"What is Your Best Memory?"

Yesterday was a great day.

All week has been rather great.

Past year I've been working so hard, I started a new job working as a kindergarten manager and I started it from the very beginning.

I walked into an empty house and I was told to fill it and lead it. As wonderful and amazing that sounds like it's not that easy. When you are a young like me you lack experience and as I was not raised in Helsinki I also lack contacts. There has been so many times when I have pushed through just by being stubborn and half of the time I have felt like I have no clue in what I'm doing.
I have been working with someone I don't really see eye to eye which has brought that little extra pressure to the work. I've found answers to questions like how parental leave is paid, how taxation of kindergarten is done and what sort of curtains are fire proofed. There was one day last Spring when maintenance wanted to teach me all about fixing and I spent an hour in our basement learning what to do in case of electrical emergency. Things I've learned in one year are rather impossible to put on paper and I'm thankful for all that I've learned.

I was outside with kids one brisk April morning and I was chatting with my co-captain Grace over our futures, dreams and hopes. She had applied and got in to study Master's in Arts and that got me thinking if I should apply to school as well. I decided try and if I didn't get in, I still have a job. Yesterday I got the news that I've been accepted to study "Community Engaged Pedagogy" it's a Bachelor's degree and focuses on community work, volunteer and community engagement and youth. It's really close to the degree I already have but my current degree focuses more in individual care and this new one focuses in taking care of the whole group. I'm so excited over this new step in my life!

As mentioned these past months I've been mostly working, I haven't really been out since Vappu (1st of May). I've been spending lots of time with Katri and Salla and hang out with my little brother weekly. When I haven't been with those three I've been with Sanni or Grace. I've been trying to avoid all sorts of drama and trying to focus on getting through this season.

Next week I'm off to a well deserved holiday! :)

Week from now me and Salla are flying to Paris and from there we are traveling to:

1) Dijon
2) Chambery
3) Turin
4) Padova
5) La Spezia
6) Milan
7) Venice
8) Tuscany
9) Rome

When I get home I'm immediately jumping into a car which will take me to Vaasa where I'll spend five days before coming home and jumping to a plane and spending four days in Stockholm with my aunt and uncle.

Me and Salla had all sorts of plans for this Summer. We booked hotels in Spain and Portugal, sure as hell that that's were we are going. But. Then after a while we started second guessing this, Spain is such big country and do we REALLY want to rush through it? We decided to go to Croatia instead. We booked hotels in Croatia and few in Slovenia, received even train tickets when we again said ... "Do we really want to rush through different islands when we don't have a car?" This is when Katri joined in the discussion and said that she'd like to come with. Salla only had holidays till 13th so how can we fit everything we want to do and see in three weeks? Both of us have had a long Spring, with Salla's dad passing, her new job and work month in Riga. I've been stressing, working under a lot of pressure and also felt like this time it would be nice just to : c h i l l .

Me, Salla and Katri got together one evening which turned into a sleepover when we studied the map of Italy and what we could do ... we ended up renting a car and when me and Salla reach La Spezia would Katri fly to Milan and join us. Me and Salla have been to Italy twice and we absolutely love the country but we've never seen the Tuscany as the trains don't stop and go those small roads and villas. It was settled: we are going to drive from Milan - Venice - Tuscany - Rome and then home.

I got myself a fancy new bag back, set of swimming goggles and hew pairs of new shoes for all the walking which is about go down. I'm so ready for this holiday, I need a vocation. And when I come back I'll enter my new job as a leading teacher in a kindergarten close to my home, my old job actually but this time I hold the strings and take the responsibility of all 28 kids and their teachers.  And then there is the school which starts in September. Life of Jenni is never boring and it just keeps going on, full on 24/7. This business did cause me a small mid life crisis last week.

I follow "Humans of New York" on Facebook and the author usually asks random people walking around New York questions and thoughts over various subjects. Quite often he asks: "What is your happiest memory" and this a questions that I was thinking over and over again the other night. Defining one moment in time that is the happiest. My life has been full of happy memories and amazing events and more good memories are on their way. First I thought of me and Jordan taking a stroll 4am in their family cabin in the woods. We had Bud Lights stashed into our pockets and we talked and walked hours and hours. I think that is when I let go of the old me, the angry me and transformed into the person I'm today. That is a happy memory, life altering one but I wanted to dig into deeper to my memory to find another one.

So there I was, lying on my bed trying to think happy memories casting away the first one that popped into my head meeting Salla, getting my high school diploma, becoming an aunt.. I wanted to travel to my childhood.

I was tried to push my mind even more back and slowly I started thinking about my grandmother. I found myself thinking of my blissful childhood filled with happy memories. I was brought up well by loving parents, loving family, loving siblings and fare amount of friends. It was idyllic really, running free with torn jeans and smile on my face. 

I decided that my happiest memory is spending a summer day at my grandmothers house. Dad drove us there with his taxi, he went to fix my grandfathers boat, my oldest brother was fixing his bike in the garage with my other brother. Lasse was still a baby and sitting on mom's lap who was inside chatting with grandma. We visited my dad's mom often and usually my uncle would pop in as well with his dog who I ended up chasing. More than once I would sleepover and stay playing under the apple trees and clinging on this branch which I made my pet horse. When I went to bed, grams and I slept in a small bed and she would whisper a small pray which I still remember today word to word.

That is my happiest memory. Childhood Summers at my grandmothers house. Since my grandma passed 7 years ago there hasn't been many events where all of us are together. I rarely see my aunts and uncles, I only see my mum 3-4 times a year and my dad even less. Time is such a precious thing. People so often take it as granted and we forget it does not stop. 4 has turned into 14 to 24 and to 27. I've lived a good life so far and I have plans to keep living it full but at times I miss those easy, funny, stress free childhood days.  My grandma has been gone for 7 years and because of Alzheimer's she has been gone even more than that. But thanks to her love and kindness her kind spirit will always live in me. Missing you today granma!

Have a good Saturday everyone. Remember, that time does not stop so live your life as wish and don't let others define how you should live it.

Here are some happy memories for you taken in the past few months! :)