2017

I am the kind of person who doesn’t do well when there’s nothing to do. The state of boredom is more likely to cause me symptoms of a burn-out than a month of explosions on the work front and overlong workdays. That is one of the main reasons why I do not see Finland as a place for me to live in. People there are like a negatively toned gray mass, even more so during the past year than ever before in my lifetime. Excitement and new experiences are not interesting to my fellow Finns. Whereas I count myself among experience addicts; I need action, I need speed, I need experiences! All of them are not good, of course, but they are still experiences, excitement, diverging from the routine, something to talk about.

As a child I thought that I would never want to live the kind of life that my parents’ everyday life was: going to work, coming home, watching TV, sleep, going to work, coming home, watching TV, sleep, and this continues endlessly. And I succeeded to avoid such a life until I moved to Estonia. It has been surprisingly challenging to start a life here. I guess Estonians are nice people when you get to know them but I still haven’t quite understood how the hell one should get to know them in the first place. If Finns have thick walls around themselves they’re nothing compared to the Estonian kilometer-thick concrete slabs.

So, my year 2016 turned out to be the most stable year so far. And while ‘stable’ sounds great for most people, for me it is not a state that I want to be in. I didn’t make New Year’s resolutions but I did make a wish: make 2017 more eventful! It’s only been couple of weeks but I have already witnessed the old saying “Be careful what you wish for” to be rather accurate:

My birthday dinner in Finland on my last weekend before returning to Tallinn started in the worst way ever: my table reservation for 10 people had been cancelled but I had not been notified. So we stood there in the cold and were obviously rather upset and hangry when we were told finally that the kitchen is not open at all. Thankfully everything turned out ok in the end when we found another restaurant. Then on Sunday my bus to Helsinki was one and a half hours late so I had to pay for another ticket without either of the tickets being refunded to make it onto the last boat of the day. Eventful indeed… I was thinking more along the lines of trips to Latvia or business events. Promising start, though, if we just consider the word “eventful” and not whether the events themselves are more unpleasant than pleasant. 

But I have a feeling this year will be better. I do not know how, but I don’t need to know. I like surprises and I have come to accept the fact that whatever life has in store for me I cannot escape it. So bring it on, 2017!