Growing up in a family obsessed with sports, seeing my father and cousins waking up early on weekdays to watch an NBA game or staying up into the wee hours of the morning to support their favorite Premier League team, I was born into the sports world.

With soccer being the most popular activity on the playground in early elementary, I naturally involved myself with the world’s game, trying out for school teams and becoming a significant extracurricular activity after school hours. Soccer became an integral part of my life - spending my Saturday mornings competing for school and club teams. As I developed as a player, the hours on the field continued to pile up. Being known for being a high-energy central midfielder, never ceasing to run out of energy, I attracted the eye of my school’s cross country/track & field coach, who pushed me towards competitive mid-distance and long-distance running. After competing in a few internal school track meets, the idea of going through a journey of grinding and competition individually compelled me. Not long after, my life revolved around the sport. Dominating inter-scholastic competition, training into the dark Jakarta nights, I fell in love with the personal journey I chose to embark on with running.