HCAU Profile: Frida Svartengren
Age: 22
Home town: Stockholm, Sweden
Studies: Management and Psychology
I decided to take the chance to chat with my former flatmate and one of my closest friends here in Aberdeen just about who she is and what keeps her going. Frida has such a sparkling personality that I just had to share how wonderful she is with all of you!
So, first things first. What made you come to Aberdeen University?
I have always loved to travel and I’ve known since I was 15 that I wasn’t going to stay in Sweden long after I was done with school. Once my English got better and I started to properly read English books I realized that reading in English was easier for me than Swedish. This got me thinking that maybe I should study abroad. I started to look deeper into it and applied. I took a gap year after school because that’s what everyone does in Sweden, and of course I was going to travel, so I went to St Anton, Austria for a ski season. This made me realise even more that I wanted to study abroad. I applied to different schools in the UK, and I couldn’t decide whether I should study management or psychology, but then Aberdeen appeared and offered the two as a joint honours course. So in the end it was actually not that hard for me to decide.
That sounds like it worked out perfectly for you! Do you think that it was a good choice?
I love Aberdeen, it’s very cold but I am positively surprised how good the weather is in the end. I think Aberdeen has brought a lot of great friendships and opportunities for me. I think the people here are great as there is a mix of so many different perosnalities. It is a good size because you bump in to people that you know all the time but you also see people everyday that you’ve never seen before!
You will be the President of the Aberdeen University Gymnastics Club this year. Congratulations on that! What are you hoping on achieving as President?
Thank you, and this is a very good question. The gymnastics club has increased in members drastically in the past two years and a lot of this is because of the amazing Erin Sculthorpe who has been president for the past two years and has been so driven and inspiring. So for the following year I am hoping to continue this great progress that we are making as a club. Hopefully more people will realize how great the gymnastics club is, with great people and great training! The committee last year was great and we worked hard together. This year’s committee is mostly new blood with new ideas and I think it will be a great committee to work with.
How often do you guys train? Is it easy to balance the amount of training with uni work?
The gymnastics club offers six trainings per week, three of them are for advanced, two for beginners, and one training is conditioning which is open for both levels. No training is really compulsory, if we have a competition coming up, of course we expect people to show up, but other than that we don’t want to force people to come. Gymnastics and sports in general should be the place you come because you like doing it and where you can stop thinking about everything else for a while. If you want to be pushed a bit harder, we will push you a bit harder. So you can definitely balance training and your uni work. If you have an essay due the next day, of course it’s okay to stay home, uni work always comes first!
Gymnastics seems very intimidating to us who have never done it. Do you get a lot of newbies join who’ve never done gymnastics before? Any words of wisdom for those wanting to join the Gymnastics team?
Yes, that is a very common thing to hear when you tell people that they should join. Basically three quarters of our club is made up of newbies and beginners. Most people who come to the gymnastics club have never done a forward roll before, and every single one of the people who came to one training per week or even less can today do a handstand on their own, which is amazing! One thing is for sure, and that is if you do start with gymnastics and just do the basics you will improve a lot in the other sports you do. This is because you learn how to control your body in the way you really never thought you could. Words of wisdom would be, nobody said it was going to be easy, but never quit and never give up!
Finally, a few questions to get to know you better! What would be something that no one knows about you?
I used to compete in powerboat racing.
What Disney character do you feel best describes your personality and why?
Ariel, The little mermaid. Because she’s independent and energetic. She sees everything as possible which I try to do too. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t but if you don’t think it’s possible it won’t be!
Thank you for giving us a glimpse into the life of a gymnast! Hope your year as President is as wonderful as you!