Sanna, Helsinki, Finland
If Sanna was design, it would definitely be Desigual. Colorful outside, inside as well! Brave and strong, ambitious, intelligent and damn sharp data-wizard. Honest and straightforward. Never afraid of expressing her opinion. Hilarious, easy to laugh with. 100% cat-person: first cats might seem hardly approachable, but once they get to know you and let you into their circle of trust, you feel fully accepted just as you are.
Football-player, reader, traveler. Foodie and excellent cook. Knows how it feels to be 1st in Finnish and 190th in international FIFA Predictor year 2018-list.
Manage to be independent and unique – something that is not easy to do and compromise with being a mother, partner, daughter and friend at the same time.
Definitely in the leading role of her own life.
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STORY
Did you ever have a pen pal? Mirka did: it was Tatiana from Brazil (read more about that connection on the 1.12.) and Tiina had Maria Arpa from Francavilla Fontana, Italy. There was an international operator, where you could write, tick some boxes for wishes about your potential, future pen pal and after a while operator delivered you an envelope where was the address of your “match”. It was so exciting! You hold the address of a stranger, sometimes the quality of the paper and ink was so bad that it was hard to read. If very unlucky, you got the sent an address of a BOY! Yak. But if you wrote a letter to the stranger, and if very lucky, you would receive a letter from abroad: letter with foreign stamps, then the thoughts of a person living in the other side of the world. And voilá. How international and connected you felt! No matter if the handwriting was almost impossible to read... For some of us it was the very first connection to something almost surreal like South America or South-Italy, but for a girl from Helsinki it was almost as exotic:
“It´s about friendship. It was at the late 80´s and there was this monthly magazine for kids called “Koululainen” (“School kid”). In the magazine there was a section where kids around the country could announce that they would like to find new friends ie. pen pals. I was lucky to get my announcement published and received really many letters. It was impossible to continue to write with all of them, so I picked few that seemed to be the most interesting ones. One of these was a girl from Finnish Lapland. So, we started to write letters with each other. I remember that I found it very exotic when she described how they went to school in there (several different ages, not in the separate classes, but in the same classroom and overall only few kids) and how there were reindeers etc. She hadn´t even visited Southern Finland, Oulu was the most southern point she had been in. I wrote about very different things: classes with lot of kids, trips to abroad etc. Years went by and we stayed in touch. I guess at the late 90´s we were still writing each other every now and then. But then at some point we lost touch. Years went by and suddenly Facebook become more and more popular. Around five years ago I received a friend request from a woman and first I didn´t recognize the face in the picture. It required few moments of serious thinking when it suddenly hit me: this is my pen pal! She had found me again! Not long ago after this I noticed that she was having a photo exhibition in Helsinki. I decided to take a chance and after all these years we finally met and were discussing face to face. The feeling was something which is hard to describe! And thanks to modern tools (i.e. FB) we are part of our lives again!”
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Meet Sanna, from Helsinki, Finland. She currently lives in Vallila neighborhood “around 1 km from the hospital where I was born”, she laughs.
Her family consists of three persons and one personality above all of them - their cat. She has a daughter who is a bit over one and half years old and very eager to explore the world (edit: just like her mother). According to Sanna, her partner is probably the most calm and down to earth out of then all. And the cat, Ramos, he runs the world. At least he thinks so.
Sanna stayed home for 1.5 years with her daughter but is now back to work at OP Group (i.e. one of the biggest financial institutes in Finland) and kicks some analytics again! When Sanna returned to work, her partner took paternal leave to stay at home with their daughter.
Sanna and Tiina used to work together and became friends: well needed are the girl’s weekends every now and then when there is nothing but time to go through all the latest news, gossips, have a bit of good wine and food and go to sauna.
EVERYDAY LIFE
When still at home on maternity leave, Tuesdays were a bit different than today: it was waking up around 8 or 9 with her daughter, both excellent sleepers! Then some cuddling and breakfast. Just lovely, slow mornings. Usually going for a walk or to the playground before lunch after which it was time for a nap for smaller one, and some “me-time” for the bigger one. After nap some outside activities, food again, playing, evening porridge and then kid’s time to go to bed. After that 2-3 hours for parents to tidy up the whole mess, the worst in her everyday life is the never-ending cleaning and organizing, and watch some television, some reading before going to sleep. Wednesdays it was the same all over again.
Today Tuesdays are different: waking up at 6.30 and getting ready to work trying not to wake up the rest of the family, working from 8 to 16 and then getting back home and enjoying the evening with the family. Feeling happy and grateful to have her partner at home as stay-home-daddy still for some time!
Overall, she has nothing bad to say about routines: “Kids need routines and happy to have them to make my daughter feel safe.” Generally in life Sanna finds stressful having too many thing that she is not able to have an impact on – there could have been some challenging moments during the past months: just like selling their apartment during Covid-lockdown period, starting the total renovation of new home, moving and getting back to work from the maternity leave, getting her knee operated…
She tries to be gentle and kind to herself and treats herself in a way that makes her feel good. Doing things that she loves: playing football, spending time with the family, meeting friends and drinking wine and chatting to make the world a better place. And she has always loved to travel but might do that a little less in the near future.
Sanna’s hidden gem in Helsinki: go and explore Vallila and Käpylä-neighborhoods, take a swim and have a picnic in Kumpula lido or Pikkukoski!
DREAMS & FEARS, PAST & FUTURE
What are your dreams?
“That I see my baby girl to grow up and have a great life which she enjoys and that I won’t regret the things I haven´t done.”
What is your worst fear?
“That I end up being a bitter and notice that there were too many opportunities that I just missed because of bad choices I´ve made.”
What is the most important advice you have received?
“Sit stilla I båten” i.e.. “do not rock the boat”. I interpret it that it is better to stay calm no matter what the situation is. If you get too stress, you just make bad decisions. And that is usually quite true.”
What has been the greatest global invention of your time?
“It must be the world wide web.”
Where would you donate your time/money to?
“Families with less resources, refugees, environment.”
Has the position of girls/women changed during your lifetime?
“Yes, luckily for the better even though there is still A LOT to do.”
If you could, what advice would you give to your 20-year-old self?
“Two things: the fear of missing out is just in your head and try to learn to accept that good things also happened to bad people and there is nothing you can do about it.”
Where will you be in 10 years?
“Hopefully working less and being less stressed.”
What would you say to a woman of your age who lives across the world?
“Reading is always a good way to spend time. There is a lot you can learn by reading, but especially by reading Pippi Longstocking.”
How about Christmas traditions? Sanna’s way of celebrating Christmas is the very traditional Finnish way of enjoying 24th, our main day among Christmas festivities: “We take a bath in sauna, visit graveyards and light candles to loved ones and have a delicious meal at my mom’s. 25th is then for doing-nothing: more food, chocolate, some reading, playing and watching movies.”
QUICK ONES
Drink: Cold tap water
Favorite food: Chickpea limonello
Delicacy: Cinnamon roll
Restaurant/Café: Shelter http://www.shelter.fi/
Spice: coriander
Feeling: laughter
Music: indie rock
Scent: morning dew in the summer
Travel destination: Mexico
Book: Harry Hole -series by Jo Nesbo
Movie: Pay it forward by Mimi Leder
Favorite public holiday: Midsummer
Artist/band: Guns n Roses
Plant: tulips
Evening routine: reading
Favorite piece of clothing: leggings
Animal: cat
Scenery: sunset by the lake
Sport: football
Motto: “Sit stilla I båten”