Teenage Life Back in My Homeland

I woke up in the morning after a good night's sleep. I get washed and had my breakfast before going to write another story. As in Finnish tradition and philosophies, the memory when my mom had once told me a day before I start my day in college spring up, “Matti, take a cup of coffee whenever you feel sleepy, if you need to start your day, keeping up with your day, or you want to relax, okay ?” I chuckle as I remember that echo in my head. Anyways, here we go.

The date is rather blurry! I can’t even remember exactly when I started my teenage life in Junior High school. So, I’ll just say that my teenage life is drastically different to my childhood in many terms. The most obvious is the subjects, conversations, the teachers, and the tension on every exam or homework ever!

I am trying to remember my days in high school, and I can exactly tell all about it now. I woke up in the room of my house where I live with my mom and dad. I remember the days when I woke up, dad was still in the other bathroom and to proceed his morning protocols, heh. After I shower, of course breakfast; usually a loaf of bread, sometimes half. There are like hundreds of dishes that my mom prepared for us together as a family, so many among the hundreds have been lost in my memories, forgotten majorly about it. Sometimes I can still recap the ingredients she used and not how or what is the name of the dish. I recollect that at least half of said hundreds of breakfast dishes are based on bread, fish, vegetables, doughs, and even fruits. Mainly I still call it a carbohydrate-rich breakfast, so don’t ask how fat am I during that time, I can remember at least at the health inspection that our school do in every 2 months, I scored, and yes “scored” the weight of 105.15 kilograms…don’t mock me, I’m just nutritionally rich in lipids and monosaccharides in my blood or body.

The days pass by, and I try to recollect the days I’ve been in high school, in the grade of Junior High School student. I can gather the memories as simple as this: upon entering the school I remember the times I can see the hallway walls that are painted in cream white, and the floor with red and white tiles. The school also has a field in the middle of the building, an outdoor field used for some sports like basketball and badminton, even though I do badminton a lot more than any form of sports like football and basketball, I still find badminton more fitting to me.

The school has the shape of an octagon, there’s some floors; main floor, first, and second. About 24 classes actually, main floor is for the twelfth and seventh graders, first is for the tenth and ninth graders, and the top floor, the second floor, is for the eight and eleventh graders. And in this story? I was a seventh grader, at least in English terms. I remember the day I entered my new class with some friends that I remember, while also meeting with new friends, some are outside Lahti, majorly there is more from Lahti than outside of Lahti or its outskirts. Majorly, in the seventh grade I don’t really mind much of the intensity of subjects, because as the facts states about our nation; “Well-paid teachers”

We do get a more understandable learning since we’re mainly about the understanding of said concepts and such than what I say: “A glimmering quality in a piece of paper wasted from trees”. Which of course, my dad nodded at. Also, In Finland, we do get another weapon in our sleeves that is far different than our neighbor Sweden, a rapid use of libraries. I can’t lie, almost a quarter of my school time and my friends are based on libraries, books, laptops, and less on papers and classes, because trust me, we Finns don’t fancy being enclosed in so called “classrooms” and rather be at the place we SHOULD have been than to sit our asses on chairs for what? 6 to 7 hours on studying books, doing tests, and whatnot. Oh and yes, by this time I took upper secondary school, if you hadn’t noticed.

Right, every time I enter this school, I start to love it when it comes to study sciences. I mean physics is rather hard for me, my weakness there? Equations, Physics has a lot of it, A LOT. So to save myself, I choose Biology, where I actually thrive, germinate, and even bloom in. I swear, I choose to even grow trees, document its growth, water and fertilize it every day for the span of months rather than writing and counting how fast, far, and quickly a toy car accelerates or decelerates on a straight lane. Because I don’t spend my time all around physics as much as Biology, because technically, Bio comes the word Bios from a Greek word that means “Life”. So it’s not wrong if I’m living and studying about Life in scientific terms and views. Oh, and Socials? Meh, not really my go too, I don’t want to spend much time on viewing people’s activities, social life and phenomenon, and even accounting, ew…why do I even want to count money and just take care of others businesses ?

