It's a love story, really. 

When we landed in Olso, I could feel it: a thrill, a freshness. Looking back on it now, it felt exactly like the upward swoop of falling in love. And when we hopped onto the platform at our final destination, Göteborg, the feeling settled into a satisfied hum of happiness that, in three years of living here, still hasn't left me. I found my penguin. The North.

The question of "what do I do here?" didn't bother me much, I knew the answers would come. First: the language.

I enrolled in Swedish for Immigrants. Having wrestled with Russian, Polish then Serbian (all long stories there), a Germanic language felt like a cake walk. I got to the point where I could read emails and then got cracking on finding a job. Or rather, nudging my way into an industry that was entirely new to me at the time.     

Prior to moving to Sweden, the non-profit world was my professional sphere. I loved it, but it wasn't satisfying a need I have in overwhelming amounts: creativity. I looked around my town and quickly saw that all of the bright young talent was working in creative PR & digital agencies. That's where I wanted to be. I knew how to write and I knew how to learn. And thanks to my now-husband, I knew some things about how to design and code websites.

I started following every warm, luke-warm and straight-up cold Google-searched lead I could find until things started to happen. And it worked, just not in the way I anticipated.

I was delighted to get emails back that looked like this one:    

This email was from the brilliant digital strategist, Alexandra Moberg, who I like to credit as providing my "first big break." I took this gig, and the next. A pattern emerged. Gothenburg was in need of English copywriting and web content creation sporadically, rather than full time. I could be like Batman, but with words. 

So, I became a consultant. An English copywriter for Nordic companies. It has been nothing short of fantastic, and of course a little nail-biting on occassion. But that just makes it all the more exciting. 

I'm expanding my work not just in Gothenburg, but in the region too. Denmark, you're gorgeous and I don't mind your funny language: I want to work with you. Norway, I can't get enough of your ridiculous mountain valleys: let's chat. Iceland, you make my the drums of my heart pound with a special kind of fury: I'll see you in Reykjavik. And Finland, we haven't met yet, but I really really think we should.