I am now over halfway into my second year at Vefsn Folk High School Toppen, where I've walked the line Mountain sports and river paddling and now goes the Scholarship Line. I often get the question, what exactly is a folk college? And then I never quite know what to answer. Yes, I say, folk high school is a school without exams or grades. A school where the schedule, in my case, consists of climbing, kayaking, and hiking. Where one lives in school and gets to know new people. That's how I explain folk high school to those who haven't gone to it themselves. But folk high school cannot really be explained or understood in just words.
Folkehøgskole is something you must experience, because folk high school is a feeling. It's the feeling of becoming confident in things you never in your wildest dreams thought you'd dare. It's to be totally out of your comfort zone, but still feel completely safe because you are surrounded by people you don't need to be perfect in front of, people who give you the time you need to make it happen. Folkehøgskole is to sit up for a long time at night with good friends, as long as you get tired and absolutely everything is fun, and to try to laugh as quietly as possible so as not to wake the others in the house. It is to be childish together, to unfold and be able trial and error as much as you want. It's sitting tight, close together on the bed watching movies, while your ass goes numb from sitting in the same position for so long, but not wanting to be anywhere else in the world.
Folkehøgskole is to know the name of everyone schooland knowing that you can sit down with almost anyone in the dining room without it being a problem. It is to be able to safely stand and talk in front of the whole school while at VGS it was scary just to raise your hand in class. Folkehøgskole is to really know what YOU want to do, and let it rule your everyday life rather than predetermined tests, subjects and curriculum.
theres sensations you're going to remember for the rest of your life and look back on with a mixture of happiness, loss, and disbelief that this is something you actually did. There's surfing in the sunset between Lofoten's mountains, kiting on snowy waters, hikes in the mountains and to the local tower, climbing inside, outside and on ice, on top ropes and on joints, and river paddling with the adrenaline cascading in your blood. It's falling on mountain skis, time and time again, and getting comically frustrated together because it's completely hopeless with mountain skiing in a metre of powder snow, and to finally get to telemark swings on the last ski trip of the year. It's practicing falls on led climbing and seeing vistas so beautiful you never want to leave. There are completely absurd and unforeseen events, like being chased by reindeer on a trip, and spontaneous experiences like going to Europris to buy cheap candy in the middle of a snowstorm. It is learning and new knowledge and getting to know sides of oneself that one did not know one had.
Folkehøgskole is all the tiny steps one takes, small changes in who you are as a person, which you don't always notice right away, but which suddenly make you stronger, more independent, happier, safer around people, and better acquainted with yourself. But most of all, folk high school is all the little moments that makes up everyday life, all the hugs, all the laughter cramps, all the times the whole class is totally exhausted together, there's tears, sweat and laughter, there's challenge and mastery, there's acceptance and belonging on a level you've never experienced before. Folkehøgskole is to discover that you as a human being both dare and achieve so much more than you ever imagined.
And all this, it can not be explained in words. It must be experienced, otherwise one cannot properly understand the words. And the fact that I took the chance to go north and experience all this, that's it best choice I have ever taken.
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