About the writer

Basics

I am a soon 21 years old tourism research student in the University of Lapland, in Finland in a city called Rovaniemi. I live almost at the north end of the world, which apart from being far from everything, also gives me some unique photography opportunities. I love the Finnish nature, and Rovaniemi, while being far away from everything else, it sure is close to nature. I started my tourism studies in 2013, and before that I had lived my whole life in Helsinki, except for an exchange year I spent in Chile, which became another home for me. I am not a follower of any religion, but I'd say I believe in Mother Nature.

Passions

Shortly put in no order: horses, nature, photography, travelling and dancing. I also like baking, drawing, painting with body paints and doing sports in general. And meditating. You will hear a lot more about all these in the blog itself!

Personality - who I am, and what I would like to be like

I would describe myself as passionate, enthusiastic, curious, open minded, easily smiling, sensitive and positive amongst other things I am. I am a weird mixture of calmness and energy, but I think that's something I can learn to use to my advantage in the world, as people generally might be more one than another. I would have said I'm patient a while ago, but I have learnt now that there is still much more for me to learn in that aspect. I like to be with people, but sometimes I need to be only by myself.

I used to be really shy, but I've mostly gotten over it in a healthy way, by gaining more self-confidence and consciously working on it whenever I had the chance. Nowadays I'm timid mostly in certain kinds of situations, but I keep practising. I don't mean it's not okay to be shy, I just feel that personally I want to be more secure to be able to get closer to my goals and to be able to enjoy life more. I still  care too much about what other people think of me, but by accepting that I think I'm ready to change also. I try to listen to myself, both the mind and the body, to be able to be as happy and healthy as possible, and not to be afraid of making uncommon decisions if they are the best for me at the moment (and don't hurt anyone else of course). 

Every change starts from accepting who you are - knowing you are who you are and it's ok, but that you still can go towards being more like you would like to be. I work every day to be that person I am in my dreams, but I don't think I will ever be ready. I don't think no one ever will. (How boring it would be anyway to "be ready" with nothing more to achieve.)

My way of life

I live in the moment. I am either fully indulged in something, or I simply am not. I get excited very easily, and I would like to think I haven't lost my inner child with the enthusiasm for the little joys and beauties of life, who shines and runs and jumps when she is happy, and cries when she's sad or angry. Hiding emotions seems so useless to me - why in the world would you want others to think you feel something when you don't or actually feel something else? They can't read minds - everything will be hard, if you have to wear an emotional mask all the time. Most of the time I feel pretty happy or content or relaxed or excited anyway, but the ones close to me know when I'm having a bad day.

Also I am very selfish. I think each and every human being on this planet is selfish. Helping other living beings gives me so much I can't even describe, so I selfishly help other people and animals and even plants whenever I can. I love the nature, and I have a gut feeling that we would be nothing without it, so I do what I can to protect it and respect it. I even believe we ARE the nature and there's no line in between us and the nature, so with more reason I want it to be healthy and safe, as I want myself and my loved ones to be. I don't think it profits anyone if people are stupid, so I try to teach and open the eyes of others when possible. I even share my thoughts of all this, which is selfish as hell: it's like persuading other people to my religion! But I like to live following the golden rule, because it seems very fair and logical to me, so I accept and try to respect (a few times it has been very hard) other's opinions and ways of life. Also I like to believe in the karma's law in my own way, not exactly as the buddhists or hindus believe it. If the people around me are healthier and happier, they will probably be better company and treat people around them better, so there's another benefit of helping others. If I help others, others are also more eager to help me, when I'm in need of a favour. That added to the fact that I feel good by helping others, I see no reason not to be a nice and kind person. Someone else is selfish by taking a candy from a child or throwing rubbish in a forest, because they feel they benefit from it in some way, but I am being selfish in my own way that kind of seems like selflessness. And I am happy, and I like sharing the happiness because it benefits everyone - including me.

Happiness

Happiness comes from inside of everyone, and every single person is possible of creating happiness and love. I believe it's like fire, the more you share and feed it, the more it grows! You can't build it on something you might lose, like money, properties, work, beauty, health, freedom or even friends and family. Some of those things sure make it easier to find the happiness, and most of us do have the basic luxury of being able to live a "normal" life, but eventually the joy has to originate from inside of you. I have my opinions on that, but I won't go there further. If you are reading this, you should think about that, think about happiness and what do you consider happiness. It might be I see it differently, but I wish you are happy the way you see happiness, whoever you are and wherever you are. I believe with eyes and heart open one will find the happiness, and I hope my blog might help someone to open their eyes and heart.