My life in the school, in second upper grade, is a complete roller-coaster. I remember most of my life’s ups and downs there in school. One is where I once scored one of the Biology’s test somewhere in the second year a 100 out of 100, I was cheered on by my friends, we headed to the cantina and ordered a burger there, an American food that I fell in love with when I’m still…fat. Oh, and I remember the day when my school had a trip to the national park and there I got to dissect a life fish! I remember when my friend named Tanya and Cedric got squeamish about gutting a fish, for me it’s normal to see a fish being cut open and see the appalling guts thrown away. I managed to dissect the fish and extract the beating heart of the fish. This is quite odd and very interesting at the same time, “How odd, If a fish’s heart can continue to beat in matter of a minute or less, the fish is definitely dead since technically a chordate like Mammals and Pisces in majority can’t survive without a heart, because it’s the only core of its life, a center of the physiology of a multicellular being. But still, the heart can still move by itself, for how long”? I questioned myself, before a friend touched my shoulder and said “Hey doc, the guide told us that we’ve won! You want to hit the cantina? We got a couple of minutes to order some sandwiches before we went back to school.” Said Reynard, seemingly his weak heart can’t stand much of the tension and fact of me gutting an innocent fish for learning about life and anatomy of a fish, heh, what a silly boy! Calling me a doctor just for cutting open a fish and show it’s heart beating, and I instantly won a bachelor’s degree of a doctor, haha, maybe medical school was easy if you’re not so squeamish about blood, and probably played a decently high amount of ‘violent video games’.

Then I remember the bitterness of my teenage life, the days I got myself in one of the troubles young people at this time of age encounter which for me, sound somewhat usual, and taught to us on “How to endure shitty moments in life” or “Getting through life when it spits on you”. I’m quite embarrassed about telling this, but here we go.

I had this one or three classmates that is picking up on me, there’s this “gang” or group of other classmates where he’s in, which is obviously a band of troublemakers, and I’ll be honest, a product of bad parenting, which I’d like to keep it away from. I got called names and was mocked at. One example: “Nazi” is the word they once called me, the backstory about this mockery that they stamp on my face is because I just like Nazi Germany before, it’s awesome! All about their technological advancement of its time, polytechnic appliances to many aspects of warfare, tactical advancement, and maybe a thing or two about their ideals. Then another of their mockery is “Commie”. The word Commie is simple and a very specific one about what my preference at the time, at that year, I was DEFINITELY about socialism and fairness in the world. The idea is because in my opinion is based on the majority of a democratic and progressive views on what should and must be done and given than the so called “ruling party” have held, much like what the Americans had at times like so. Surely a view about communism is not good, but somewhere around or a view of social fairness is not wrong, hell! Even in science, all must be at a balance to achieve equilibrium, which in my statement: The Fair Point. Days pass by, facing them like facing rats harassing and scurrying around your table and chair, while you read a book titled: “Life,Its Temptations, and Trials”.

I remembered all the embarrassing memories and experiences at this moment, facing the bitter and rubbish memories, the past ‘tragedies’ and all. Oh, and not to mention, I also got to remember the day I got scammed by some idiots and of course there’s just one thing in mind that I also wish to add, before I go to continue my day.

In grade 11th in international or English terms, I met with a friend that has an Australian heritage, I honestly don’t expect a student from an international school, even though yes, we are intercultural here in Finland. I’m quite shy to meet with him, not because I’m an introvert, but more into who he is and his personality. Through visual inspection, I momentarily hypothesize he will be someone introverted to socialize and will have a hard time being open. The bell rang and we of course went out of the class, some to the library, some to the cantina, and some just go to the field and maybe do some sports. I for one stay in that class and introduce me and my friends to him, turns out he’s an artistic kid, with a shy personality (yeah… those types) which I’m glad he doesn’t seem to show that he’s a bad kid on the inside. 

Months pass by, and I began to see what’s his bad side is, too shy, rarely active, and just keeping his problems to himself, and when he try to, he just don’t know who to talk to, even though I’ve been directing him to the student’s, but I still can’t let go of him in the middle of the school year; he’s my friend after all. 

At this point, I start to think to myself; Did I do the right thing ? Did I make a mistake befriending him in the first place ? I mean he admitted to me that he’s been suicidal since he’s 5 and all, but what if he’s just too reactive and unstable at his time ? I mean he’s 20’s and probably can handle himself well but….ehh.

