9/19/2023 0 Comments Smultron sticklingarIt’s a place that is appreciated for the sheer fact of what it is, not for any artificial hype built up around it or for any supposed expectation of how you “should” experience it. A wild strawberry place is something to be cherished and protected. We simply don’t hear about them because, well, they’re undiscovered. I don’t know what it is about the thought of a wild strawberry patch, but somehow it’s the perfect image for what it represents: a peaceful, pleasant, and undisturbed place where you are one with your surroundings.Īs much as it sometimes seems like there’s nothing new left in the world, nothing left to discover or explore, no sense of wonder or excitement or adventure, there are still places that remain pure. It could be a place that excites you or one that calms you, one that brings you joy, warmth, peace, memories, or simple contentment. In a way, a smultronställe is a place that’s uniquely yours: whether it’s unknown to other people or merely difficult for them to find, whether it’s tied to some sentimental value or it simply evokes a positive feeling by you being there, the way you experience it is yours alone. And of course, I would be remiss not to mention my family’s summer cabin here: tucked away in the woods and barely on the map, yet the most pleasant and welcoming place to those who know how to find it, it’s about as perfect an example of a smultronställe as you could ask for. They are the modest yet delicious restaurants, the unique and charming little shops, the quiet parks with lovely views. In college, there were all the places that I either discovered or that happened to me one way or another nowadays, since I’m still relatively new to the city where I live, I’m still finding new wild strawberry places scattered around as I explore. It’s also not necessarily limited to just one place - you can have multiple smultronställen. There are distinctions, though: a smultronställe tends to be a specific, existing physical place that you’ve been to before (rather than one you imagine or yearn for, as in hiraeth), with the implication that it’s a place you discovered, and that not many people know about (rather than being an environment you create, as in hygge). In a way, it’s a bit like a combination of hiraeth and hygge: a place that’s highly personal, that you feel an emotional attachment to, where you feel the most comfortable and in tune with yourself. These were my smultronställen, my wild strawberry places.Ī “wild strawberry place” - what a lovely concept. The hole-in-the-wall restaurant in the worst part of town with some of the best food you could find. The top of the hill where we watched the sun rise and set. A tiny, stuffy room on the 11th floor of the library tower. And tucked away out of sight, there are all the little hidden spots that only the students know, some of them which only I know - the spots where secrets and memories live.Ī nondescript breezeway overlooking a courtyard. There are the paths I took every day to class, so familiar I’m confident that I could still walk them blindfolded. There are the dorms where I would visit my friends, where we would study and watch shows and movies late into the night just there up the path is my old building, and I can feel the cool night air lightly blowing past me as I walk back to it for the first time all day. There are the dining halls I can taste each one. Even as we drove through it on the day of the ceremony, everything I caught in glimpses passing by was exactly as I remember it. I’ve been out of school for two years now, and yet every time I find myself back at my old university, it’s like I’m back where I belong, and no time has passed at all. Though it was a busy two days, without much of a chance to see any significant amount of the campus, it was dizzying how immediately and how naturally everything came back to me simply by being there. Last weekend I returned to my alma mater to attend a friend’s graduation ceremony.
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