December 9, 2014

the happiest day of my life


It only took about 5 months to get these pictures from my sister and about a month after that for me to publish these somewhere, but better late than never, right? I can't believe it's been over 6 months since I graduated. And today it's been exactly 6 months since I moved out. Time seriously scares me.

December 8, 2014

musical memories

Music means a lot more to me than just entertainment or a momentary escape from reality. Since I have a habit of listening to specific songs on repeat for a certain amount of time, I later on associate those songs with specific people, places, moments, and different stages of my life. Today on my way home from work I started thinking about songs that bring me flashbacks from various things from my past. These songs are the ones that popped into my head right away.


Peaches - In the Valley Below


Riptide - Vance Joy


Yellow - Coldplay


Something I Need - OneRepublic


Fast Car - Tracy Chapman


Bloodstream - Ed Sheeran


Springsteen - Eric Church


Home - Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros


She Way Out - The 1975


I Won't Give Up - Jason Mraz


The Scientist - Coldplay


Kids - MGMT


Super Bass - Nicki Minaj


In My Bones - Ron Pope


Ho Hey - The Lumineers


I'm Yours - Jason Mraz

Dear friends, after reading this blogpost, some of you should know which song or songs make me think of you. Even if I didn't separately write down who I associate those songs with. Special shoutout to Nicole, Isa, Tua, Jodi, and Mary-Scott haha. There are a bunch of other songs on this list that remind me of different things or people, but I'm not gonna comment on that more closely. I share a lot of things about my life here but these songs (among many other songs I just couldn't think of right away) are very meaningful to me in many ways, even if you couldn't tell from the lyrics. And I think some memories should be kept to yourself, because that makes them feel more special.

Do you all associate music with memories too? Or am I just strange? Haha let me know :)

December 6, 2014

#moblyfe


It seems as though summer days fly by as fast as shooting stars. As cliche as that may sound, it's true. One day you wake up to the sound of seagulls and to the sunlight creeping in through your window, and in a blink of an eye leaves have turned orange like those summer sunsets and are slowly descending to the chilling ground.
Summer is the favorite season of many people for innumerous reasons. No school. Ice cream. Tanning. Swimming in the ocean. Romance. Festivals. Summer cottages. Grill parties... Everything just seems better in the summer. But my favorite thing about summer is the people I get to spend it with. As we grow older our paths start to lead us in different directions and the older we get the further away those paths take us from each other. But for those few short months in the middle of each year, our paths meet and those are the moments we all wish we could relive and go back to in the middle of the cold winter. It's only December but I feel as if we're all on our way to our mutual crossing point already. Maybe it's because I'm looking at all of your faces in these photographs from last summer, but even though we are all currently spread out across the world, I currently feel as if you all are right here with me.

6 months to go.

December 2, 2014

turning 20 & NEW VIDEO

So my birthday arrived and passed and I guess I'm 20 now...
Yesterday was pretty relaxed and even though doing a bunch of things on your birthday is always fun, I think a chill day was exactly what I needed after a weekend of celebrating and after weeks and weeks of morning shifts at work. I spontaneously decided to film a video in the afternoon, and since my sleep schedule is slightly messed up I managed to edit it and upload it last night, so it will be linked below. Nicole came over in the evening and later I had dinner with her, Isa, and my family, which was really nice as well.
I wish I could say that now I'm a year older and wiser, but the wiser part is still missing since I am still just as lost as I was 2 days ago haha. But I guess there's nothing wrong with that, right? But figuring out what I want to do and applying to schools is #1 on my current to-do list.
But here's the video I mentioned, I still feel a little awkward talking to a camera but the more I do it the more comfortable I feel and the less I keep glancing at the flip screen that I use to check that I am in frame. I also apologize for the awkward beginning, I don't even know why that clip is there since I thought I edited it out. But I am too lazy to delete the video, make a small edit and go through the super long uploading process again, so oh well. Now you all know how awkward I feel and look when starting a video.


And I also wanted to say a huge thank you to all of you who remembered my birthday and either messaged me or called me yesterday, it really means a lot to me and you all made my day feel really special. Hopefully being 20 will be the best year yet :) And since it is December it is finally socially acceptable to start listening to Christmas music (sorry Isa) and counting down days until Christmas and I am oh so very excited!! I can't be the only one in full on holiday spirit already, can I?

November 30, 2014

bucket list

I have always thought that people have their lives together or somewhat planned out in their 20's, but there is no way I can figure anything out by tomorrow. Yes, I turn 20 tomorrow. And that is slightly stressing me out.
Most of you reading this, especially if you're older than me, are probably thinking that I'm stressing out over nothing. And maybe I am, but ever since I was a little girl 20 has always seemed like an age that is so far ahead in the future for me, so I feel a little strange that as of tomorrow I will be in my 20's. I had always thought that when I'm 20 I will know exactly what I want to do with the rest of my short time on this earth. I thought that everyone in their 20's is getting a good education, working in their dream job, or are getting ready to settle down. All of that still seems so distant to me.
There are so many things I thought I would do or accomplish during my gap year, and now that it's already half way through, I feel very stressed and a little disappointed. Of course I have done a bunch of stuff I have always dreamed about doing like making a trip to surprise people I love and moving out, but I have so many other things still on my to-do list, and I've only managed to complete a very small percentage of them. Instead of taking time off just for myself and letting myself figure out what I want to do, I've tried to please as many people as I can and make them happy. And I feel like all I've been doing is waking up after a few hours of sleep and dragging myself to work still half-asleep. And even though I get paid to do that which allows me to live alone and buy things that make me happy, that's not all that I want to do during this year. So I've been writing things down in the form of a bucket list. Not that I have to complete every single thing on this list by next summer, but just overall complete as many of these in my life as I possibly can. Here's what I have written down so far:

- Skydive
- Learn to cook/bake
- See the Northern Lights
- Apply and get into an university
- Witness a miracle, any miracle
- Learn to drive and finally get my license
- Ride in a hot air balloon
- Ride a camel
- Move into (and possibly design) my dream house
- Visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
- Visit Dubai
- Go to Coachella
- Roadtrip through USA with my best friends
- Go to the movies alone, even just once
- Get married
- Visit Egypt and see the pyramids
- Bungee jump
- Get tickets to the Ellen Degeneres show
- Backpack through Europe
- Ride in a helicopter
- Fall in love
- Find Nemo and P. Sherman 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney
- Learn Spanish fluently
- Spend New Year's in Times Square
- Travel around the world and set foot in all 7 continents
- Visit all 50 states
- Finish creating my bucket list and complete each task

As I have been writing this list, I have also realized that even though turning 20 slightly terrifies me, I still have so many amazing things ahead of me. Even if most of the things on that list sound very cliche or just plain stupid haha. But the fact that I don't know what I want to do yet allows me a lot more opportunities to choose from. There is a quote that says "nothing will ruin your 20's more than thinking you should have your life together already" and I am slowly starting to understand it. Whoever wrote that, thank you.

PS. 2,5 hours left.

November 27, 2014

inspired

I think this is the moment I've been waiting for. As probably all of you reading this might notice, my blogging has not been very consistent recently. Why? Because I haven't been feeling inspired at all. I've had absolutely nothing to say, which is pretty rare for me if you know me in person. This break has not been intentional, but I guess I kinda forgot about the existence of this page. But even though I've been extremely MIA here, my mind has been making up for the lost time and the amount of things that have been going on in my head has been extremely overwhelming. And the thing that has always helped me solve out my thoughts has been writing. And for some reason, I thoroughly enjoy sharing my thoughts with people, and in this case you all. Even if it's just one person or my parents (hi mom and dad) who still continuously check up on me here, there has always been someone who has been listening to what I have to say here by reading my pointless rambles about my life. And having someone listen or read what you have to say is a really good feeling.
But as I said, I feel inspired now. I have been gathering up thoughts and jotting them down in various places and when my laptop died and my charger broke a few days ago I had a mini panic attack and the first thing that crossed my mind was how on earth am I gonna be able to blog now. That's when I realized I have to get back into this. Blogging has always made me happy and I wanna keep doing it, even if I sometimes have those short (or longer) breaks from it. Those breaks have happened quite often recently but everytime something fun or exciting happens in my life this is the first place I wanna share it on. And I bought a new charger for my laptop today so I am very happy now.
My camera has gathered a nice layer of dust during this little virtual silence of mine, but everytime I look through old pictures I think about how much I miss taking pictures. And how much I hate winter because I can't stay outside for too long with my camera without feeling like my fingers are gonna freeze and fall off and without being scared that the cold is gonna break my camera. But I also noticed that I have a lot of things I haven't written about and a lot of pictures I have yet to post and I will get to that right away.
I hope that even though I have honestly been the worst blogger in the history of the world that some of you still have some interest in hearing what I have to say and will continue on this little journey I call my awful blogging career haha. I am currently working on 2 or 3 additional blog posts so I can promise you there will be new content very, very soon.
But lets see how this goes this time around :) Hopefully this inspiration and motivation will last for a longer period this time.

