I have to admit that my title is a little bit of a clickbait. Well, a little bit of clickbait wouldn’t hurt, I guess. As long as I deliver the content up to the readers’ expectation: your expectation. Let me tell you my story.

I am from Indonesia and I didn’t come from money. However, I was lucky enough that my family can send me to a mid-rank college in Indonesia. At that point, the only thing I could think of is: to finish college, get a degree as soon as possible and get a decent job so that I could help my family financially. Well boy, how wrong I was. Once I entered university life, I was exposed to organizations, competitions, student exchanges, and part-time gigs. Those activities gradually changed my mindset. Getting a decent job after graduation is no longer my priority. I want to see the world, I want to know about other cultures, I want to meet new friends around the globe, and I want to get Masters’s degree from an Australian university.

I worked hard to improve my English. I polished my public speaking to pass the scholarship interviews. After seven letters of rejection, finally I secured one full scholarship to study at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. It was exactly two years after my graduation, that I got my acceptance letter. What had I done in the period of two-year waiting time? I was working as a temporary English teacher, doing private teaching, getting married, MC-ing, and doing whatever it took to feed my Mum and my wife. Those gigs were not decent in any way. I was focusing on polishing my English and my communication skills to get the scholarship I always wanted. Fortunately, my Mum and my wife were so supportive and they let me chase my dream. I am not sure if their hearts at that time were suggesting that I should move on and apply for a more permanent promising job. I guess I’ll never know.

To cut the story short, I went to Australia for my Master and my wife stayed with me in Brisbane during my study. Voila, the dream comes true.

Why Australia?

To be honest, I didn’t have many preferences and sources at that time. Australia always pops in my mind because the year before I graduated from college, I joined an exchange program in Australia for 2 months. The program was fully paid for by sponsors, otherwise, poor students like me would never make it. It was a short stay, but one day during the exchange program, the delegation of the exchange (including me) visited the University of Queensland to have an art performance. I was amazed by the architecture, the labs, the foyer, the lawn, and everything. I took a pebble from the university garden and I put it in my bag. I told myself, “I will come back here one day as a full-time student, I will”

As weird as it seemed, I studied in Australia because I have promised myself and the pebble to come back. And, I did. I came back and registered as a full-time student in Australia.

What did I get from studying in Australia? Is it the up-to-date materials and curriculum? Yes, of course. However, in terms of materials and curriculum, many Indonesian universities can still catch up especially in my field: social science and linguistics. How about infrastructure? Yes, the infrastructure was great. But again, some Indonesian universities also have advanced infrastructures.

I was amazed by the opportunity to study in Australia because I managed to know different people and cultures. Those two were captivating me more than the curriculum and infrastructure. It was the case and I meant it.

I meet new people so I can witness their lifestyles and the reasons why people do what they do. People are coming from different countries to study in Australia and I was lucky to know some of them. I discussed religion and beliefs with them; something that I rarely discussed in my own country. I try to understand the way how they think and react toward certain philosophies and ideologies. Meeting new people from different cultural backgrounds has made me more humbled, open, and less selfish.

I was always taught by my parents and teachers that my country is the best in the world and my religion is the best therein. Meeting new people made me realize that I had the right to think so but other people also have the right to think the same way. After I came back to Indonesia from Australia after two years of studying, I brought back two precious gems: a formal degree/certificate and a wholly-changed mindset. The second is the thing I treasure more than the first.

I studied in Australia. So what? …. So, that I can rediscover myself and my mind.