I’ve fallen in love with the Swedish fjäll during my recent summer adventures, as well as in the small villages that dot the valleys between them. I’ve also realized that after six years in Stockholm, I’m ready to try something new. Thankfully, the other love of my life, my girlfriend Rebecka, feels the same.
In September, we’ll pack the car and drive the 500 kilometers from Stockholm to Vemdalen, a village of 600 people in the heart of the Härjedalen province. Our new home.
I grew up in a small town and went to university in a small city. The gravitational pull of Stockholm is strong for people entering the job market, and like so many others, I moved here for work without any expectations that I would stay long-term. I started to have misgivings about my life in Stockholm during the pandemic, but it was difficult to separate my feelings about Stockholm from everything else that was going on at the time. I figured I should at least give the city a few pandemic free years before I called it quits.
I’m glad I did. When the vaccine became available and society started to open up again, I met my partner in adventure Rebecka and her Shiba Inu Taki. How lucky am I that I’ve found someone else who’s idea of a good time is to sleep in a tent with wet socks hung to dry above you?
The restaurants, shops and arenas of Stockholm were also open for business again. Even when enjoyed with someone else, I realized that I didn’t need those services in order to be happy, and that the price of having easy access to them wasn’t worth it. Instead, I’ve spent most of my time looking forward to visiting the mountains again. If you feel that strongly about a place, you should probably live there year-round, if you can. I’m grateful that me and Rebecka are able to give it a try.
Rebecka will join the Vemdalen offices of the interior design company BGA as a content manager. I will still do the same things, in front of the same computer, but with a way nicer background in video meetings. Almost everything else about our lives will be different. We hope for the better.