As far as school goes in general, I’m now pretty certain that I’ll be majoring in what Clark University calls “Communications and Culture”, which is a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree encompassing studies of many forms of communication, primarily visual and written. I’ve actually already taken 3 courses that qualify for the major, which is really nice, so if I don’t end up majoring in COMM I’ll probably just go for Visual Arts, since the degrees share a lot of qualifying classes.

Something that I’ve been thinking about a lot since starting college is time. Here it feels like time goes by soooo much faster here than it did in high school or at any other point in my life. Because of this I’ve been thinking in the long term a lot and really, defining what the long term means to me. A few weeks ago I got my new US passport, which expires in 2020, and it was honestly pretty scary thinking about the fact that I’ll turn 20 in a matter of month and in 10 years I’ll be 30, yet the year 2020 doesn’t sound too far off.

Among other things I’ve been thinking about what I’ll do after college, and although I have plenty of details to work out, I’m certain that I’ll be moving to Finland. My mother never sold her condo in Helsinki and has been renting it out all these years after having moved to the USA, so she could give the tenants reasonable notice and I could move in any time! I’ve thought about applying to Aalto University’s School of Art and Design for a masters degree in graphic design after moving to Helsinki, and I may do that but I also might not, as there’s a big design culture there and coming from a background of two cultures and markets I don’t think I’d have any trouble getting a GD job.

I’m not fundamentally anti-American, but I can’t imagine living in this country, having experienced life in Finland. I used to ignore a lot of things about this country that I didn’t like, but now they frustrate me. Primarily, its people’s ignorance. Most American’s that I interact with, even most here at my University, are so isolated in thought, so oblivious to the way things work outside the USA, that it blows my mind. It frustrates me when I walk down the streets of Boston’s Longwood district – an area with many of the country’s best hospitals – and see homeless people on the streets, American citizens themselves, many suffering from curable diseases and struggling to stay alive in a society that gives nothing to its weakest. It frustrates me when I take the 1940‘s era smoke-spewing commuter train from Worcester to Boston and have to literally risk my life jumping between rail wagons if I want to use the bathroom. And to think that I’m actually quite fortunate as an American to have any form of intercity rail available to me. I can’t help comparing everything I see in urban America to what I see in urban Finland. I can’t help seeing how terrible the quality of life is here and how people simply accept it as normal and live out there lives in ways which would often be considered inhuman in Finland. I’ve explained to people so many times that there are in fact places in the world where healthcare and education are free, poverty and homelessness are nonexistent, and the government’s purpose is to ensure the well-being of its citizens. Most people will stare at me in disbelief when I tell them things like this, asking me how such a scenario could possibly work and how people could live with high taxes that contribute to the public good. Most Americans that I’ve talked to simply can’t get past the idea of public good, that everyone should contribute to the well-being of everyone else.

In the same way that after learning about typography I can no longer look at signs without thinking about the typefaces they use, I can no longer live in this country without being in perpetual state of utter disgust with what’s around me after having experienced life in Finland for so many years as well.

So, Besides life after college, I’ve been thinking about this coming summer. I’ll be spending the majority of the summer in Finland as I have for the past 18 years, but this summer I’ll be there for exactly three months, the longest I’ve ever been thanks to my college schedule! I think this will be the beginning of a new era of summers for me, and I’m planning some trips around Finland that I’ve been wanting to take for years. First, I’ll be going to the Turku Archipelago, a constellation of over 20,000 islands, all composed of solid granite, carved by the glaciers near the end of the last ice age. Its an ecological anomaly in the world and I’m really excited to do some photography there. Second, I’ll head north on a car-train to Kolari, and then drive through Lapland and the many fell scattered national parks up to Kilpisjärvi, where Finland’s highest peaks and greatest views are to be found. In addition to my out of the ordinary plans, I’m planning to do more serious photography in and around Loimaa, the town that my grandma lives in and where I’ve always spent a large part of my summers at. Loimaa is at the heart of agricultural southern Finland and despite hosting an endless selection of beautiful landscapes, I’ve never really done any landscape photography there, only close ups, so this summer I plan to thoroughly explore and photograph the countryside.