October 24, 2014

VIDEO // surprise trip to america


I filmed the beginning and ending of the video a few weeks ago so no, I'm not in America anymore and yes I posted this after I got back to Finland haha. I didn't have a charger for my laptop and my computer died so I just now got around to editing the video, but because of awful jet lag I didn't feel like filming another ending for the video and I wanted to get the video up quickly.
I pressed the record button after Mary-Scott had seen me because as I mentioned in my previous blog post that I forgot to press it before they came into the room. But oh well, I'm sure the audio makes her reaction pretty clear haha. And I am still extremely awkward when speaking directly to a camera, sorry about that.
But to summarize what happened; the trip went very well, Emma and Mary-Scott had no idea I was coming, I also visited (and surprised) my sister, 2 weeks went by super quickly, and I am now back in Finland.

October 14, 2014

spontaneous trip to america

A blogpost as short as this is very rare for me, but I just thought I would update you all quickly! I'm currently in Kentucky visiting my friends but I'm coming back to Finland in a week. That is one reason why I've been slightly MIA on this page. And I most likely passed my exam so that is a huge relief and that makes me really happy. The reason why no one really knew about my trip to America is because it was surprise and I wanted to make a video out of it, but I guess we'll see how well that works out because I had my camera set up when I surprised one of my friends but somehow I FORGOT TO PRESS RECORD AND THAT MAKES ME SO SAD. I can't get over that because I just feel so stupid haha. But I had my phone filming and my host sister Jodi was filming as well but neither of our phones were pointing where they were supposed to so that kinda failed hahaha. But let's see if I can still save that little project with a little editing! Oh and this was one of the video projects I mentioned in my previous blog post. But now I will get off my laptop and go back to enjoying the company of my friends in the States and my next blogpost will probably be on the video I just told you all about. So stay tuned... :)

September 22, 2014

it's been a while

Long time no write!
My days have recently all consisted of either being sick or going to work, so I haven't really done anything interesting recently that you all would be interested in hearing about. And even though nothing too interesting has happened now, I thought it was time to update you all on something at least haha.
I'm retaking the math matriculation exam on wednesday, and I am so nervous and stressed. I feel like none of the stuff stays in my head and that studying is pointless because I feel like it has no effect on anything. And that is not a good thing at all, as I desperately need to get a better grade on it. But obviously I'm going to try my best, but I'm scared that it won't be enough. Which sucks.
I'm working on a few video projects, I have quite a lot of footage for the first one and I will focus on getting that done once my exam is over. I can't tell you all about the second one yet, but it's really exciting (for me at least) and I have started planning that already as well. I have something really exciting coming up soon (relating to the video) and I've never done something like this before so it's really hard for me to contain my excitement. Those who have been reading my blog for a longer time will understand why 100% once I'm able to write about it here, and it is exactly what I need after all of this stress and anxiety caused by this exam. Just bear with me with this one, I have a feeling it will be amazing :)
Most of my friends have left and some have blogs that they write (in Finnish), so if any of you are interested, I will link them below!

Tua is studying in Toronto right now, and you can find her blog HERE.

Unna and Sanna are doing volunteer work in Tanzania, you can find their blog HERE.

Oh and while I'm on this little linking rampage, you can find my youtube channel HERE. I recently hit 1,000 subscribers which is really bizarre but beyond amazing and I still don't know how to react to that haha. I have started uploading more videos there, and some of those videos I will probably never publish here, so if anyone's interested, you are more than welcome to go watch them and don't forget to subscribe while you're there ;) Here is one example of a video we did with Nicole a few weeks ago! We decided to hop on the bandwagon and do one of those tags that a lot of youtubers do but we changed it up a bit and made it our own version. We are very embarrassing but we had a lot of fun filming it so I hope you all enjoy it :)



You can also click the little button under my face on the sidebar of my blog to subscribe :)

August 30, 2014

m u s i c // a u g u s t

It's been over a month since my last music post and since my life basically revolves around finding new music and loving it, I decided I would try to start making monthly music posts. So now that August is nearing it's end, here are more songs I've been obsessed with recently!


Rude (Acoustic) - Magic!


