©Freepik

Something that I’ve learned in my nineteen years of living in this world is that I never liked to settle in one place. I always crave new experiences, the new life in different places where I live. I started that journey when I was 16 and made plans to move out to China alone to continue my high school studies there. Since then, I never wanted to stop traveling around and make as many memories as possible wherever I am in the world. This made my moving-out journey from Indonesia, my home country, to the Netherlands, a fairly easy process for me. But, it didn’t change the thrills and excitement for me to move across the globe for Erasmus university.

Erasmus University

I’ve heard great things about Erasmus university, especially because Indonesia’s first vice president used to study here as well. Making it very famous amongst Indonesian students to continue their studies at this university. I knew I wanted to go further away from home and it always feels like the Netherlands is the safest option to continue my journey abroad. I applied to several universities in the Netherlands such as the University of Amsterdam, Utrecht University, and of course, Erasmus University Rotterdam. I was lucky enough to get accepted to each one of them. Even though, it made me have to go through a tough decision-making process that will determine where I will end up for the next 3 years of my life.

Rotterdam gave me a hustling lifestyle

I’ve always lived in big cities with skyscrapers and a fast-paced lifestyle whole my life. I loved the rush and the hustle, but having to live in both Jakarta and Shanghai, it can get quite exhausting at times to keep up with it. That is why I wanted to move away somewhere that can give me that hustling lifestyle, yet still can find the serenity and calmness whenever I needed it. I know it would be too much of a shocking difference if I were to move to Utrecht due to the nature of the city and Amsterdam is quite too touristy for me right now, even though I wouldn’t mind living there sometime in the future. That left me with Erasmus University that is located strategically in Rotterdam, a city that can give me both a modern city vibe and the quiet suburban areas for me to take a breather whenever I needed to.

So far, living in Rotterdam and studying at Erasmus University has exceeded all of my expectations. I thoroughly enjoy my academic life as well as just trying to make the best out of my social life despite the pandemic that is going on. Obviously, not everything goes smoothly, there are always the ups and downs to things, but I always know for sure that I am in the right place at the right time and that is more than enough for me.

Thanks to Adinda for sharing this article