I'm...going to taiwan?
When I graduated in December 2024, I specifically graduated early so i could get a full time job sooner, to save up for moving out of the country. I had applied to the Fulbright English Teaching program in Taiwan. I heard that Taiwan has the most spots, plus I can speak a bit of Mandarin. Why not?
In early February 2025, I got the results.
Rejected.
I cried like a damn baby. I texted my mom and she came down to my room, which she never does. She knows how boundaries work with adult children. But this time, she just walked in and hugged me. She knew I wanted it so bad.
My fixation on Taiwan went away for a while. I switched from working part time at a library to working full time at a university. I was (am) making good money for a lowly liberal arts grad. I paid off all my high interest debt in 2 months. I thought that maybe i should do what's safe and stay put. I started apartment hunting locally to begin my next phase of adulthood.
Then I met HL from Wuhan. She was on exchange as an independent PhD researcher in my department. We talked and talked and she said that I should still try to go to Asia, that I would love it there and that I had nothing to lose. She was right. I still wanted to go, but wasn't confident in my ability to find a good route that didn't end with me going broke. I really wanted to improve my language skills, so with her help I applied for the Huayu Enrichment Scholarship.
For the past 5 weeks, I'd been waiting for the results of my scholarship application. Every day I was refreshing my email and checking the subreddit. I disliked that they didn't provide us with a solid timeline. I applied for Fall 2026, so there is plenty of time, but my anxiety didn't seem to understand that.
So I emailed the Education Division around 1pm today asking them when they plan to get back to us with the results. The lovely Chicago embassy replies so fucking fast, 45 minutes later. Maybe it's the Midwestern charm. They said we'll hear back next week. Great!
I was driving home and happened to glance at my phone (oops) and saw an email notification with their logo. At the red light, I opened the email (oops) and read "Congratulations!". That's all i needed to see. I screamed so loud that my throat got sore.
Of course, the first person I told was my mother. She was the one crying this time.
Since receiving that email, there have been only two things in my mind:
(1) They fucking lied to me and (2) I'M GOING TO TAIWAN!