I remember the first lecture of  learning disability diagnostics, in which the lecturer, who later become my internship supervisor, presented us with the PISA Study. It is the Program of International Student Assessment and it compares countries in a variety of topics, including math performance. Most of the data come from 15-year-old students and more than 30 countries were included. It is a small number of countries but Indonesia is in it. My lecturer was asking everyone in class what they think about their country's rank - note that most of the people in my class are Internationals.

Do you know where Indonesia is listed among these countries? Second to last.

It struck something in me. There I was among students from developed countries, all of them from Europe and I was the only Asian coming from a developing country. I defended the result saying education is still difficult to access and low in quality in some parts of Indonesia, due to a small number of qualified teachers and God know what other reasons. That in itself already sets apart Indonesia from other developed countries. Obviously, Indonesia is not comparable with developed countries such as The Netherlands or Germany but, there are also results from Malaysia and the Philippines, both in a higher rank than Indonesia.

This something I highly regard as the biggest learning point of studying abroad: you find your purpose. I'm one of the lucky ones, who received good quality education, managed to somehow enter university and now a Master's education. I believe only a small percentage of Indonesian youngsters can say that. How ungrateful would I be if I don't return home and try to fix this! I don't dream to change the whole country but I take comfort that if I return, I'll do a part in developing my beloved country. Distance gives your perspective on where you belong. Sure being here is very comfortable and safe, but this is not home.