Almost there, the end of the middle school year as a 11th grader, goddamn right, I’ll be graduating soon, sadly there are some news of some students might not graduate, and of course, I’m sure with my fucking faith who will, but at the same time, I doubt if me or any of my friends would too. One of the problems I had is mainly on my grades, I don’t do well in some subjects, I picked sciences so... you thought I’d be a smart kid back then, but not really. Most of the subjects I have and studied are basically graded “slightly above passing grade”. Like having an 85 from 100 to 75 from 100, which is the example of the passing grade.

Days after graduation, tensions are high, like the Iron Curtain. At least the Iron Curtain idea is the “show off” and proxy war against Capitalist West and Socialist East, in my generation in school? There IS an Iron Curtain situation. Firstly, the bullies on the one side, and me with the others that are being bullied on the other. I really start to think the atmosphere of this school began to descend from educative to somewhat uncontrollable, in my perspective. But at this time? It’s silent. I messaged my friends which is right in my messenger, I argue at them because it’s really a shame for me, after all this time I got to save or perhaps help them but no one came to aid us, we’re all alone and of course, my Australian friend here don’t get much help from me or the school either...I mean I don’t see why, we’re in a private school anyway, they decide how shitty this school gets, and this is what they get, I’m just hoping the Minister of Education can bulldoze this school A.S.A.P anyway, I just can’t stand with the false hopes and frequent bickering of my classmates about this school not being careful or attentive, let alone progressive to make the construction for the half part of the school, damn. Anyways, back to the friends issue, I got nothing to help or do to my friends other than to yell out and just completely speak up what I want them to do after all this time, because I’ll be honest, one of which is just a fucking copy-cat and pretender, the other is just inactive, often sleep around at class, and never seem to want to change or do something to show the class that he’s not the bully toy that they were fucking around with!

And finally, weeks after that, I went to a military base with my dad, it’s not the typical military base for the FDF (Finnish Defense Forces), but for the special forces of the FDF, for this one, we go to the Jääkäriprikaati, or the Jaeger Brigade. My heart at this point from merely the son of a Finnish farmer and lumberjack, turns the pride of a once proud Jaeger or Jääkäri. My dad then gave me an option to pick the guns there, and I’ll be honest, due to my loyalty to the Sisukas Lion, I don’t want to spoil this, instead I’ll just skip through it.

This time, I picked a Glock-17, a gun manufactured by the Austrians. I took my place and carefully aimed the sights. It is an iron sight after all, so no fancy scopes like in the games and all, this is a real thing! The gun handler there even direct and guide me how to use a pistol correctly and every sort of problems or issues to the pistol. I carefully slid my finger on the bottom of the trigger to make sure the Glock-17 can fire a single round, and it did! It flew off the bullet out of the pistol and hit the target that was set up there,it was a paper with the looks of a target crosshair, the usual looks that we use on gun training in like every gun range ever.

I tried even sub machine guns, light machine guns, and even stationary weapons. After a while, I go back to school as a 9th grader, which when I enter the class for the first time, I don’t see that shitwad bully, but of course, my Australian friend isn’t there too. I just continue on with life in that school, being in private school like this with such poor quality of library, infrastructure, quality of studies and subjects, and even the whole teachers here don’t seem to make us look “quality students” as our proud homeland’s standards have called, what a shame really…

At this point, I began to lose it, lost again in past nostalgias that are rich in the life of a teenager’s ups and downs, damn. But there’s just one thing in my mind that is left hanging, the day I get to go outside Finland because I had this Science olympics stuff by my school to fly to the United States of America. I think about it again, and again, before I decide to type it in.

Then, I set out to the airport in Helsinki, Finland. It took like a relatively long time for a road trip from Lahti to Helsinki, which is roughly 3 hours from the approximation from Google Maps is 1.6 hours. I finally got there, I packed my bags and waved farewell to my parents and flew off to the USA. Our flight took transit at first in Lisbon in Portugal, before we continued on to Washington DC, and then to Chicago. Let me tell you, the whole trip there made me want to stretch my legs, It took like hours and hours just to get to Chicago from Washington DC, but we arrived nevertheless. Then, me and my friends that entered the school began to familiarize ourselves with the school, and they took us to this big lab where we’ll do our stuff to do this “science fair”. After a tour around the school, we go around and meet new friends and all. I met this fellow who I say somewhat interesting, and of course, he’s far younger than I.

