I landed in Kaohsiung in 2017 for my master's in International Master Program in Asia Pacific Affairs (IMAPA), and when it ended in 2019 I went straight into the PhD at the Institute of Political Science (IPS) without a real break in between. One program folded into the next before I had time to notice the transition.

IPS was where I grew up as a scholar, in the plain sense of that phrase. Coursework, seminars, colloquiums, the slow process of learning how to defend an argument in a room full of people trained to find its weak point. Whatever methods I ended up using, I taught myself outside the program, but IPS is where I learned what a claim needs to survive scrutiny, and where I first understood the difference between having an opinion about Taiwan-Indonesia relations and being able to defend one. Sitting through my own defense in June, after years of expecting that room, still did not feel the way I imagined it would.

None of that came free. The year my scholarship ended, I taught English at a junior high school just to keep my family afloat while still writing chapters at night. There were stretches where I felt more like a part-time teacher who happened to also be finishing a dissertation than a PhD candidate with a side job.

My wife carried more of this degree than any acknowledgments page can properly credit. My daughter was born here in Taiwan, and her laughter had a way of putting a bad writing day back into proportion. My family back in Indonesia prayed for me across a distance that never stopped feeling far.

I defended in June. In a few weeks we move seven years of a life back to Yogyakarta. IPS shaped how I think. I did not expect it to also shape everything else I carry out of Kaohsiung.