migrations

Between January and March, four people who had become regular occurrences in my everyday life during the last three years packed up their things and left Sweden.

Kate, a former classmate and colleague from SRC, was first. In January, she moved back to her native New Zeeland for a prestigious job at the Ministry of the Environment.

In the end of February, Hanna, another former classmate, left for a blue ribbon internship at the EU Environment in Brussels. She will come back to Stockholm eventually, but still.

The heaviest blow came in the beginning of March. Lina, my roommate for the last three plus years, graduated in February, felt done with Stockholm, and moved to Delft, the Netherlands. It left an emptiness in the apartment, and in my everyday life, in a way that I couldn’t put my finger on. I got a new roommate just a week after Lina moved out, so physically the second bedroom was occupied. But the sounds in the apartment weren’t the same. And the new feeling will take time to get used to.

And then in mid-March, Jessica, a third of my former classmates and colleagues, went to Australia to start her PhD. She will also be back by fall, as she’s doing her PhD at both the university in Australia and at the SRC, but still.

With all these people gone, it’s like putting the last nail in the coffin of my master programme years. Ashley and Vivi are still around at the SRC. Linda, Elli, Matilda and Jonas are still in Stockholm, but with jobs and new responsibilities. Life has moved on to a new phase, and I have to create a new context for myself. True to my Nordic soul, I sometimes feel nostalgic for the old times. But I know it will pass, like most things.

Kate and Jessica saying goodbye at Kate’s goodbye party.

The last proper dinner party Lina and I hosted together in Skarpnäck, together with my former classmates Jessica and Ashley, and Lina’s former classmate Johan.