About Me

Profile

About: Greetings! I'm a student in the University of Texas at Austin, studying Finance and Economics, graduating in May 2015. I enjoy traveling, biking, running, hiking, driving, as well as playing soccer, tennis, and golf (also a huge movie buff).

I'm proud to call myself an Indonesian by nationality and blood. My father is half Czechoslovakian (from my grandmother), which makes me a quarter Czech as well. I was raised in Singapore for 15 years, a tiny island exactly 15824 miles from Austin, TX. It's scary to think that the distance to Alaska on the Rockies route is equivalent to roughly 25-30% of the distance from here to Singapore.

Still don't know what I want to do with my life, which is great because this journey will help with the soul searching. But overall, I'm excited to get out there and bike to make some amazing memories in the fight against Cancer.

Why I Ride

At first, Texas 4000 seems like a crazy and audacious journey, possibly even unnecessary. I mean, if we really wanted to find a cure for cancer or educate people about it, biking to Alaska to raise money and spread the word is hardly the best solution. But that's why I really think that Texas 4000's pillar of Hope (next to Knowledge and Charity) is incredibly important. The whole point of biking 4500 miles over 70 days is to prove to people that it because it can be done it will be done. It's to prove to those we hold most dear who have suffered through the unfairness of cancer that there is hope and that people do care. For me specifically, that special someone is my grandfather - Bonifacius Sitohang.

I'm here to repay a debt to that man who passed away in 2010 from brain cancer after fighting it, half paralyzed, for 6 years. It's amazing to think that he started off in Northern Sumatera, Indonesia, in a village completely disconnected from the world back in the 1920s, and that with all his foresight and perseverance, he was able to educate himself (even married my grandmother in Czechoslovakia) and bring our family into the world. He ultimately laid the foundation for our progress. And like other victims of cancer, he was undeserving of the suffering borne onto him. But despite the unfairness, like other victims, he always kept a positive attitude and never gave up the fight.

And that sense of resilience he had is what motivates me to complete this ride, in loving memory of him and millions others.