love

Great love stories not only happen in the movies
I usually don't write about romantic stuff, but I needed to share this one with you.
It is going to be my small tribute to love, I hope it inspires you as much as it inspired me.

For many years I believed that every little thing in life happens for a reason... after hearing the love story of my dear friend Daniela, I'm absolutely convinced that destiny exist.

However, I am not talking about the seat-and-wait-that-your-dreams-come-true kind of destiny... I believe about another form of fate, the one that gives you all the pieces from the puzzle, one by one, but you are the one that needs to figure out what to do with them.

(It is probably going to sound like a movie plot but I promise upfront that I'm not making it up)

Daniela is from Argentina.
Back in 2003 she worked in Buenos Aires airport, at the check-in desk.

from here

It was a hot summer morning and her shift was supposed to finish at 10:00 a.m. the temperature was already pretty high so she decided to stay at work (with air-conditioning) a bit longer, instead of waiting for her bus outside.

Around 10:30 a blond guy arrives to the check-in desk, he and his friend were about to take a flight to Helsinki after enjoying their holidays in Argentina. There were no cues on any of the desks but he went straight to the one Daniela was working at (while he said to his friend that she was the kind of woman he could marry).

Let's call him the Finnish guy.

So, the Finnish guy reached the desk and told Daniela that she was the prettiest girl he has ever seen, she blushed and tried to do the check-in as fast as she could.
Once he was gone, she said to her colleagues, half joking, that she just had fallen in love with a Finnish guy. They tried to convince Daniela to give the e-mail address to him during the boarding.
And that is exactly what she did. She hurried up to the gate and gave her e-mail to the Finnish guy after she checked out his boarding card.
He went back to Helsinki with a big smile on his face.

from here

That was the beginning of a beautiful love story.
After 2 weeks of e-mails (and bouquets of roses sent to Buenos Aires airport), the Finnish guy decided travel again to Argentina to meet Daniela one more time.
She tried to convince him not to do so, after all they have only seen each other for few minutes and did not even spoke the same language... but nothing discouraged him.
The Finnish guy went back in Buenos Aires.

At first, Daniela tough that only a crazy person would do that... but against all odds, he proved to be a super sweet guy. They enjoyed 2 wonderful weeks together and kept on visiting each other every 3 months, either in Argentina or Finland.

Distance relationships are hard (tell me about it!) but they went on like this for two and a half years until Daniela finally decided to leave everything behind and move to Helsinki.

Living in Finland was not as easy as she thought.... asides from the obvious reasons (cold weather, a 'funny' new language, cultural differences, etc...), there have been many other obstacles that Daniela and the Finnish guy had to deal with... but nothing yet has been able to tear them apart.

This summer, 9 years after that morning at the airport check-in desk, I was happy to witness the happy ending (and happy beginning) of this story: A super beautiful wedding and a good example that great love stories not only happen in the movies.

by Ossi Pietilainen


Big thanks to Daniela and her husband (a.k.a the Finnish guy) to show the world that nothing is impossible if you want it bad enough.