I have never been good at accepting the unexpected. I could give you a list of all the moments I’ve squandered worrying about the unknown, but no example is better than that of this past July.
St. Paul Blackhawks soccer club has taken its under-15 age group of teams to Sweden to compete in the Gothia Cup tournament for more than 20 years. I started playing for Blackhawks in the first grade, when 15 seemed like a lifetime away.
Fast forward, my freshman year of high school had ended, and I had to start preparing for a trip full of new experiences. I ruminated over every detail I couldn’t control, wondering what the rooms would look like or if the food would be edible. I was so wrapped up in my worries about the trip that I didn’t fully realize how special the journey would be.
We began our trip at a sprawling school in Horsens, Denmark, where we trained in the mornings and then traveled all together on day trips. All 19 girls on my team, plus two chaperones, stayed in one room together. After four days in Denmark, our room was undeniably disgusting, so luckily it was time to leave.
We took a ferry from Copenhagen to Gothenburg, Sweden, along with many other teams arriving before the start of the tournament. We played five games, spread across five days in Gothenburg, and we reached the quarter final round before being eliminated.
Though our results were not as we’d hoped, the experience of staying in Gothenburg during the tournament was unforgettable. Unlike in Denmark, where Blackhawks was the only club in town, in Gothenburg we shared our school with teams from Spain, Costa Rica, Lebanon and Sweden.
After our games, we ventured around the city and were surrounded by other teams competing in the tournament — all wearing our Gothia Cup lanyards, which provided free access to all public transportation. The spirit of the tournament fostered new friendships and created an easy conversation starter.
The attention wasn’t always appreciated: as a large group of American tourists, we were a spectacle to observe, and my friends and I were repeatedly approached and harassed. Still, our interactions at our school and around Gothenburg were largely positive, and entirely memorable.
Coming back to Minnesota has been an abrupt transition. I can no longer ignore how much I spend just because I don’t know the krona-to-USD conversion. I forgot how hot Minnesota is, after spending twelve days in a lukewarm climate, and the air in Horsens was blissfully clean compared to our smoky summers.
Above all the surface-level changes, the unknown feels a lot more manageable now. Though I found answers to all I worried about before the trip — the rooms were small but comfortable, and the food was edible (barely) — I now realize how silly it was to waste any time trying to control the unexpected.
The simplest, spontaneous and unplanned moments of my trip became the parts I’ll remember most. If I can travel to a foreign country, share a room with twenty other girls, make friends with strangers, and accept losing for the greater experience, nothing back home feels as scary.
— Sonia
