First thing that comes to my mind when I think about Finland, and being a Finn, is the forest, lakes and the silence you find when you wander through the nature. When I was young I didn’t think about it, but now I know that the silence is not something everyone has. That might be one of the reasons why going abroad sometimes feel so scary to us. We simply aren’t used to the constant noise of traffic and people talking. Of course there is plenty of noise in Finland too, but not in the same scale, and here we know how to escape it!
Why Finns enjoy peace and prefer to keep their privacy? Maybe it is because we have an easy access to it. We don’t need to rent a cottage far away from the city, usually we just happen to own one right outside the town. We are lucky to have space around us, and that has affected our customs and free-time activities.
We often take it for granted, but every time I have gone abroad I have realized that nature is one of the most important things we have in Finland. It might not feel unique to us, but the fact that everyone has an easy access to a forest is something we should appreciate more.
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