Teenage Years

Hi Stranger,

welcome to our life in Stryn. Do you want to join?

We are Kjersti, Oda, Hanna and Inger. We have lived in Stryn since we were little - a small town in the west of Norway. Our town has around 7000 inhabitants and less than 500 people of our age. During the tourist season there are a few more people in Stryn. They all come to explore the glaciers, mountains, fjords, waterfalls or deep green valleys. Perhaps we live differently to young people from larger cities – The closeness to nature, the peace and quiet that surround us. My friends and I will soon be graduating and then we will have to make one big decision: do we stay in Stryn or do we leave?

Kjersti

17 years old

Plays handball and likes to dance. She is already studying to become a hairdresser after school and will move out to focus on her career. She works at Normal and the Johans pub to save up for her graduation and moving away.

Hanna

16 years old

Likes to ski and play football. After graduating she possibly wants to move abroad. To be able to afford this she is working at Normal together with Kjersti.

Oda

17 years old

Plays football, likes winter sports and works at the gym. Just like Hanna she would like to see other countries, but she is not sure yet whether she wants to leave Stryn.

Inger

17 years old

Plays football, handball and likes to ski. She also loves to walk her dog. After graduating from school she would like to study economics.

Dear Diary,

I don’t know what to feel at the moment. I am so happy with my friends and family, and just my life. I am going to miss this place so much when I leave. I know I will have to go and there is some excitement certainly. Am I supposed to feel so much resentment though? Am I not supposed to be filled with loads of excitement? I know that I want to become a hairdresser and I need to leave Stryn but I also feel so much confusion. Is that what I want when I am so sad about leaving.

There is this pull to venture out and see more of Norway and the world, to get new impressions but my heart is so heavy at the same time. Deep down I know it is the right decision to go and follow my dreams. Staying here would just mean staying in my comfort zone and I know I need to get out of here to develop more. Why do these decisions have to make you sad before they make you happy?

Talk to you later, Kjersti

Dear Diary,

Even on my day off in the café I still went there but for fun. We got some coffee and just talked. The time seemed to stop for one second, but at the same time, it flew by. We had such great talks about school, our friends and also the future. The café just has something to it that makes it easy to talk about things. We also meet here so often because we all really like it there and we all work at the café.

I really love working in the café. There I get to meet so many people and make them happy with just a cup of coffee. I feel like it is a place where most people forget their everyday life and just relax. Of course, I also do it because I need some money. After school, I would like to move to a different country. I have this feeling of being pulled somewhere outside of Norway to experience more. I am so intrigued by Italy or Spain and would love to just get up and go. So I am saving money for my dreams, which makes the café even more special to me.

Hope I will get there some day, Hanna

Strynemessa

Dear Diary,

As every year in Stryn we had the Stryne Messa happening this weekend. We got ready together at my grandma’s salon and after we went to the fair. There were so many lights sent up and different rides you could take. We walked through the fair and saw so many familiar faces. We all shared a portion of Churros and went on to take our first ride. It was the little carts that spun around a lot. It was so much fun but maybe not the smartest idea right after having had Churros.

This event holds so many memories and I can’t imagine not going there. In two years it will be a memory while I am in Oslo or some other place. Right now it is just nice being in the moment and with my friends. It’s nice in Stryn because I am so familiar with this place and I love the people I see every day. I will miss that. It will be hard not being able to come together with Oda, Hanna, Inger and all the others. What if we grow apart and don’t even try to come home to see each other?

Talk to you later, Kjersti

Kjersti is studying to become a hairdresser and is practising in her free time as well. In her grandmother’s house, she has an old salon. Now she can have her place where she and her friends get ready and Kjersti can do what she loves: hair and make-up. Before events, they always meet up there, because that is where all the tools like the curling iron and the straighteners are.

Dear Diary,

we decided to go to Kjersti’s cabin today and do a sleepover. Every time we go up there I can’t help but fall in love with nature. On the way there we get the perfect view of a snow-covered mountain. Even in summer it barely melts up there. Sometimes when I am caught up in school work and my thoughts about to-dos I tend to forget to stop and take it in.

At one point I have to leave Stryn, and I am very excited about it. But I also think I want to come back to this place. I am surrounded by people I love and people that love me. This is my home. We have gone to bed now and I think I am the only one awake. There is something so beautiful about everything being so quiet and knowing you are in the right place.

Love, Oda

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