I can actually work with flowers?
So I was 13 years old. A regular kid. In school I kept myself somewhere in the middle, not on the bottom, not at the top. I did OK, school was OK. I liked history, geography and biology best. And Swedish, I loved to write. I played basket ball in a neighborhood team, KIOF & was part of an afterschool theatre group. I still collected my green plants at home on my windowsill. And then one day, I sit in our kitchen listening to the radio. On the radio they interview a girl who just had accepted her Journeyman Certificate in Stockholm. As a florist. She explained what that meant. She had learned a trade. A very old trade. She worked at a flower shop, and had studied at a specific trade school, a Flower School. Blomsterskolan. I was mesmerized. This was my answer, I can actually WORK with flowers! Since childhood I had always loved walking through greenhouses, and taking in that intoxicating humid smell that hits you when you step inside a greenhouse. I loved picking wildflowers. I collected my small samplings and grew them bigger. There is a school for that?
So the way the Swedish school worked back then, was that after 9 years of school, you got the chance to choose the next step, what you want to keep studying, Remember, this is around 1981-1982. You could pick a path in economy, civics, technology, biology and so on. You could choose to go into nursing school, or trades like mechanics and graphic design. You keep studying for 2-4 more years. It was probably early in 9th grade you met with a guidance counselor to start to figure out your choice. I wanted to be a florist. I had heard that interview years earlier on the radio and it had stuck with me, I knew I could study flowers. I mentioned this to my guidance counselor. The counselor looked at me like if I had two heads! That was a first. Really, you really think THAT is something you want to do? I don’t remember this person being supportive. At all. My parents on the other hand, were very supportive of this, and wanted me to study what I felt passionate about. We looked into the Flower School for florists. It ended up being a little more difficult to choose this at this time, because I was still too young. But after some research, my guidance counselor came through with an alternative. A garden school. A horticulture school. It was a 2 year program that would take me to a boarding school, about 1,5 hour outside Stockholm, in the countryside of Bro. Säbyholms skolan. This is the best choice I have ever made. This is where I become ME. Where I can fleurish.