How I became a storyteller

open book
©Mia Salminen 2015

I’ve never been a book reader, and I prefer watching things on TV. If I read something, it isn’t novels. I’ve read a lot of autobiographies, and when I was a child, I read books for kids. The kids’ books were written in Swedish, and they were easy to read, too. I’ve read books in Finnish as well. The book I read the most was a book about Heidi. It was adapted from a movie. I reread it last summer in a day or two. I own some books, but I go to the library when I want to read a book. I own the ‘Lord of the Rings’ book but have never finished it. My late dad bought it for Christmas, and he read it in one evening. It’s too long for my taste. I prefer the movies. The book that I have read by Tolkien is ‘The Hobbit’. I’ve read that a couple of times. I own one in English, but I have also read it in Finnish once. I’m not patient enough to read long books. Unless it’s a fascinating book or an autobiography.

I’ve always wanted to write and was pretty good at it in school. I didn’t want to write a book, as someone thought I would when I said I wanted to write. I wanted writing to be part of something else. The same goes for photography and graphic design. I don’t want to do only one thing. There are different ways to be a raconteur than someone writing books. I became a storyteller after I found my fascination with fan fiction. I didn’t find stories I wanted to read, so I started to write my own. That’s where I shine the most. But writing fiction is only a hobby and doesn’t pay the bills. It’s also a learning curve for learning English, and I don’t need to read books to keep my imagination running. Some might say that reading books teaches you to use words, but you can also learn words by watching movies or TV shows. I want to write with words that anyone can understand. You don’t need fancy words to write a good story. Writing fiction is easier for me than writing about facts.

For example, I struggle with what to write on social media right now. It’s supposed to be in Finnish, but it doesn’t come naturally to me. I’m so used to writing in English, so writing it in my language isn’t easy. The other thing is that Swedish is my mother tongue, so I find it hard to find words to describe something in Finnish. Knowing three languages can sometimes confuse your vocabulary. When I write fiction in English, the inspiration comes quicker, and I could write for hours. But I get stuck when writing about facts about myself and what I want to achieve. The challenging part is writing about it in Finnish. I’m just not a storyteller when it comes to real life. Things would be easier if I could tell a story the way I write fiction. I guess it’s about getting used to things instead of giving up because something is too difficult. You live, learn, and become a better raconteur when you write as often as possible. That’s the way you learn other things in life. That’s how I learned to write in English in the first place. Practice makes you better at what you do.

Peter Pan never grew up and I won’t either

plant growing
Photo by Gelgas Airlangga on Pexels.com

There are different ways to grow—in height, sideways, or mentally. In this case, it means what I want to be when I grow up. I don’t want to grow up because you need to stay childlike in your mind. Peter Pan didn’t grow up, and I won’t either. Life is a long learning process, and you’ll never graduate from it. You only do adult things because who else would do them. Some things you have to do, like paying bills or other responsibilities that come along with it. The worst thing about being an adult is looking for a job and thinking about what to do when you grow up. It’s easier if you already know from a young age. For some, it takes longer.

I have had dreams, but they have never come true. Maybe it wasn’t meant to be. Since I have never had a big dream come true, I have small ones. Life didn’t turn the way I imagined it. When I was a teenager, I thought I would have had a family at 25, but then I thought I would meet the pop star I had a crush on. I also thought I would move to England, but that didn’t happen. My priorities have changed since then. I’ve had dreams after that, too. I wanted to become a Formula One photographer, but that dream was unrealistic. I have spent my life thinking about what to do, and some might think I’ve missed out on what other people have been doing. But you can’t miss something you’ve never had. I didn’t want to be like everyone else, and I am happy with my choices. Some people are meant to be married, have 2,3 children and have a career, but that’s not me. I’m Peter Pan, for crying out loud. Well almost.

My current dream is not to be a job seeker. I hate looking for one job each month and then reporting it to the job search people—I don’t know what these people are called. They expect me to look for something that doesn’t exist, as I would get a job by applying to one. The whole job search is unpleasant because it’s a waste of time and energy. There is only one I should answer for, and that’s me. I don’t want anyone to follow what I’m doing, and if I don’t do what they want, they punish me for not doing enough. By punishment, I mean taking the benefits away. If you don’t apply to jobs they think you don’t want any. It’s not about wanting; it’s about having the possibility to get a job. I don’t want a job to have something to do during the day because I have plenty to do. I want to do something that has a meaning. Life is too short to waste on something you’re forced to do. I’ve had internships where I didn’t want to be, but it was good to have because I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I got at least some job experience, even if employers don’t see it that way. My late mother always used to say you have to start somewhere, and I did. They still want me to apply for jobs that should be offered to young people who don’t know what they want. If I was 18 or more, jobs like that would be OK. But I want a real job with actual pay. I have diplomas that going to waste, and I didn’t study to fill my head with information. I want to put it to good use.

If you have the opportunity to do the things you want, you should do them. Therefore, I’m seriously thinking about becoming an entrepreneur because I want to be useful and make my own schedule. I don’t want to be stuck in this same spinning wheel for the rest of my life. I’ve thought about this for a long time and don’t want it to be a thought only. Nothing happens overnight, and I’m already working on it. This Peter Pan will fly and show you don’t need to be fully grown up to be who you truly are.

Build me a place without people

Vanhalinna, Turku, Finland

You get to build your perfect space for reading and writing. What’s it like?

Daily Writing Prompt

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas. I was on a cruise to Tallinn. They say travelling broadens the mind, but it also makes you tired. My Christmas holiday was two nights on a cruise ship and a long walk in Tallinn for a day. There were many people and noise around, so no wonder I was tired. I took a long nap after I got back to the ship. Even if I slept enough during the cruise, it still exhausted me. I got home yesterday and went to bed at 8 pm. I woke up again after 1 am but went back to sleep. The Junior championship in ice hockey began in Canada, and Finland played at 2.35 am, but I woke up after 3 am even if I had the alarm on. I watched the game, and when the TV broadcasting ended at 5.30 am, I went back to sleep again. I woke closer to 1 pm or maybe after. I didn’t look at the time. I don’t know how many hours I have slept in total, but I still have the rocking feeling I get after a cruise. Sleep did help, though, because I’m not tired now. Getting that contentment feeling when you’ve been around people, and you finally get home to sleep off your tiredness. That’s the best feeling for anyone whose social interactions make them exhausted.

Build me a place without people. A place where I can be in peace with only writing instruments and a listening device that plays only music and no talking. It would be somewhere close to nature. Probably in a cabin in the woods, but there would be electricity and an internet connection. I could move around walking or by bike. If I wanted to go further, the roads should be good enough for driving by car. The place would be close enough to the city where I live. It wouldn’t be a summer cottage like Finns have in the summertime. It would be a place where I could spend time in the winter, too. The sea would be close to where I could go when it’s too hot in the summer. That would be a perfect space for me. In a place like that, I could feel contentment the most. Since I don’t have that, I can still get away from the city to feel solitude, at least for a while.