For my dear friends in Belgium

Heading towards the end.

Now it’s really happening; I’m running out of time. There is only 4 days left when I can say Belgium is my home. After that I have no home anymore. It sounds weird to say so but deep in my heart I know it’s true. Finland will always be my home; it’s the place I have grown up and lived almost my whole life in. Still it’s not the home I’m desperately missing. Part of my heart will always stay there and I’ll always have the northern spirit in my heart and mind, but the other side of my heart is comfortlessly longing for something else.

To be honest it’d be a relief not to have this passion of travelling inside of me. I hope I could be perfectly happy in the place I have born and raised. I ought to be. I’m just not. I love all of my friends and family from the bottom of my heart and I’m so fortunate they haven’t forgot me even I’ve been living far away. I am grateful; even I’m not always saying it out a loud.

After living abroad I’ve also got new friends living all over the world. I can’t imagine being any luckier; before the year in Belgium mentioning Arizona or Habo was just meaningless to me, but now hearing a name of the state of AZ fills my mind of the best memories starting from the jumping cactus’ to my beautifully smiling friend with the most perfect teeth you can ever imagine, or hearing the name of this petite town in the southern Sweden just makes me imagine my craziest friend cycling around her house on Sunday morning hiding from her mum and after making sure the route is clear sneaking into her own bed to sleep. Yes this is the reason why you are living for; good memories and amazing stories.

Good memories are something you'll carry with you all of your life. I’m not saying you should live in memories instead I think you should make new great memories every day. I’m going to enjoy my memories I’ve made during this year later on many, many times. They give power to you when the things aren’t going in to the direction you are hoping for. I only need to think about Valentine’s Day or trip to France and I can’t remove the grin of my face.

I want to thank all of you my dear friends I met here in Belgium. You made my year. You inspired me. You were there for me when I needed. We shared the laugh, the cry, the happiness and the sorrow, sometimes a bed and once even a trunk.

There’ll always be an unique bond between us.

Thank you Louise, Chrissy, Anna, Lucy, Franzi, Alisha, Eleri and everyone else who have had an effect on my year. I love you all MUCHO <3