Growing up as a kid in Indonesia, I always wanted to visit the United States of America. Although I live close to 10,000 miles away, the US has been in almost every movie and TV show that I grew up watching. While many Americans dream of going to Paris, Rome, Tokyo, and many more, my dream was to go to New York City. I never expected to live just an hour away (by train) from NYC. It was a long process that took a lot of patience, but here I am, living the dream. And thus, began my worldwide journey from Jakarta, Indonesia to Langhorne, PA.

My family has always had a respect for the USA, ever since my Grandfather studied music at Berklee College of Music in Boston. He was already working as a musician back then, and he studied and got his diploma there. Not long after, my Mom also applied and got accepted to Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, IL. She loved her time in the US and made plenty of friends from around the world.

Because she was a college student in Chicago in the 90s, she got to witness Michael Jordan get his first three-peat (3 NBA championships in a row). We even joke about how we bring good luck to the cities we study in because Chicago won 3 NBA championships while she studied there, and, since I started studying here, Philadelphia, Philadelphia won the Super Bowl, Villanova won the NCAA championship, and the Philadelphia 76ers made the playoffs for the first time in a while.

But yes, back to my story. When the time came for me to apply for universities, my parents suggested that I apply to several universities abroad because they felt that my ability to speak English fluently should be used to learn in an English-speaking country, and of course, the US was my first choice. I did apply to several universities in the US and several local colleges in Indonesia as backup. Because education is expensive in the US, I applied for scholarships in those universities as well.

As an aspiring international student in modern society the internet helped a lot in the application process. I could submit my education resume, my certificates from my school achievements, and my application essays all from my laptop. This made the first step of the application process rather simple. After I sent all the required essays and files to the colleges that I applied to came the second step: the waiting game.

Because it took a while for my files to be processed, I continued with my senior year of high school while waiting for either my acceptance or rejection letters from the universities that I applied to. And one day, the mail came with a package from my #1 choice university. Inside the package were some merchandise, brochures, and an official letter of acceptance from my university! It was all smiles and happiness in the room up until we read the part about financial aid and costs of going there, which was well above our budget.

But then, a miracle came in the form of three representatives from this small-town Christian university in Pennsylvania. These three men sat down with my family and me on their visit to Indonesia and we spoke for a few hours. They then offered me financial aid that helped with the costs of studying that brought the cost within our budget. And, so they say, the rest is history. I went to Cairn, finished my freshman year, came back for my sophomore year, joined The Scroll, and here I am writing this article.

After I found the right university, the next step was to obtain the necessary documents to study in the USA. These Documents include a valid passport, an F-1 Visa, a SEVIS receipt, and an I-20 document that must be signed and approved before entry into the United States. The school was helpful in this process and I managed to get all of these in time.

And so I bought my plane tickets, spent the summer with my family and friends, and packed up for my new life abroad. Since this article is long enough, I’ll be breaking it into 2 parts. On the next part, I’ll be continuing the journey. What are some myths about international students and are they true? What’s it like living 10,000 miles away from your family? Find out next time!