The person

One of my favorite books on identity is written by Amartya Sen (2007). He described in detail the many different affiliations one has, and their constant competition to be the dominant characteristic. In the three decades that I have walked the earth, I too have ruminated upon the very issue. Since this page's intention is to inform you, the reader, of my personhood, I think it is only fair to outline my own examination of the self.

A foreigner

I have always been a foreigner, it does not a brag make, far from that, it is at times a symbol of shame. I wore my almond-shaped eyes and langsat-colored skin as a banner of my differentness from everyone else. Teng lang, the people of Tang, was the word my grandmother used to describe us. Although we emigrated to Indonesia quite recently, the borrowed term from the Hokkien who had been in the country much longer is still the closest description of our shared identity: A foreigner.

My early years were spent in the heart of the Moluccan archipelago, where one subsisted on the bounty of the sea and was raised with songs of the waves and gulls. I was born in a house in front of a busy port to a sailor and a homemaker in a Chinese Indonesian household of Cantonese and Teochew descent. In my fourth year, my father was assigned to start a new venture in Sorong, Papua. We sailed to follow him on this ordeal that fell through pretty instantaneously. By then, I was the first of four children and three who survived infancy. In my eighth year, a religious riot erupted in my hometown Ambon (later known as the Moluccan sectarian riot), and I became a refugee. My insistence on going to school almost cost me and my father our life. Months after he adorned his temple with a purple band, a declaration of neutrality, while fashioning a flare gun and a sharpened bamboo in order to keep us safe, that was the night he decided that it was time we leave. We joined an army of refugees by sleeping in a family van and sitting by the water while my father ventured in an attempt to secure tickets for our safe passage. I spent the remainder of my primary education in Makassar under the tutelage of strict Catholic disciplines under the congregation of Sisters of JMJ before my family decided to transfer our family to Surabaya. We made our home there, where my scientific curiosity bloomed, and I promised myself that one day I would be a farmer. Unfortunately, a month after I turned 16, my father passed. I became the ward of my father's clan in Jakarta, where I was sent to study management, which was hoped to provide me with a suitable marriage, and where would live for the next 8 years.

After graduation, I decided it was time to fulfill my destiny as a daughter of a sailor: to see the world. I left my first job in Jakarta for Petaling Jaya, Malaysia where I learned the intricacy of a crowdfunded business venture. Afterward, I spent half a year traveling around Indonesia and Vietnam before my next move to Ahmedabad, India. The combination of effort and circumstances quickly rewarded me with luck that took the form of a scholarship to study for a master's degree in Italy. My European adventure thus started. I took an Erasmus exchange in Würzburg, Germany, and attended summer schools all over the continent. I learned Lithuanian and did a research traineeship with the Bank of Lithuania before obtaining a Ph.D. scholarship that brought me to Siena, Italy, where I spent my pandemic period. The degree then brought me to the sleepy village of Annandale-on-Hudson in the US, where I spent 6 months as a visiting scholar and later as a visiting researcher on an authorship contract at the Bank of Latvia. I married a Sinologist in the summer of 2022 in Denmark, and spent our honeymoon in Taipei, Taiwan, by writing our respective dissertations. At the time of writing,  I am trying to settle myself down at Firenze, only to receive news that I am required to relocate yet once again to Padua. 

Throughout my voyage, never was I considered to be a local. Some who live my lifestyle would describe themselves as a nomad, a word that has outgrown its humble origin thanks to the age of social media. I see myself instead as what Hesse (2018) described as those who are travelers by necessity. I am not a European gentleman who embarked on the Grand Tour to Vienna and Budapest and London and Rome and Paris, and call himself a 'well-traveled person'. I am that cook in a humble Singaporean Inn who traveled back and forth to her village in China through the peninsula of SE Asia twice a year out of necessity. I am not keen on drifting, I am seeking a home.

A chronicler of immigrant lifestyle in the early 21st century

I enjoy musing over things. Writing helps me shape my thoughts and take a break from life. I have written a couple of articles for CNN (here and here) on account of my life as an Indonesian abroad in Italy. I used to write blog posts on airport sleeping from my younger days, too, although now it is primarily a mix of everything. My current mission is to continue my work on my 'Great American Rail Journey - From New York City to San Francisco' (here and here) by penning a series of travelogues akin to that of Paul Theroux's (1975). 

A pragmatic

'In life, you have fate and destiny. Fate is things you can't control; you don't choose your parents or the circumstances in which you were born. Destiny is, however, on your hand. It is everything that you can control, and if you fail in life because you do not make use of it, then it is entirely on you.' That was what I was taught growing up. It shaped my character and helped me to navigate through life. 

This adage is also a motivation for me to pursue research in the field of Inequality of Opportunity.

A non-idler

Growing up as an Indonesian, I have one cultural problem that I cannot really say no to. So, I often found myself in an entirely new frontier. 

During the third year of my BA, I was a tutor/nanny in 2 households, worked part-time as a librarian, and performed assistant roles to 2 professors. In the following semester, I dabbled into retail as a sales associate for Louis Vuitton Indonesia for a season. 

Since my master's year, I have been involved with OISAA on the international and national levels. I have served as the national coordinator of the Italian chapter (PPI Italia) for 2020/2021 and as a regional coordinator for Tuscany 2020-2022. 

During my PhD year in the summer of 2021, I had: a remote consultancy job, 2 remote internships, intercontinental relocation bureaucracy, a seminar paper to present, and I was a national coordinator for the Italian chapter of OISAA (Overseas Indonesian Students Association Alliance). 

Even after I submitted my thesis, regardless of a promise I made to myself repeatedly for the past 10 years that I would take a break, I decided to start working almost instantly. I took a part-time role with the European Institute and a teaching position in 2 different classes while job-hunting. I eventually accepted a postdoctoral position where I finally put a stop to all the double-responsibility lifestyle. 

A Catholic, but mainly a human

I am a Christian by choice. At the age of 18, I became a catechumen at my university's parish. I had to undertake one year of instructions, three written exams, and three interviews before I was allowed to receive a sacrament of baptism at the Easter Vigil of 2010 and later a sacrament of confirmation at the Christmas Vigil of the same year. By choosing my own faith, I had to go through the soul-searching process many did not have to go through. I accepted Jesus' teaching of love as the first and foremost principle of my life. One does not have to be Christian to be kind, frankly, but I enjoy the feeling that as humanity we have developed a consensus that takes the form of a faith in which love is the cornerstone. 

'Be kind' is a simple message that we often forget, but shouldn't. This tenet has since become the cornerstone of my mission. I believe in kinder economics, and I believe that we can achieve a society with compassion and love toward our neighbours. 

Nita

If you ended up here because of one of the job applications I have sent, I hope I gave you a glimpse of who I am beyond the CV that you have read. If you are not, I hope this small page on the interweb will give you a better understanding of me as flesh and blood, as I also believe that you are more than a one-line Twitter/Linkedin bio. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me if you would like to drop a word: a request for information, a remark, or a discussion, I am open to most types of conversation. 

Bibliography

Hesse, H., & Chödzin, S. (2018). Singapore dream and other adventures: travel writings from an Asian journey. First edition. Boulder, Colorado: Shambhala Publications, Inc.

Sen, A. (2007). Identity and violence: The illusion of destiny. Penguin Books India.

Theroux, P. (1975). The great railway bazaar: by train through Asia. Boston, Houghton Mifflin.