Letters to me

Near, far, where ever you are...

2015-01-11T20:20:00+02:00

Travelling and meeting other travellers (in your home country) is great. Making friends with people you have met is even better. Some frienships will last longet than others, but I do believe that every person in our lives is there for a reason. I also think that frienships and relationships are worth fighting for but there are also times and situations when letting go is the best thing to do. That's case if for example only one of the parties is fighting for it

During my year in Australia I met many friends from all over the world. Meanwhile my friends on this side of the globe moved to different areas in Finland and Europe. After gettig back here, it was great to see that with my dearest friends nothing really had changed. Except our friendships had grown stronger if anything.

Now it's over a year that I got back. It's a real joy for me to see that certain friendships are still going strong with people that are still in Australia or have moved elsewhere too. Of course with the distance like this, it's not possible to be present in each others everyday life as we would if we were in the same city, but when we catch up on skype etc. we still laugh at the similar jokes and share each others less-bright-moments too. However, there moments that I sometimes reall wish I could take my friends to my favourite places in Helsinki or introduce two amazing friends to each other but can't because they live the opposite sides of the world and it makes me sad.

Once when I brought up this thought in a conversations with friend who also has her dear people living in different countries and cities, she told me what her friend told her when they where having a bit similar talk. The friend of hers said something along these lines "it's tough but imagine if you had people near you (geographically) but no one truly close to you (in terms of relationships)." This idea have helped me to stay grateful overses friendships even the times I've missed someone living faraway very badly. I definitely rather have dear people near and far than don't let anyone close to me at all. When I miss someone, I'd like to see that as a reminder how great people I have in my life.

About 2014

2015-01-01T23:05:53+02:00

Wow.. Although I don't make new year's resolutions, I'll promise to write a lot more posts in 2015 that I did last year.

As my first post this year I'll wrap up the year 2014. I think there are years that brings sense of accomplishment within, be it graduating, getting the job of your dreams or a step forward in relasationships etc and then there are years to work, change, improve, overcome the difficult and prepare for things to come. Of course, every years brings it's ups and downs and they're unique for each of us. Every year we prepare and accomplish something.

For me the year of 2014 was mostly learning to make the most of every step on the journey. Especially the ones that feel painful at the time and the ones that don't seem to get me any forward when in reality they are. To learn from them, to appreciate them. This been a year of learning from failures and that they don't define me. It applies to any area of life, relationships, work, you name it.

In relationships I've learned to let go, of people and also from mistakes that I or the the other person made and started to get over the fear of rejection. Once, or actually so many times again I've been reminded how amazing friend I have, both near far but all there for me when needed. I really hope I've been able to do the same. Same could be said about my family too.

At the end of the year I got an email that made me very happy and still does. It was an acception letter to university of applied sciences I applied as my first option. This means moving hundreds of kilometers away from all I know but first of all it's a big step closer to my dream to become a counselling therapist one day. Grateful for the year 2014 and excited about 2015 and all that it'll bring along.

Home sweet home

2014-10-27T21:56:00+02:00

Last month I went for a short citybreak holiday to Budapest. It was a very nice and realxing one, but the thing that amazed me the most was how nice it actually was to come back home. The same thing also happened this month when I came back after visiting a friend who lives in another city.

Yes, it is true that I have the nicest apartment I've had since I moved to live on my own. However, the apartment is just a part of a building to me if I didn't have friends and family coming over every once in a while. And yet there's still more to it. For me home is being at peace with myself, with God (yes, I am a Christian but that's another story) and dealing with those unwanted moments alone better than I have before. Of course, the place and apartment matters but without this inner peace I wouldn't truly feel like home anywhere in the world. It also works the other way - I believe having this peace will help me to make home in different places if needed.

Currently I feel like I have two homes, or home cities to be exact, the one I live in right now and Melbourne. During my year in there I just felt like that really became my home city, never mind the fact that most of the time I didn't have my 'own' home in Melbourne. I am happy here but at the same time I keep missing Melbourne also as a city, not just all my dear friends in there. So for me home is where at least a part of my heart is. ;) Sometimes it's hard to have two homes in your heart but most of the time I see it as richness of life.

