Therese Marie Baba-Christensen
Bornholm is a Danish island off the coast of Sweden, in the middle of the Baltic Sea. It is known as the sunshine island of Denmark. The island is a tourist haven for Danes, Germans and Swedes, but to me, it’s simply called home.
Bornholm is comparable to the island of Guimaras but a bit smaller with a population of 39,662 compared to Guimaras’ estimated 170,000-plus inhabitants.
This island has a dramatic coastline and appeals to both those who seek adventure and those who just need a break from the hamster ball life to recharge and find one’s focus.
In 2019, as a family, we decided to take an adventure and leave Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark and try out the island life.
With a job opportunity to lead the island to zero waste by 2032 for David, my husband, a break from my meaningful yet bone-tiring job to find a new passion, and a promise of everyday beautiful nature, dinosaur fossils, and medieval castles for Frederik, 8, we were sold to the idea of island living.
We packed up, sold our house and left for the island. It is such a nostalgic feeling for an island girl from Southeast Asia to be living on another island in the Scandinavia. The smell of the sea is like an embrace, welcoming me to something familiar and yet totally different. The scent was the same, but the breeze a hundred times colder.
Bornholm is beautiful and mystical. It is also patient. The island gives you a certain vibe that you are allowed to take your life at a slower pace. You are allowed to find yourself again. You can recreate something new. I guess that’s why this island appeals much to artists and entrepreneurs.
During the summer holidays, which are from June to late August, this island is jam-packed with tourists, pre-corona virus.
With guests filling out the restaurants, museums, beaches and forests, the island is buzzing alive. Then it slowly mellows down during September until spring in April. It’s like it goes on hibernation for those months. The greens will turn into yellow, then red, then brown then barren, and then again, they slowly wake up. A new cycle begins.
Some people would probably find it too quiet after summer, but I would personally say that the island is always beautiful all throughout the seasons, IF you are open to the idea that solitude can sometimes be rewarding and important for growth. I could not complain, because I feel that I have the best of both worlds – crowded, lively summers, peaceful, colorful autumns and gray winters.
I left Copenhagen vulnerable because being on momentary pause was something I viewed as inefficient and weak, but the island proved me wrong. It was on this island that I wrote my first book with my son. The book series “From The Island to the World” is a book series inspired by Bornholm. We released our first children’s book in November 2020 and another one is coming out in January 2021.
It’s been nearly two years now for us to be living on the island and David and I have this tradition to sit down and have “check-in” sessions. We will drive around the island, bring our coffee travel mugs. No destination. We then ask each other, “Is it still a good move?”
And always the answer is, “It sure is.” – NWI
(The author, Therese Marie Christensen, is a native of Barangay Singcang-Airport in Bacolod City. She has been residing in Denmark for almost 13 years now. She is a feminist and activist who professionally works in Denmark advocating for migrant women and their children to live a life free from violence. Therese received the DZMM TFC “Global Pinoy Award-Denmark” in 2018.
A graduate Mass Communication of USLS, she pursued her Master of Arts studies in Culture Communication and Globalization from Aalborg University. She is an author of a children’s book series, “From the Island to the World”.)
