Since I was little I started realizing the so to say “personality” of Finland and the things that makes it different compared to other places. My perspective and experience of what is Finnishness is greatly affected by the fact that my father is Turkish. Since I was a little, me and my family have travelled to visit my grandparents and expended family in Türkiye every summer. For this reason I have had an excellent opportunity to observe Finland from distance at time. It has also thought me a lot of my own perspective on Finnishness after explaining how things and people work and behave in Finland in general.
What I think is particularly special in Finnishness is that because it is such a free country compared to many other places on Earth to live in one can live their life the way they prefer without a need to hide or to be afraid of who they are and how they want to express themselves. That is why there are loads of different ways to feel like a Finnish person and to think what makes Finland to be Finland. Maybe the space and calmness of this country gives people a chance to be who they are.
Kirpputori (Flee market) might be one oh the first words to learn when visiting Finland. People in Finland have in my opinion mastered the reuse skills of clothing, furnitures and basically any kind of stuff you could think of selling. This gives also an opportunity to live more ecologically and affordably when you can buy used stuff instead of buying it brad new. I like to think this as a subject to be proud of and a mindset that should be spread more around the world.
Overall Finnishness hides in many small and sometimes quiet and hidden places and situations which occur both in nature and during interactions between people. Give it time and watch and listen your surroundings carefully and it will appear to you, I would say.
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