Do I regret coming to study in Sweden?

Life after university was rocky for me. Transitioning from school into the work world had me in all types of feelings. I was on the verge of adulthood and that meant that I had to figure out how to survive. More importantly, I had to answer the existential question of what the hell I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I was convinced that I was never going back to school, I was sick of learning, and I didn’t think that I was truly passionate about what I studied.

Before Sweden

Now, I was very fortunate to have gotten a job before I finished my course, and to this day, I am so grateful for that. I got an opportunity to work in a global company that could propel me in any direction that I wanted to go. So, problem solved right? I had a degree, I had a good job at an amazing company, so everything was fine and dandy, right? Apparently not 😅. Who would’ve thought that there was more to life than work? That’s where my journey to Sweden began.

More and more, I found myself questioning what I really wanted. I wasn’t comfortable where I was, I felt like there was more out there, and being stuck at home wasn’t allowing me to answer any of those questions. I felt like I was in the passenger seat of my own life, and I didn’t know what to do about it. That’s when it hit me, I needed to run away. Like a PB&J to an empty stomach, running away was always the remedy for an out-of-control life (in the movies at least 😂). I mean, obviously it would solve all my problems, no question about it 🤷🏾‍♂️. The only question was where to run.

Luckily, I answered that pretty quickly with the help of the internet. Europe was the centre of culture, the place where people went to find themselves, the place where you could fall hopelessly in love and more importantly, the story that you could brag about to your friends for the rest of your life. So, how was I going to turn that dream into a reality?

At this point, I was listening to Montana by Daya every day, convincing myself little by little that the life I wanted was in Europe, far from whence I came. So, less than a year out of school, after convincing myself that master’s degrees were for chumps, here I was, looking in Europe for a place to study. In comes Sweden.

Maybe … Sweden?

My biggest concern when it came to going back to school was the money. School is expensive, money doesn’t grow on trees (I really don’t know who decided that 😒) and 6 months of working wasn’t going to fund my soiree into the promised land I was imagining. So, I went where the scholarship opportunities were leading me. My search led me to this tall looking country in northern Europe called Sweden.

What drew me to consider studying in Sweden?

1. The universities in Sweden didn’t need me to take an English exam (believe it or not some universities required me, with English as my first language, to take a test).
2. The programs were very different to what I had seen in other countries, they were very multidisciplinary and allowed me to critically explore the topics I was interested in.
3. The tuition fees were easy to understand. I was never confused about what I had to pay.
4. Most schools seemed to have a global scholarship program that would offer me a full tuition scholarship. It was even nicer because the scholarship applications weren’t too difficult.

With all of that, I applied, got in and got waitlisted for a global scholarship at Lund University in 2023. Bummer, right? There I was, devastated because all the plans I made had fallen through. I had no clue what to do with this predicament and was even more confused about what would happen next. The thing is, what took place in the year that followed changed my life forever, even more than I knew at the time. As discouraged as I was though, I applied again in the next season and got a full tuition scholarship in a program that was much better suited to me. As shocked as I was to have achieved that goal, what happened as I prepared to leave was what really changed my perspective.

In Sweden

The period between being waitlisted and getting the scholarship carried a whirlwind of experiences. It had changed my life at its core. The ups and downs of that stage of my life didn’t necessarily make it better, but reminded me of how blessed and how loved I am. While preparing to leave, I started to understand the things that were important to me in this life, simply because I was faced with the reality of living without them. I discovered that I had a home, and while it wasn’t perfect, it was something that I should’ve never taken for granted. Now, here I was, presented with this amazing opportunity to change my life, when I realized the life and the people that I was so busy running away from were exactly the things I needed.

What did this all teach me? Never, not even for a second, should you take for granted the people who truly love you, and if you have it, a place, even if it’s a room the size of a tin of sardines, where you feel safe, accepted and loved. I can promise you that the glitz, the glam and the glory of the ‘greener pastures’ might fade away, but those things will always remain the same. Now, do I regret taking this leap to study in Sweden? No way. I still have so much to learn about myself and so many perspectives and cultures to experience. My point is though, sometimes the things we need are right in front of us, we just have to open our eyes 😀.