Let's Do This Again! Graduation, Family and Beyond

Last Saturday I wrote this in my journal:

My right arm feels warm thanks to the sunlight streaming through the window of my Vueling flight. It’s a clear sunny day, the sky a baffling brilliant blue. Below it’s almost as if Barcelona has been laid out for me, I see her city blocks and a multitude of landmarks I have become so used to pushed up against the Mediterranean coast. She is glistening! The perfect goodbye shot, a birds-eye head-nod moment of acknowledgement for 19 rich months of life and growth. I read recently human maturity has something to do with having the capacity to hold and experience multiple emotions at once. In this moment I am practicing.

John and I under the Hakodate Cherry Blossoms in Japan.

My flight then carried me over the Pyrenees mountains and then upward to France, Germany until finally I landed in the country that is our new home: Denmark. Yes, we are moving to Denmark. An admittedly serendipitous series of conversations and encounters (initiated by our distant Danish cousin and now close friend Anders Holde) led me to land a dream opportunity at the heart of the healthcare industry. The company I will be working for is named Novo Holdings, and there I will start off as Assistant to the CFO and Program Manager for the Board of Directors. Talk about an unexpected and remarkable opportunity that has John and I both excited. I began work June 11 and just finished a very stimulating first two weeks. The best news is and a very recent development is John also has already found a job here and begun working! He will be going back into carpentry, working for NNHansen. He interviewed with them on Monday (just 24 hours into his stay in Denmark) and they hired him on the spot! He is already sore after his first week but so happy to be picking up tools again. He will be working in Metric and hoping to learn a bit about sustainable building practices and design - something the Danes and Scandinavia are a center of excellence in. 

Mid-April until now have been 2.5 of the most remarkable months I had the privilege to live on this earth so far. April included a 14 day trek to Japan curated by my Japanese classmates (an IESE school tradition), followed by a week-long tour with my sister Kristina, her boyfriend Gavin and of course the steadfast John Elliot. We were blown away by the intricate and refined culture of Japan down to the detail. Cherry Blossoms, Mochi, Giant Shrines, Fish Kites, Tokyo and Onsens were just some of the delights the trip encased.

After Japan was graduation – a full week of celebrating our MBA class and the accomplishment of finishing the program. During my MBA I was in a “section” with 73 other students every day, and one highlight of the festivities was enjoying one last lecture with this group in our original assigned seats from the first term. Thomas Klueter, the professor who essentially sold me on IESE during a New York orientation, gave our lecture and reminded us of our charge to be business leaders. At graduation it was a treat to have my parents in the audience as well as meet the families of so many beautiful friends from all over the world. I feel so lucky to have been a part of the MBA cohort of 2018 and am still in awe of so many of the people I have gotten to know. My classmates are the sorts of people that give you hope for the world – and I know we are all going to go out and do our earnest best to impact the world for the better.

Next, we were whisked off for a 5-day celebration bike trip across the Northern part of Catalonia with my parents. We celebrated my Dad’s 60^th birthday, Mother’s day and my Graduation. It was the pilot trip of Lifelong Adventures, a dream business our close friend Mitch Peters launched this year. Mitch is an impending PhD, Canadian, outdoors enthusiast, fellow ultimate player and amateur gourmet chef. It was obvious the trip he led us on was a labor of love, and he curated one of the best travel experiences I have had to date. From its verdant mountains to glistening coasts, we fell in love with Spain all over again thanks to this trip – nothing short of a magical climax to our 19 odd months here. The cover photo of this post is actually from one of the sunsets we witnessed on the trip.

Our family fun wasn’t over as then we were blessed with a visit from John’s parents and some 8 members from Nelson side of the family. They were embarking on a cruise out of Barcelona in May. It was an unspeakable treat to host them in our city we had come to love and show them our favorite nooks and crannies of BCN. A specific highlight was hosting all of them for appetizers in our tiny apartment and showing them the little space we called home for so long. Love and laughter is always present in a Nelson family gathering, no matter where in the world they might be!

Then was two weeks of solid transition. Moving is one of the most humbling things – we became tremendously reliant on our new friends and classmates to help us carry things, store things and host us as we rendered ourselves homeless and began our relocation project. I am happy to report all of our 16-odd boxes and suitcases made their way safe and sound to Denmark late this week (that is after we got rid of 3+ large boxes of things – its amazing what a couple can accumulate in a short period of 2 years!). After we moved out of our beloved Barcelona perch we went down to Malaga with some IESE friends (Polish, Russian, Brazilian & American mix!) for a final soak up of the Spanish sun before coming up here to Denmark (where everyone tells us the weather has been unseasonably wonderful – all sun!)

Final day in BCN included a sailboat ride!
Sure made this water-loving chica happy.
First time I went out in a boat our
whole time there!

Although work has started our summer adventures are not quite over as I was generously granted a Danish “summer holiday” of 5 weeks. During July, John and I will be going to Israel again to volunteer at Ultimate Peace. John, as his final hurrah in Spain, just hosted a hat tournament as a fundraiser. We still have about $3000 we are looking to raise, so donations arewelcome here if you are interested!). Post Israel we look forward to a couple weeks stateside, attending Joanna’s marriage to Jim and Erik’s marriage to Sarah Beth.

We know we have been in a bit of a bubble. Post graduation and pre-beginning work its been a delight to be in this magical season of mobility and travel. Truthfully, John and I are both very much relieved to be settling, getting back into a routine and living a bit more sustainably again (being a student is great, but makes for a totally different sort of lifestyle). I bought this mug recently, as its wisdom resonates tremendously. "One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things." What a great reminder that even though new places are often inspirations for new ways of seeing things, that WE are the catalysts for being open to new perspectives and horizons, irrespective of place. 

And we feel we have so much to look forward to! We are a little wiser now about what it takes to move and integrate to a new place. But we are both optimistic for what is to come and building our new lives in Denmark. Its Scandinavian charm is already in so many ways reminiscent of our beloved Minnesota and echoes of home in a fresh way. 

Anders Holde - who has been pivotal in helping
John and I find jobs and begin to build our lives
here in Denmark!

What’s more, here we are already generously being welcomed in by our family – 3^rd and 4^th cousins of my grandmother Dorothy’s line, who have gone out of their way to include us. Already we feel we have been welcomed into the Holde family by Anders, Marianne, Nina, Thomas, Louise, Alex, as well as other cousins Hanne, Carston, Birthe and Lone. The gift of community is one we will never underestimate the importance of again, and we feel very fortunate about already being so embraced by our distant family here.

And so with that we send all our love to you – our community near and far! Thank you for being a part of our lives and cheering us on. We remain social creatures and happily acknowledge our reliance on you for wisdom, encouragement and love. Thank you to all of you who have talked to us on the phone or reached out spontaneously during these last two years to check in. Always feel free to shoot us a message or a text no matter what time zone you are in or how long since we last talked – as they say in Denmark often: “You are welcome!

Our first minutes together in our new home!
Ready or not Denmark here we come!

 This latest chapter of our lives has left us feeling tremendously loved and grateful. And for me, in a small way a bit proud - as this is the sort of life we set out to live and is in step with our shared dreams. Every day of late tastes a bit different. Some are sweet, some are salty and some are bitter. But every single day is flavorful, thank God! We can happily assure you John and I are still en route to "True North", journeying together a little humbler, a little more savvy, but still bright-eyed and hand-in-hand.

In closing, may we each continue to relish our own blessed saga wherever that might be physically unfolding. And may we each continue to boldly live out and lean into our dreams! And finally, may we each today be struck by the grandness and beauty of life, much less the sacred opportunity we each have to live it!