Chapter 1: Moving to Edinburgh
When moving to a new country becomes a journey of finding myself.
It was 6 September 2026 when I checked the email, while I was preparing my luggages to move to Edinburgh for studying abroad.
“Your flight CGK to IST on 8 September 2026 has been cancelled”, said the email from my airplane.
I had mentally prepared myself for the possibility of receiving such a notification, since news of Mount Krakatau’s volcanic eruption had begun to circulate massively the previous day and continuously getting worse, causing airport shut down. Still, the feeling of confusion, concern, and disappointment were inevitable.
For a moment, I paused and took a deep breath, trying to collect my thoughts. Rather than letting panic take over, I began considering the next steps my friends and I could take to sort out our flight circumstances. After communicating with the airplane staffs back and forth, we could secure a rescheduled flight.
During my flight, I coudn’t stop wondering on why all of these events occuring at the same time period, especially when I was about going to leave my family behind. Leaving home is never easy, but it becomes even harder when you leave knowing that a disaster is occuring in your own country.
Yet, amidst all the uncertainty and the events that kept haunting my head, I reminded myself why I had chosen to leave in the first place. I wasn’t leaving simply to pursue my own aspiration, but also to build and open a better future and opportunities for myself and my family. As difficult as it was to be away from home, I knew that this journey was part of a bigger purpose; one that I hoped would eventually allow me to give back to the people and the country I was leaving behind.
With those thoughts in mind, I eventually arrived in Edinburgh, carrying a mixture of excitement after years of dreaming, preparing, and working towards this moment. Yet, I soon realised that arriving at a destination I had long aspired to reach did not mean leaving all my worries behind. Instead, I was learning to carry them with me, while finding the courage to embrace the new chapter that awaited me.
The first time I set my foot in Edinburgh, I felt like a beginner all over again. Setting up a local phone number, opening local bank accounts, grocery shopping, figuring out public transport, memorising the map, getting used to unfamiliar accents, adapting to the cold weather, and becoming comfortable doing things alone. Beyond its postcard-perfect views, Edinburgh was teaching me to build a life in an unfamiliar place.
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I may have travelled abroad before and gained a sense of how to navigate a foreign country, but visiting a new city and living there are two different stories. It is like admiring a book after seeing its cover or synopsis before actually sitting down to read it. The cover or synopsis may offer a glimpse of the story and leave you imagining what lies within. But it is only by turning each page, word by word, that you begin to understand it in its entirety.
The further I wander into the corners of this city, the more I find myself in it. It feels like meeting an old friend whom you’ve never actually met before. Someone whose presence feels familiar, whose ways mirror your own, and in whom you recognise little pieces of yourself.
The people I met,
The spontaneous conversation with strangers,
The friendships I never thought I’d be lucky enough to find,
The foods tastes that slowly grew on me,
The beautifully designed libraries with their thousand centuries-old books I once only imagined while reading novels and watching disney movies,
The spark that slowly finding its way back to me, and
The level of courage I didn’t know I had.
While consciously managing my expectations for what lies ahead, Edinburgh has welcomed me in the loveliest way, as though it had been waiting for me to come along.
Perhaps, as the clock keeps ticking, this city will teach me things I have yet to understand and help me rediscover another part of myself. And who knows, a year from now, I might look back at these writings and smile at how much I have grown as a person. It would be interesting indeed, innit?
