The other day I got talking to some friends and it gave me an idea to write about this topic. One of them has also got a Finnish citizenship, but she said that it felt weird saying to people, "I'm a Finnish citizen" because she felt that her roots were in her home country. She said she had heard other expats saying those words without any emotional attachment whatsoever to her home country. Another friend told me that her mother would be so sad if she had opted to have a Finnish citizenship.
That made me think about me. Some people may think that it's so easy for me to let go of my Indonesian citizenship (Indonesian government won't accept dual citizenship, by the way - otherwise I'd have kept it, too). For me, a citizenship is just a citizenship. It doesn't mean I'm denying who I am.
Additional note: I don't want to give the wrong idea with this post, so just wanna add here that it WAS easy for me to let go of my Indonesian citizenship due to the reasons I've written in this post. Plus another practical reason is that having Finnish passport enables me to travel more easily compared to having an Indonesian passport.
Maybe one thing that is different from me and that friend whose roots were in her home country is that even though I was born and raised in Indonesia, but I know that some people there would still tell me that I'm a non-native Indonesian. I'm Chinese by heritage, but the Chinese government and people won't accept me as one of their own because I don't speak their language, I don't even know how life is over there, and I have NEVER been there, either.
That said, it's actually helped me a lot when I moved to Finland because I'm used to being a "non-native". I may never be a full-blown Finnish or Indonesian or Chinese woman, but that doesn't matter. I'm a citizen of the world and I love living here. Period. :-D
Anyhow, here are some pictures I've taken lately:
My first snow angel ever ha ha ha...The head looks weirdly small for the body and wings HA HA HA...
Doesn't the snow look so fluffy and soft? :-D
Not a really good pic, but I just wanna show the pink sky the other day:
Inspired by Blur Ting's post entitled Daydream Believer, I decided to take the same route...to the imaginary land. Let's think of my life 10 years from now.
First of all, my Finnish would be good (or should be at least) by then. I can communicate pretty well with my parents-in-law and I've already produced at least one kid hi hi hi...Hopefully God will let me have my own kid. By then I think I'll be busy still being a mother, 'coz after all I'm only planning to have a kid in 2-3 years from now, so if my first kid is born 3 years from now, he or she'll only be around 7. Still a handful hi hi hi hi...Or I guess kids will always be handful no matter how old they get? Hmmm...I'm not a parent yet, so enlighten me, please? ;-D
Secondly, I'll be a Finnish citizen already by then. I have to stay here at least for 4 years without any long significant break and then pass my national Finnish exam before I can apply for citizenship. Applying for citizenship may take up to a year or more, but since we're talking about 10 years from now, I'm pretty confident that I'll be a Finnish citizen by then (with God's help 'coz you know how bureaucracy is!!!).
Thirdly, I'll be living in a bigger apartment obviously 'coz we'll have a kid or kids already. I hope the apartment is a one-floor apartment so I have no neighbours above or below me, just next to me.
Fourthly, I'll either have been able to get a steady income by blogging for money or by then I'll be able to get at least a part-time job here in Finland since my Finnish is enough to get by in work places. Honestly speaking, I think it's nicer to work from home, though, especially when it's cold outside ha ha ha ha ha...I've always been better at working alone. I've never survived in a real workplace (I tried working in a garment factory once, but it only lasted for 7 weeks - I'll tell you about this later someday).
Hmmm...what else? By then my book collection will be MORE than now. I had to leave almost all my books in Bandung when I moved here, so right now I only have 12 novels. I want to read MORE!!!
Last but not least...I hope in 10 years I'll have enough savings to visit my parents at least once (hopefully they'll still be alive). If this blogging for money works well, I'll be able to save money in a few years' to go back home. I do have untouched savings (MUST NOT BE WITHDRAWN at all costs), but that's for VERY URGENT matters, i.e. if for example my parents gets REALLY sick (or even worse), then I'll go back to Indonesia right away with that money. Gotta be prepared for urgent matters!!!
Other than that, 10 years from now, I hope I can keep on feeding my inner child and stay positive and enthusiastic. I hope I can keep on cherishing all the good things in life and I always remember to count my blessings instead of counting what I don't have. I hope I still have a WONDERFUL relationship with my husband and kids 10 years from now. I hope I continue growing together with my husband and our bond gets stronger and stronger. I hope I can continue surrendering to God and relying on Him. I hope I have grown wiser and gentler then (not bitter or cynical). I hope that I can still have all of your my blogging friends by then and that I can still have time to blog when my kids are in my life he he he he he he...I just wanna lead a good life and spread sunshine and laughter. :-))))
Ahhhhhh...I just LOVE daydreaming, don't you? ;-D