Long Drive - Jason Mraz


Gotta Have You - The Weepies


Bloodstream - Ed Sheeran


Fast Car - Boyce Avenue ft. Kina Grannis


Caution To The Wind - Becky Hill


It Is What It Is - Blood Orange


Say You'll Be There - MØ


Runaway - Ed Sheeran


Shadow Flash - Indiana

August 20, 2014

goodbye nona


It's been exactly a week now since my little sister left for America. A WEEK. It honestly terrifies me how fast time is moving.
Of course I am thrilled that Nona decided to follow in my footsteps and spend a year abroad in high school, but it feels really weird to me as well because I feel like I was in her shoes just yesterday. But no. In 4 days it's been exactly three years since I left for my exchange year. THREE YEARS. Three years since I travelled across the world for 27 hours after pulling an all-nighter with a suitcase packed with stuff I would take on a 2 week long vacation. Three years since I first met the people that opened their home to a total stranger and let her become a part of their amazing family. Three years since I met some of the people that have become incredibly close to me and without whom my year would've been really lonely and boring. Three years since I really started changing into the person I am today. I almost can't even recognize myself from the person I was before my exchange year compared to who I am now. Well I might have been slightly exaggerating there but my year abroad honestly helped me in so many ways and I have no idea what I would be like if I hadn't done it. Three years... I feel so old right now.
But now it's my sister's time to experience all of the things I was lucky enough to experience and probably even more. It also kinda scares me how grown up she is already but I am incredibly proud of her and beyond excited to hear about all of her adventures after she has happily listened to all of my rambles about all the things I got to do while I was in Kentucky.
I don't think I've made a blogpost about my exchange year in a very long time, but now I really felt like making this post about things relating to that. This is the time of the year when millions of people go back to school and thousands of people pack up their lives, say goodbye to their friends and family, and take on an adventure that is completely their own. Yes, I am talking about people leaving for their exchange years. I have said stuff like this innumerous times on my blog (mostly in the comment sections of various posts I think) but I felt the need to say something in this blogpost as well. If you have just left for your year abroad, or if you're just about to leave, this is for you. Don't be scared to try new things. Taste new foods, listen to new music, talk to new people, visit new places, and say yes to as many things as you can (keeping common sense in mind of course). Because that is what an exchange year is all about; trying new things. You get a real taste of another culture by diving straight into local people's daily lives, and it is a very interesting thing to experience. It will open your eyes and mind to so many things and you will never look at things the same way. It will not only change your perspective on many things, it will also change you and you will never be the same either. But it's a good type of change. You will grow so much as a person and you will gain so much more self-confidence and so many new relationships/connections with people all around the world, and those are amazing things to bring back home when your exchange year is over. Enjoy every moment, take a lot of pictures, write about all the amazing and not-so-amazing things that happen because you will want to remember as much from that year in the future as possible. And just have fun :) haha.
This fall will be really tough for me because SOOOO many of the people I am really close with are moving away or will be travelling for a long time. And I think this is the first time I'm actually the one staying behind. I feel like most of the time I am the one going and leaving things behind, so this is very weird for me. I am so excited for all the new things my friends are going to see and learn as they head to schools in countries around the world, but at the same time I feel more stressed out because I still have no directions towards the path I'm supposed to take in this life. Luckily I have at least one full year to try my best to enjoy feeling lost and to try and figure out what I want to do or just wait for sudden inspiration and motivation to hit me. Speaking of waiting for motivation to hit me, it would be great if that would happen ASAP because I recently remembered that a few months ago for some indescribably insane reason I decided that it would be smart to retake my math matriculation exam this fall. And that is approaching so rapidly that I am struggling to find time and motivation to start studying for it. Is anyone in the same situation as me? If yes and you happen to have advice for me relating to this or just advice in general, please comment down below because I am on the verge of a mental breakdown.
I can't remember the last time I made a blogpost this long. If you made it this far, you are absolutely amazing and you are a survivor because I kept rambling on and on and I doubt most of the people that opened this website managed to read the whole thing because of that haha. But I guess that's all I have to say for now. Until next time... :)

PS. WHEN DID I SUDDENLY GET OVER 800 SUBSCRIBERS ON YOUTUBE?! That is seriously so crazy. I can't even wrap my head around it. Wow. Just wow. If you're one of those 800, thank you. And wow.

August 15, 2014

next to you


Just a few pictures I took of my beautiful roommate a few weeks ago.