It was a hot summer day when I received admission letter from Hanken, and it just changed everything regarding future. Next thing I know is reaching Vaasa on August 18, 2016; it was a day with a lot excitement as well as anxiety in my mind. I walked onto the campus of Hanken and I never felt like it is the first time I came to this place, rather it felt like a familiar place or like a home.
Hours turned into days, days into week, and week into months; and I can say that Hanken as well as Vaasa gave me some of the best memories, friends, collogues, as well as teachers, who played a vital role in development of my personality to be a better person. Mostly my first year was filled with a lot of fun activities, making new friends, gathering new experiences, and most importantly the studies, and when I say studies, it is not the typical form if study, rather everybody at Hanken made sure that I “learn” instead of just study. Therefore, I can say that it was one of the profound experiences of my life.
There were times filled with joy as well as hard times, but the things that kept me going is support from the teachers and most important encouragement from my friends Nana and Niko. This tells the fact that time passes on, you just have to stay motivated and for me the motivation is something such as a saying from my culture, similar as, “This too shall pass”. This shows that Hanken once again provided me with the right development tools to deal with different challenges of life.
Finally, I would like to mention that Hanken as well as Vaasa allowed me to grow academically as I became more confident in my field of study; socially as I made new friends; culturally as I learned among and about Finnish culture and heritage; and most importantly personally, since I have never imagined in my early days in Vaasa that I will find life-lasting friendships and memories. Now I am leaving Vaasa for exchange semester in Norway, but I will never forget about anything that I have experience here.