I've had a soft spot for Finland since I first heard its rock music. It seems wild to my English eyes, with its endless forests, dark Winters and enigmatic predators.
I've needed some time out recently, so - when my cousin introduced me to a church in Espoo, and they invited me over for five weeks - it was impossible to turn down. I worked there in exchange for a place to stay, daily essentials and time to reflect.
When I came to Finland, I had a ToDo list in my mind that I wanted to learn here. And one of them was riding a bicycle.
I used to ride one while growing up, with training wheels attached to it. Everyone thought that I would eventually find my balance and manage without that support. I did not. As in life, I should carry over the plan when I could not succeed. I did not try hard enough.
I am in Finland for the year working as a researcher at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies at the University of Helsinki. Last summer, back home in Canada, I downloaded an app so I could learn some basic Finnish phrases. It must have been a strange sight for my neighbors to see me gardening with my headphones on while pronouncing Finnish words and phrases out loud—especially since the language sounds so foreign.
JUST like other immigrants, I came to Finland with exciting dreams and great hopes. But unlike other immigrants, I arrived in Finland with a huge bucket-list of things to do that I was not able to do back in my country.
During my childhood or teens, I never had a chance to cycle.
I felt like I had fled a burning house when I boarded the plane to Helsinki. I left my job working for a county elections office preparing for the upcoming November presidential general election there, which looks more and more like it will result in disastrous conflict at the hands of Donald Trump, who will cling to power by any means possible. Once I connected to WiFi during a Frankfurt layover, a message from my mother popped up on my phone: “only 8 percent contained.”
When I first stepped out of the airport at Vanta I was greeted by a blast of chilly air accompanied by the sweet, unfamiliar scent of pine trees. It was the peak of winter and it was unlike anything I had experienced before, having come from a place where temperatures reach 35 degrees celsius even in winter. I had been warned, but Finland did not seem like the freezing, icy wasteland that people made it out to be. Even in the bleak, sunless landscape of late January, it seemed filled with hope and promise. That was two and a half years ago.
As summer brings a delightful fresh approach to Boston, people finally can find relief in the warmth of balmy weather after going through the harshest winter in the history. The weather is gently reminding me of my last summer in Lahti-Finland where I have been calling home for four years.
Finland has been a blessing to me and my family. Through free education amongst many other good things that Finland offers to immigrants, we have achieved what others have been denied in other countries.
In this regard I will say that, sometimes we tend to burn all our energy in the negative things that come along our way in the endeavor to achieve success and complain a lot and we tend to forget also to focus on the bright side of life and we miss the good things that come our way.
I have been living in Finland for almost five years now. I came to Finland in 2009 to study my Master's degree in Computer Systems at Tampere University of Technology. At the moment I am working as an Embedded Software Designer in the automation industry.
What was it about Finland that made such an impression on me when I visited the country for the first time earlier last year?
The scenery was wonderful, of course. I got a taste of what was to come as the aeroplane flew in over the Baltic Sea and then over a beautiful green landscape dotted with lakes. Although I never ventured out of Helsinki, even the capital was an oasis compared to London, where I live and work. My hotel was just a twenty minute tram ride from the Central Railway Station, and yet a few minutes' walk away was Seurasaari, a lovely little island where, as I sat on the rocks overlooking the pristine waters, with just the odd duck paddling by and not a sound to be heard, I might have been a million miles from civilisation.
I often hear young foreigners and Finns alike ideating over Finland's wonderful free education system. Wonderful? – maybe. I hope so. Free? – certainly not! As a 27 year resident of Finland I take almost native pleasure in casting down imaginations and can tell you nothing, especially in Finland, is free.
