“Home is where the heart is” is a saying that I’m sure every single one of us has heard at least once in our lives. Most people probably don’t really think of it as being very meaningful. Home is where your family is and that’s pretty much it? But for me this saying has a lot more to it, because I really don’t know where home is. I know where I’m from obviously, but that doesn’t mean that home is just there.
I moved away from Finland for the first time when I was just a mere 5 years old. At that age you haven’t really found your people, you just played with whoever was around and who was fun. My family and I moved to Poland because my father got a job there. I was always fine with it though. From a very young age I was outgoing and totally myself. We moved to Poland – I did not know a single word of English or Polish, but that didn’t stop me from doing what I wanted. I would just speak in Finnish until someone would come and translate for the poor person trying to understand me or the person would eventually guess right on what I was after.
I started school in Poland, where I attended the American School of Warsaw. The cultural diversity there was outstanding. I learnt English rather fast and made lots of friends, most of them being from different countries. I was finally starting to “get my group together”. My best friends were from America, Australia, Finland and Poland, and I loved it. Until the day my parents told me we were moving back to Finland. I was 8 years old and I was heartbroken. I didn’t want to leave my friends behind and the place I called home.
Moving back to Finland was tough, but I embraced being back with my friends from kindergarten. However, the international side of me had been awoken and it was there to stay. My three siblings were happy to go back to their Finnish school and study in Finnish. I however told my parents that I wanted to go to a bilingual school so that I could maintain my studies in English. My new classmates understood me so well, most of them had also moved around the world. I still kept in contact with my best friends from Poland, even though most of them also moved away from our home in Warsaw.
I spent a good 8 years back in Finland, but every day I kept dreaming of moving abroad again. We visited Poland at least once a year so that I was able to see the friends that were still there. But having attended an American school I had my heart set on America. I knew I couldn’t just go there, even though I used to beg my parents that I could move to America and stay with one of my friends. Then I turned 15 and I knew my time had come, I got to apply to be a foreign exchange student. My paper work was filled out so fast that my parents had no time to convince me not to go. I got a host family in Illinois, USA and I was the happiest person alive.
At 16 I took off on my adventure to explore America and I wouldn’t change it for the world. It was one of the best years of my life. I was welcomed into so many families – that of my host family, but also those of my friends. I had found yet another place to call home, which on the flipside meant that I was yet again stuck between homes when my exchange year came to an end. From there on I visited as often as I could, usually spending months in the summer time in the US.
After my exchange year I spent four years in Finland again. It was good to be back, even though a part of me was on the opposite side of the world again. By that time my family and my friends knew that I would take off again at some point. Most were even surprised I stayed for as long as I did. The next step on my world map was Aberdeen, which is just as much home to me now. I’ve met the most amazing people here, and every time I fly to Finland for the holidays I say I’m going home – but I also say I’m going home when I fly back to Aberdeen after.
I can almost certainly say that the move to Scotland won’t be my last move to a new country, this is just who I am. I create homes around the world for myself. At times it is hard, I wish I could be everywhere at once and feel bad when I pick one place over another to visit. But I have also gained so much from it, I have friends I can call family all over the world, and a perfect family in Finland. To me, home really is where the heart is, so in my case in Finland, Poland, America, Scotland, and the list goes on. But what makes it all worth it, is that even if I haven’t seen my friends and family in months or even years, it’s like I never left.
Anette’s own personal pictures.