Five years ago (2001), together with another fifty strangers from various part of Indonesia, I arrived in Singapore under Asean Scholarship scheme provided by Singapore’s Ministry of Education. A mixture of happiness and fear was indeed obvious from our faces, or at least from mine. Although we are scholars, entering an entirely unknown environment was indeed a daunting experience; not to mention the responsibility that was placed upon our shoulder: do well academically, socially and … mentally (?). We were just a bunch of 15 – 16 years brats after all. Some of us were barely 14. We proudly named ourselves Golden Eleven.

‘Golden’ represents fifty (our number) and ‘Eleven’ indicates that we are the eleventh batch of Indonesian Asean Scholar. The single biggest batch of Asean scholars ever recorded.

Being a scholar is never easy. Many often forget that scholarship is not just merely a prestige and financial aid. It comes with a duty to represent our country, expectation to perform well anytime anywhere, belief that we is going to make a lot of friends, hope that we will be a part of better age and many more. Even some forgets that we are still fallible humans who can fall and cry - albeit we will stand up again afterward. :)   Nevertheless, we struggled, we strive and we survive… Yeah, we are good. Congrats Peeps!

Time flies. Some of us leave prematurely. Some still stays in Singapore – me!. Some decided to further his or her studies at some place much bigger than this little sunny island. Yet, I believe that fifty of us are going to treasure, to some extent or another, our memories in this prosperous little red dot in the midst of chaotic region.

Once again, congratz to my fellow G11-ers. No matter where we are, I wish all the best for all of our endeavors.

We rox!