Finland: Eye Opening Conversation About Gripping Loneliness

A Quick Finland Catch up

We decided to take a walk to Finland today to have a quick chat with Ikenna (not their real name) today. Ikenna shares his experience as a doctorate student at a university over there. It was definitely an enlightening conversation as he goes into detail about how relocating to another country can be lonely and how this is not talked about enough.

How Hard Or Easy Was it to Leave Nigeria?

Most countries have rules and if you follow the rules, and do everything that the embassy says, you should be fine. If you meet all the criteria then you should be fine. Yes, some countries can be trickier to get into than others. Some countries have stringent criteria, but if you follow everything and yes everything is hard but you will have to choose your hard. So, stay in Nigeria and enjoy it or go abroad and see the opportunities that abound. 

What Are The Things You Feel Most People Should Know Before Leaving Nigeria? How Did it Happen For you?

For people leaving Nigeria to Study, this goes without saying that you should focus on your studies. Let’s say you are going for your undergraduate degree for a four-year course, most countries might give you a two-year visa and you will have to extend it. When you want to extend, if you are not doing well, they will definitely ask the school for your transcript, so you have to be performing well to some degree before they can allow you to extend your stay in the country. if you are not doing well as regards attendance, as regards grades, it could affect you and your application for an extension might be denied. 

Another thing people should know is you will be lonely. You have to make peace with the fact that you will be lonely for a period of time. 

Open your mind. Be open to different possibilities. You will experience some culture shocks and that’s okay. Open your mind, interact with people, and you should be fine.

How is Life Treating You in Finland?

The number one thing I would say that a lot of people don’t talk about to people who are planning to relocate is the loneliness that you face. The depression before you get into the groove of things and before you fully settle in. You would experience loneliness. Especially if there is no family where you are going, you will definitely experience loneliness.

It is something people don’t talk about. You check the streets of Twitter, you check Instagram, and things like that. People who are Nigerians in the diaspora, are always talking about the much better life and all of that, which is true. That much is true but before you settle in, if you don’t have any family there, I assure you, you will definitely face some loneliness and because of this some people get depressed and it affects their purpose. So, that’s one thing people have to keep in mind. 

When relocating to a place where nobody knows you, where you have no family, you need to be strong mentally when you get there. 

Some of the tips I can share for surviving in Finland or any country would be to hit the gym. From the very first day you get there, look around, don’t isolate yourself, look around. Smartphones have maps, there would almost always be a gym close by. Find a gym and start working out to keep yourself strong mentally for the challenge before you start looking for a job or whatever.

And also, interact with people, like I said earlier, don’t isolate yourself. I did all of this when I got to Finland and it helped me tremendously in my settling down in Finland over here.

Another thing is that the weather can affect you. I am in Finland, it’s a very cold country. In this part of the world, in winter, it gets really dark, it’s not just cold, it is dark. Research has shown, there are stats out there that suicide rates go through the roof in winter. Apart from working out, if you don’t want to go to the gym during winter, you can do exercises at your home, just keep yourself preoccupied so the darkness and the weather don’t get to you. 

Those are the tips I can share for now. The loneliness you will feel and how the weather can affect you mentally.

Would You Consider returning To Nigeria And Why?

Definitely not!! The legislation in Nigeria, at least at the moment, the legislation doesn’t support well-meaning Nigerians who want to return to make a change. So nope, I’ll take my talents elsewhere. It’s sad to see the country I love so much disintegrate over the years, it’s now so bad, we are lagging behind in every metric of development so would I want to come back? No. I wouldn’t as much as I love the country, I’ll take my talent elsewhere. Maybe here in Finland or who knows where next?