Between Worlds

Nine countries. One way of seeing.

Karoliina Tuomisto · Read time ~ 6 min

Issue · 2026

The world carried our family from one country to another from the time I was just over a year old. No single place, culture or way of life ever had the time to become the only way of seeing the world.

I grew up with the idea that people, languages, habits and the world around you can change in a moment. At the same time, I learned to read rooms, atmospheres and people closely. When you're constantly new, you instinctively learn to read people, tension, safety and the unspoken rules of different worlds.

That's also why I learned to adapt, perhaps a little too well. Many traits I now recognise as strengths were first shaped by the need to adapt. I learned to slip quickly into new situations, to connect with very different kinds of people, and to build a sense of safety in motion.

This experience still shapes how I see people, growth and change. Perspective came from a life between worlds.

The movement never really stopped. Beyond my nine home countries, I've visited over 70 countries and still find myself drawn to new people and experiences almost instinctively.

— Childhood, somewhere between

Nine home countries and four continents.

Iran

The first move, at eighteen months old.

From there began a life where the world carried our family along, and home no longer meant a single place.

Saudi Arabia

The sky was mosaic-tile blue and the sun curry-yellow.

The longest of my childhood homes. The country where the world slowly began to take shape.

Somalia

Our home, just south of the equator.

Correspondence school in the mornings, splashing in the Indian Ocean in the afternoons.

Nepal

On clear days, the world's highest snow-capped mountains were visible from my school desk.

One of the most meaningful countries of my life. A quiet reminder that the world always holds something larger than yourself.

Finland

A cold, forested country I called home, even though I had spent so little time there.

I still remember the first snowflakes. Returning to Finland, I noticed for the first time that my way of seeing the world wasn't obvious to everyone, and how differently I had learned to see the world. Finland was a place I belonged to more on paper than through experience.