I walked to this big area of court, they were practicing baseball there, I sat on the top of the row of seats there, I met this kid who seemingly got trouble with some kid who is from another school, I can tell the difference from their uniforms. I go over there and help him up with his friends and reassure him that he's okay. “Hey, you alright?” I say with a worried tone, in which he replied: “Yeah, I’m alright man”. Thanking me afterwards, what a good fella. We introduced ourselves after that, I said “Hey, name’s Rynomatti Jalmaari Nikulapoika, but you can call me Matti”, as I offered my hand to him. He too responded by shaking my hand and speak up, “You can call me Ivan, Matti. Good to see you too.” We had a walk on the school and of course talking about our lives and facts about ourselves, we shared stories and made the whole atmosphere look like a setting for a yaoi love story...anyway, we’re just friends anyway. Then, it’s 18:32, I made my way back to the apartment block where our teacher took us, which is quite nice and all. I phoned this new friend Ivan and see if he likes to eat somewhere, he then took me out from my apartment block and took me and a friend of mine named Jean, he’s a French anthropomorphic fox. Good thing that I brought about $133, because Ivan just brought twenties, and Jean brough like ten dollars. We ate this large Chicago style pizza, a cheesy Chicago-style pizza...mmm, but hot damn that’s not all, there’s also this pepperonis on top of them, and my God..it’s the best one yet ! I’m so glad Ivan knows how to treat a friend! Haha.

The day has come, finally, after a day of meeting up with the whole school and many participants from many nations around the world, coming from New Zealand,Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, India, Brazil, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and then Finland. The first three participants are from Australia, Germany, and Sweden. The next round is India, UK, New Zealand, and Finland. Then the last, is Brazil, Denmark, Netherlands, and Canada. During the first break, I saw Ivan walking by and greeted me. “So, what will you show for us, professor ?” He said with a friendly chuckling, for me this is a good one since he really respects his friend for being a scientific maniac. I mean Einstein doesn't have a good start when it comes to support and “You can do it, chap!” words to lift his spirits, hopefully I don’t disappoint anyone by this. 

Yesterday, we’ve been discussing many ideas on how this science project will work and how to optimally do this to actually impress people, and so we chose this project we call “Fermentation of Ethanol from Polysaccharides”. The idea is simple:

C6H12O6 + 2 ADP + 2 P + 2 NAD+ → 2 CH3COCOO− + 2 ATP + 2 NADH + 2 H2O + 2H+

This equation is the simple chemistry of the formation of alcohol; Ethanol. Our idea? We put in some fungi that we use as a fermenter, and we decided to use rye, wheat, potato, and even some oats, we don’t specifically know what oats, but seemingly barley and some other cereal type of oats. We first ferment the samples and of course record it overnight with a high quality and high definition camera to watch and compare how fast and the factor how fast a batch of fermented sample can be produced to be ready for consumption or at least half-ready. We brought the video and the sample as well as the machinery we use the night before to this Science fair. When it’s the Finns turn to show what we got, we put what we’ve got overnight into the show. Ivan is there too, even recording me and my friends, wow, we became fast friends from a simple fateful day and a pizza dinner at night, neat! I never thought pizza would bring people together!

After a few days spending our time together, Ivan at school, I’m at the apartment doing my own stuff, we came on the day where I got to return to Finland, back to my homeland. We shook hands and hugged each other and bid our farewell. I returned to the airport in Chicago and took a flight to Seattle in the USA, Nagoya in Japan, Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, and then to Stockholm in Sweden, where we take a cruise back to Helsinki. I feel like traveling around the world at the age of 17 with the whole trip with teachers and very well known school staff. I remember the day I returned to my home in Helsinki, my mom and dad just hugged me and told me that they missed me a lot. Good ole’ Rubin the dog on the other hand is sleeping on the couch! What a sack of barley he is, after a while he ran to me with a bark before hugging and hopping around at me, what a warm welcome after traveling around the world to be welcomed by my family and pet.

At this point, I click save on Word before copy pasting all this into Google Documents, I smile from the whole memories, all that science experiments with my teacher and wasted half the batch of grapes from my dad’s stockpile just to make a 2 months old bottle of wine. I kept smiling afterwards. After the auto-save was done, I closed the browser, closed the laptop, and began my days; in the outside world.