Finding Petronella
A young woman, a 90-year-old Lappish legend, and the journey of a lifetime.
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Exactly one month from today, I land in Helsinki to begin my adventure! I cannot believe that the one month mark has arrived so soon. It feels like I have been dreaming and learning about this journey for a long time, and yet here I stand, ready or not, with a hard deadline and a date of departure. With the resting hopes and dreams of those who know me (or know of me)… Read More
Tickets to Finland are booked! Scandinavian Airlines: 16-Jun-14 (Mon) 06:55p depart Newark (EWR) flight change in Oslo 17-Jun-14 (Tue) 06:15pm arrive Helsinki, Finland (HEL) 13-Oct-14 (Mon) 01:55pm depart Helsinki, Finland (HEL) flight change in Copenhagen 14-Oct-14 (Tue) 02:45pm arrive San Francisco (SFO) There are so many exclamation points in my heart right now!!!!!!!!
Camp is set, our climbing gear is ready, and we hear the roar of a bus engine. Forty-six 6th grade girls pour down the stairs, giggling, screaming, laughing. Apples roll from lunch boxes, sleeping bags are piled unceremoniously on the side of the road, and we call them into a giant circle. I scan the crowd, soaking in the advertisements. Abercrombie jacket. Heavy mascara. Authentic Ray Bans. $200 skinny jeans. Brand new Keds… Read More
Excerpt from our first visit in April 2013: “Petronella acknowledges my presence with the slightest of nods. She sits on a throne of pillows, eating applesauce out of a porcelain teacup. Her right hand grasps a tiny spoon, and a ray of sunlight catches the sapphire ring on her finger, sending shadows of blue fire dancing across the cream-colored wall of the houseboat. Slowly, she extends her hand to me, admiring the… Read More
The future work of a woman will be wide, and her task important. What centuries, millenia, have broken and neglected, that all will be corrected and mended by her. – Minna Canth This week, on the 19th of March, Finland celebrated Minna Canth’s Day – also the Day of Social Equality. Minna was a Finnish writer and the first female Finnish-speaking journalist, as well as the first woman to have a flag day in… Read More
“Escape. Walk out. Like someone suddenly born into color. Do it now.” – Rumi One month ago, I reached my funding goal on Kickstarter to walk across Finland, retracing the steps of a 90-year-old woman, and write about my trek. Shortly thereafter, I quit my job, moved out of my apartment in the Headlands and into the city, cut off and donated my hair, and tried to brace myself for the changes… Read More
Finding Petronella 