Finally

2014-10-05T11:09:00+03:00

The blog silence turned out be longer than I thought it would, but now it's over. I got my new laptop yesterday and the best way to get used to it is to update the blog. :P

Best regards

someone who just wrote a long post and accidentally deleted it by pressing something something she shoudn't have.

Ps. This time I forgot to save the draft like I always normally do. But now that I have the laptop, I will post something proper soon.

A break

2014-09-12T08:52:00+03:00

First of all I'm really sorry for the last post that was only a healine. It was because I tried try write and send a post by using my phone. Why did I try to do that? Because I was on a holiday and my phone was all I had. Very likely it's going to be so for a while since my laptop broke down completely before I my trip. This will cause a break to my blog, more or less. When I'll have a chance, I will still write, but it's not gonna be very often. I hope this is only tempory and short term. My holiday was a good break, this one not so much. More about holidays, other good breaks and whatnot next time. Thank you for your unbderstanding and patience.

Travelling by myself, not alone

2014-08-31T20:13:00+03:00

Travelling is one of the best things I know. You get to see new places, get to know new cultures and languages, meet new people etc. Or of course people also often travel to catch up with a friend or meet their loved ones. On this post I'm going to focus on the part about new people and places.

I have travelled with my family, with a friend, with few friends and by myself or as some people would say 'alone'. It may seem like a tiny, insignificant difference. For me personally it's quite a big one. 'Alone' has kind of a negative ring to it, as if it wasn't optional but only because nobody wanted or could come with me while 'by myself' is more positive and sounds like it's been actually my choice not to have anyone with me this time. That's how it is in my books anyway. If somebody says to me for example "so brave for you travelling alone" I'll still take it as a compliment, since the other person isn't maybe thinking about the difference of those words same way I do.

The pros and cons of travelling by yourself:

Pros

You can decide exactly what you want to do, where to go, who to spend time with etc.
In case you have made plans, they are easier to change.
Based on my own experience, it's easier to really make friends when travelling by myself. I think it's because if there's two or more people together, other people don't want to 'disturb' them. Someone on her/his own may be easier to approach. I've found that if I'm travelling with somebody I'll tend to stick with that person and while we may hang out with new people but the interaction is usually more superficial. When I'm by myself, I'm more open for deeper conversations with new people and that way more likely to make friends with whom the friendship may last more than the trip itself.
Brings great feeling of freedom within.
You'll likely to learn new thing about yourself, not only the about the country/countries you'll travel to.

Cons

For someone who likes to do some research about the resort or the place to travel and to get very excited beforehand (like me) that so called planning is only half of the fun on your own.
You really must be ready to have the courage to do that first move socially over and over again. Otherwise you may feel lonely.
Safety and practical things. Of course, it would be more safe be in the new city in the night with somebody than especially as girl travelling by yourself. However, general awereness and common sense will take you quite far. Practical things, such as not having anyone to watch after your suitcase when using the restroom. It can be sometimes quite a trick to make that fit in to the cubicle (and then back out again).

This is just a short list and based on my experience and ideas of travelling by oneself. At the end of the day travelling is great, be it with somebody or by oneself. I would still recommend travelling at least once in your life by yourself -then you'll know whether is your cup of tea or not.

The person behind the screen

2014-08-25T22:21:32+03:00

... and a keyboard.

I am a Finnish girl in my early twenties. I love travelling, writing, long walks with my earphones on while listening to music, witty humor, deep conversations, time spent with friends, listening to music in generally, tea, coffee, asian and any good food, trying new things, dresses and the sea to name a few.

Funnily enough writing introductions about myself isn't my best spot at all. Maybe I'll better just get down to it -start posting, and let my blog post do the introduction for me, haha.

About my blog I would like to say that it's not my first but it's going to be the most personal one I have ever written. The main reasons for me to write are to clear out my thoughts, to get a different perspective to things and share something about myself with you, dear reader. I hope it's gonna be a two-way street there. In my opinion we all have something we can teach to one and other.

The name of the blog comes from a song that I hear some years ago and really liked from that moment on. That song is by Brad Paisley and called Letter to me. (You can find the song on Youtube if you type Brad Paisley Letter to me.) Although the posts on my blog are not going be really letters to me or to anyone, they are more more or less going be about the things I ponder upon as if I were writing a letter to me.

Why do I write in English? Because I have friends pretty much around the world and I want the international readers to understand and be able to follow this as well.