So yeah, my life is going pretty well. Next week I have my one and only midterm this semester and on Friday my one week (9 days including weekends) spring break begins. Over break I’ll be working on listing a few eBay auctions, since the time frame is perfect for one round of auctions, with my primary goal being to sell one of my lenses in order to reconfigure my camera kit in preparation for all the photography I’ll be doing over the summer.

It’s been nearly two months since my first day as a freshman at Clark University and a lot has happened in my life since. College is awesome! When I moved into my dorm in August I felt uncomfortable and homesick for a while, but after a week or so I began to appreciate everything about living here. Aside from my summers in Finland, college has been the most free environment I’ve ever lived in, so being the autonomous person that I am, I love it. I love looking at my weekly calendar and being reminded of the fact that the vast amounts of time surrounding my 6 class blocks are for me to use however I want. I love being able to wake up at noon on weekdays, go to the cafeteria when I feel like it, and walk around the city or campus at a whim, all while getting my work done and almost never having to feel sleep deprived. The freedom and spare time I have here is unbelievable and not even comparable to how my life was at home during high school.

As for social matters, I’ve come to really enjoy living close to friends while still having control over my life. When I first began to meet people I made it clear to them that despite our proximity to each other, I valued independence and wasn’t of the type that liked to be in constant contact with others. My choice of honesty over conformity worked out and I’ve become good friends with some girls that I can relate to and be myself around. We’re all very like-minded and have already shared many wonderful experiences and conversations together. My roommate and I are perfect living partners, as we’re not friends but are comfortable around each other and can have a nice conversation after a long silence without even a hint of awkwardness. I haven’t been to any school events, joined any clubs or gone to any parties, and I don’t plan too, as I don’t want any commitments beyond my classes and I like being able to spend time with friends in environments of our choice. Despite not being involved in any official activities, I feel like I’m at the right school, surrounded by my kind of people and a community that I can feel apart of.

This semester, which started at the beginning of the school year and goes until December 18th, I’m taking three courses: “American Cities and Suburbs”, “Privacy Protection in Law and Ethics, and “Introduction to Graphic Design”. The first of these is a large, seminar-style class, and although I’ve been interested in most of what we’ve studied, I haven’t enjoyed the course overall and am now certain that I won’t be going for a Geography major at Clark because of the extensive economics and statistics courses that it entails. Privacy Protection is a course that I originally hesitated taking but have now come to really enjoy. Uncommon for college, the class is small (about 15 people) and discussion based, so I’ve been able to get to know the professor well and actually interact with her in class. We’ve primarily studied historic legal cases and talked about there role in the evolution of law and the connections they hold to other legal issues and matters of the present. My third course, Intro to Graphic Design, has been my favorite and extremely insightful. Although I’ve been practicing graphic design for years, having designed many websites and mock corporate identities all through high school, I’ve learned a ton in these last two months. Most of the course work has typography-related and produced by hand, using materials like tracing paper and gray matte, with tools like an exacto blade and ruler – the way that graphic design has been practiced for centuries. This has all be new to me, as I’ve always designed digitally, primarily with Adobe Illustrator, but having now designed by hand I’ve developed a much greater appreciation and understand of typography and layout. A few weeks ago I rewatched the film Helvetica and couldn’t believe how much more I enjoyed and understood it knowing what I’d learned in class.

All in all, college couldn’t be going better, and I’m already thinking about my courses for next semester. I’m also looking forward to winter break when I’ll be heading back to Finland for a month. I’m very close with my grandma but only now in college have I made it a habit to call her regularly from the USA (thanks to Google Voice!), so I’m especially excited to be able to share and philosophize with her in person when we’re finally together again in Finland. Surprisingly, during my time in college I feel like I’ve also become much closer with a few of my friends from high school, both current students and graduates, having had long, deep conversations with them online about ourselves, life, and the world at large.

Knitting with friends! It’s been years since I last knit but it all came back to me!

Our Library, an architectural marvel in my opinion, and one of the only successful examples of brutalism:

One side of my room:

The other side of my room: