosh! Ok, I’ll buy three newspaper.

Nah seperti itulah kurang lebih, biar kisahnya lebih menarik. 

Saran dari aku, kalau tampil 'apa pun' bikin sesuatu yang mencolok dan beda dari yang lain. Kayak gini nih, pas aku tampil kisah ini, aku sengaja pakai dua celana panjang. Yang dalam, celana hitam (menggambarkan Thomas yang sudah dewasa dan bekerja), dan yang paling luar, aku pakai celana warna merah (menggambarkan Tommy/ Thomas saat kecil). Lalu, saat aku terus membacakan narasi  (tentang pergantian antara Tommy dan Thomas) dan jalan menguasai panggung, aku jalan melewati di belakang tirai kecil (yang udah aku siapin pas waktu menata properti di panggung) dan keluar dari tirai dengan sudah berganti celana hitam. Ya ginilah bikin pemirsa tertarik kisah yang kita bawakan.

Nanti kira-kira bakal ada yang inget, misal pas lagi break dan kita lagi ngobrol sama peserta lain dia bilang "Oh kamu yang tadi selipin sulap ganti celana tiba-tiba itu ya? Aku kaget banget." gitu hehe, Kita langsung masuk ke kisahnya aja ya, semoga sukses buat reader!

            Once upon a time, born a baby boy on February 15^th 1847 from a lady who was a teacher at first, but quit her job since she was give birth. The baby boy named Tommy. When he was 4 years old, his mom placed him in a school.

            One day, his teacher called him in an order to ask him to go home right at that time.

            “Tommy!” said the teacher.

            “Tommy!”

            “Oh my God, doesn’t he hear my pretty voice? Tommy!”

            “Yes ma’am, what happen?” answered Tommy.

            “Clean up your table and go home now!”

            “Yes ma’am! But, why do you only ask me ma’am? And I feel it’s too early to go home.”

            “Sstt! Waiting for what? Hurry up.”

            (Cleaned up the table and walked to the door sadly)

            “Tommy, it’s a letter for your mom. Give to her, ok?”

            “Ok, ma’am. Ma’am can I say something?” (The gesture of Tommy showed if he wanted to whisper to her. Then the teacher came closer and Tommy kissed her)

            “Yuck! Go now filthy stupid boy! Oh my pretty face. I have to wash my face 7 times after this.”

At home, Tommy gave the letter to his mom. It wrote ‘Oh Madam, your son is so stupid. So I ask you to take Tommy from this school. I mean, leave this school and never come back!’ She was so sad when she read it. Then, she decided to teach her son by herself. “Tommy is not a stupid son. I believe he can be a successful man.”

Well guys, Tommy got the lesson from the school only for 3 months.

            Along he studied at home; his mom gave him a lot of books. Like the books from Edward Gibbon, William Shakespeare, and Charles Dickens.

            Yes, Tommy loved reading.

            “Dad, please buy many science books for me. I want to read all of those books.”

            “Sure, I’ll buy them all for you son, but in one condition.”

            “Just tell me dad!”

            “You have to be a diligent boy. Read a lot!”

            “Iyiy Captain! Love you Dad!”

            Thom did not only read the book, but he also tried the theory from the books. He did it in the underground room. He was a curious boy! He bought the ingredients by his pocket money from his parents.

            Day by day, he’d like to do more experiments. So he needed more money. Then he decided to sell newspapers in the train. He was so wise that, “I don’t want to waste my time. I will try to ask to build mini laboratory at this train, so I can do experiment or read anything there. “

            One day, Thomas Alva Edison almost lost the hearing because of an accident. But guys, what I admire about him is that.. He wasn’t sad, but he took the positive side which is “I see I get problem with my hearing, but it’s ok. Because it means I can spend the time to learn more, think better, and not listening to nonsense.”

            Next, when he was 20 years old, he said good-bye to his parents to go to New York City. There, he tried to find a job. But, it wasn’t easy. He had no money. He became thinner and, “Will I die here? God I’m so hungry. Should I give up and go home? No! I can’t go home in this condition. I believe, where there is a will there's a way. I must Keep fighting!”

            By the way guys, Where did he sleep? He slept in the company which had declined him, before. Yes, he got a permission to sleep there. It was Gold and Stock Telegraph Company.

            Until one day, that company got an incident. No one can handle that problem.

            “You all fool guy! How can it be? It will not happen if you all do your job goodly!” said the vice president.

            Then, Thomas offered a help, “Excuse me sir, I heard that there is a problem with the machine. Can I help?”

            “What? How can a man like you solve this problem.”

            “Uuhh....”

            “Ok, hurry up!”

            And, yup he did it! In only 5 minutes, he solved the problem. From that time the vice president of that company asked him to work there. How happy he was. The salary of Thomas was 300 dollar and the vice president of this company gave the first salary on that day. At the same day, Thomas sent money and mail to his parents. He told them what happened to him.

            Once, Thomas had an opinion that the voice of anything can be saved and also can be heard again. People thought it was strange. But, Thomas did it!

            “Wow, great!”

            “Amazing!”

            People gave applause, they wondered how it could be real.

            Until one day,

            In 1877, Thomas Alva Edison spent his time to make light bulb. He needed two years for this experiment. He did more experiments and he got a lot of failures as well. People reviled him.  In the newspaper wrote that he was stupid. But, Thomas didn’t give up. He thought critics didn’t affect his spirits.  Yes, being scientist must be patient. Don’t you know guys? As an inventor, Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. When a reporter asked, "How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?" Edison replied, "I didn’t fail 1,000 times. I've just found 1,000 ways that won't work.

            Well guys, so the moral value of this story is people can say anything to bring you down, but you shouldn’t be affected by that. Keep on fighting to reach your goals.