Death and Taxes

If you were to follow my advice in how to prepare for the IISMA selection interview and tried to look up the possible list of questions that an interviewer may ask, you would find that one of them is "what would you do if a family member passed away during your stay abroad?". This was one of the few questions, perhaps even the only question, that I didn't sweat about because I was confident that they wouldn't ask it during my interview. They should've already known what my answer would be from reading my answer to the second essay question.

In the answer of that essay question, I told the story of how my father passed away on the night before the finals week of my fourth semester. He passed away in Malang while I was studying in Bandung for my finals, and thus I couldn't even attend his burial or visit his grave until the end of the week. I chronicled how I coped with it all and still made it out by the end with grades that I'm proud of. True to my prediction, I didn't get asked that question during my interview. I like to think that one of the reason why I was accepted into this program into this university was that answer.

I believe it is extremely wise for IISMA to ask that question and assess applicants based on their answer to the question because in late September I woke up early in the morning with messages from my mother informing me that my grandfather has just passed away. It was a situation that I knew full well could happen and knew very well how to handle. The minor difference here is the fact that I'm not separated by a two hours flight that costs a second hand phone, I'm separated by a one day flight that costs a house down payment. Thus I'll have to wait not until the end of the week but until the end of the year.

I coped just fine because I have dealt with this previously, but I reckon that many people wouldn't, which is completely normal and human. Most people are lucky to not have to encounter this type of tragedy while they are away from home. Unfortunately, I'm not one of them and there is no guarantee that you're not one of them either. Thus my advice for those who have never been in this position would be to really think through this scenario and consider the coping strategy or mechanism that you would adopt.