3D and the beginning

Hjellou.

A little bit about the writer. I am a 26-year-old student from Turku who suddenly felt the need to start studying to be a goldsmith in Sastamala. 

Yeah. 

I am already a fashion designer and have worked in a few movies, theater, dance projects and the opening ceremony for Turku Capital of Culture in 2011. While in fashionschool I used to work as a pizza driver to pay my bills, so I'm not that cool in the end although it started of really fancy.

Turku is the former (read until early 1800’s) capital of Finland. I’d say that people from Turku still consider the city to be a kind of capital since it still feels central to everything at least when looking at culture. So I ,as many others from this beloved city, tend to think of ourselves as a bit more important than we might actually be.

How did I end up here in Sastamala?

When I finished fashion design school I thought my up-and-coming career in film would take off in a big way, but I got disappointed. It’s not that I didn’t have work at all, but the movie business in such a small country is limited so I needed a dayjob to get me started. I thought I’d get a job in a clothing store to pay the bills between movie projects but no such luck. In the end, I had to make a decision. I’d been out of work for about a year with only short gigs keeping me occupied. I had during my earlier studies made jewelry to sell at the school’s annual Christmas market and someone asked me why I didn’t just try to make that a career.

Because I’m not from Sastamala I still live in Turku and just stay weekdays at the school dormitory. I chose to do it this way since I can’t afford an apartment and I would still rather live in Turku since it’s my home and it’s where every one of my friends are. 

I was surprised to find that I actually really do like living at the dormitory although the whole “18girls-4bathrooms-4showers-no-sleeping-because-roommate-snores-scenario”. I love the nutty girl talk in the kitchen at evenings and the grumpy grunts in the morning when you want to go to the bathroom but somebody’s locked themselves in there to do their hair and am even getting used to being dropped in the middle of some kind of teen drama that you need to sort out.

Now here I am, confused and sometimes lost in a small town in southern Finland where there is definitely more forest than civilization.

In defense of Sastamala I have to point out that I am actually enjoying the solitude of a small town. Well the solitude you can expect to get while living with 16 teenage girls and sharing your room with the only other adult on your floor.

The first coolness we made during 3D class with the best teacher ever (who reads this and evaluates me accordingly).