While I was opening my notes to prepare for my last exam of the second semester, I suddenly realized that it has been exactly one year since I arrived in the Royal Kingdom of Denmark. And what a year it has been. It wasn’t just another year in my life, it was so much more. A year filled with experiences, challenges, pain, learning, failing, growing, and trying again every single day. When every next step was absolutely uncertain and hope was all I could rely on, it feels all worth when I look back. Although, journey of figuring things out would never end, what else would be more exciting ?
Working full-time as an engineer in a multinational company in Japan, and spending rest of the time exploring one of the most authentic cultures in the world, I never imagined, I would one day sit at my desk drafting a resignation email. Every word I typed that day still feels heavy. After 7 years in Japan, I wasn’t ready for the moment when I had to walk into the ward office to register my move-out of the country. I wasn’t ready to see my residence card punched by immigration. And I was definitely not ready to say goodbye to my husband at the airport when he hugged me tight. At the gate when my heart was wrenching harder my friend gave me call. He said‘The only way to get to where you want is leaving from where you are’, there is no easy way. Take your flight with confidence, this is not the end’. Boarding my flight, I realized – I had left a huge part of myself behind.
Japan shaped me. It gave me freedom, courage, and the strength to figure out what I truly wanted. I embrace every moment spent there, but, it was not the end. It was the beginning of me to start living again. Even now, when I introduce myself here, the most common question people ask is, “Why did you leave Japan?” Their curiosity is valid, but for a long time I struggled to answer it. This journey started as a quest for more knowledge, but I’ve realized it has grown into something much bigger. While this would not answer people, I rather chose to say, I already lived the dream you are seeing, and I am on my journey to the next.
With two suitcases and a bag pack, travelling from one end of the globe to other, everything changed. Walking out of arrival, seeing people waving Danish flag to welcome their loved ones, I suddenly felt completely alone. Apart from two suitcases and hope inside me, there was nothing truly mine. Everyone advised that weather in Denmark is not easy. While, I had no idea what they said, I got my first experience of Danish wind when I was waiting for my bus. The wind felt like frozen water hitting my face. Even with a sweater and a jacket, I found myself desperately searching for shelter. Three days later when I finally settled in my student apartment, I took a deep breath. There is where everything begins!!
I have always lived in a busy cities. In Japan, trains came every few minutes, and in India, the streets were full of people. I never imagined what life would look like without.
While the bigger cities in Denmark have good public transport, the smaller ones with fewer people and more private cars don’t really need such frequent schedules. It made sense, but I wasn’t used to seeing no people, less noise and no convenience. On the first day, when I walked around my campus, I dd not see a single person outside. For almost 3 days, campus was almost empty, it was vacation at that time. While my mind was desperate for noise, longing to see busy streets, and whistling train sounds. But slowly, the silence in the wind and the calmness of the people around me helped me take small steps. Today, I’m grateful for that silence, because I would have never known myself well if I hadn’t stepped away from the noise of the world. Denmark helped me look within.
At the lecture hall on the first day, when professors were delivering introduction, I could not still believe, I was back to be being a student again. Walking back to classroom after 9 years, it wasn’t easy and at the same time nothing less than extreme excitement. For what I felt, sitting among students from different background and stories, is I was no special. I was just a normal kid with aspiration. As the days passed, every class I attended and every person I met had something new to teach me. And somewhere between lectures, assignments, group projects, reports, and endless collaboration, I noticed something unique. It was being perfectly fine with not knowing everything. Well, quite different from India, where at certain position you are expected to know all the answers, it was not so here. The study system had a very interesting approach. It is – know little but know how to work with it. Exams weren’t about testing how much you could memorize at a specific moment, it was much aimed at understanding what a student is comfortable with and how you think. To study here, I realized I had to unlearn many patterns I grew up with. Just like the country, the education system offered freedom. A freedom to choose, to question, to speak up. It gave space to unlearn, relearn, think openly, and encouragement to voice what I need.
Navigating the job market, writing hundreds of cover letter, I realized, life is never easy. It wouldn’t be easy even when you try harder, days would be rougher than you actually plan. I remembered what my papa once said, ‘with every rejection, you get closer to what is meant for you’. After all those applications, when I held my first part-time job offer, well, I don’t know how to express that happiness. I resigned a job, and I was looking for a job, well you may say, I am fool. Yes, a fool, who wished to live her life. My manager at introduction told me: ‘we will face new challenges everyday. And trust me even I don’t know how to deal with most of them. How about figuring it out together? You will learn slowly, so give yourself time and don’t rush. Remember to celebrate and enjoy your everyday’. Wise people help you grow and taking that flight on 23rd Jan 2025 from Japan, I gave myself another chance to grow. This time, just not within the limits of what others expected from me, but as far as my own imagination and vision could reach.
Today, as I celebrate my 365 days here, I can never forget the cost at which all of this was possible. To the ones who supported me and still are, thank you. You helped me breath smoothly when things felt heavy. And to the ones who did not, thanks to you as well, because you helped me walk forward with no doubt on myself. To the year that helped me see myself again, I am grateful. You made the story beautiful, even through the storms. If someone asked me “Do you think Denmark was the right choice?”
Well, I will say – I don’t think anything else could have built me the way Denmark did!
mange tak Danmark!
