Previously on Postcards by Fabienne …
RTFM (read the f*cking manual): The reader-friendly version of how the heck she went from corporate IT to marine science
You made it onboard!
So freaking glad to have you around.
Wait, you are looking a bit displaced. Lost. Yes, I know, it is not self-explaining. It’s not the most user-friendly take for you as a reader to jump into the story plot of these postcards.
Don’t worry. I get it. I feel the same at times in this life of mine which has gotten a bit astray from the safe ports and shipping lanes of my former corporate career.
So, welcome to this cosy life raft (sorry if you were expecting a cruise liner; my current life situation certainly does not qualify for any more luxurious or stable nautical metaphors).
Make yourself comfortable, stretch your feet a bit (don’t kick anyone else), get a hot coffee from the thermos. Look at you. Way better already!
Now you are ready for the story.
This story; about me quitting a corporate tech job (after 9 years), studying marine science and living for six months in Svalbard, an island in the Arctic Ocean.
And now, relocating to Denmark to start studying for a PhD!
The Story
Where do we start?
Maybe with the visual of a small girl (childhood mini-me) standing in front of the vast ocean (aka the Dutch North Sea during holidays), believing that this natural force is trying to talk to her. Teach her. Give her direction. Grounding. Maybe a mission for life?
If you know the Disney movie Moana - this is the picture you can imagine.
Still, my image is from the early ‘90s. Yes, I am a millennial. I was born and raised near Köln, Germany, which is quite a landlocked, non-marine situation.
Take another warm drink and maybe also get a snack. We need some time here.
School years
The little ocean girl was an A student across all subjects. She was not a troublemaker in any aspect of her young life. Even throughout adolescence, parents and teachers had nothing to complain about. She even started working part-time jobs at the age of 16 to contribute to her own finances.
Despite her A-game, and for reasons she is still unsure about, she refused to go to university when she finished school in 2009.
Consulting years
She went for vocational training in business and event management. Organising, coordinating, making the impossible possible. She had a thing for the software applications used to run all operations, and after a first story twist, she found herself in the role of a software consultant at the age of 22. The software company was a small European branch of a larger US business then. It was greatly underpaying and probably exploitative, but it offered vast opportunities to be thrown into cold water in projects across Europe and the Middle East and survive. From Berlin, Munich and Hamburg to Paris, London, Belfast, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Dubai, St. Louis and Boston. She learned a lot. She became an A consultant. The company became her family. Her circle of friends. Her world.
(At this point, I have to jump into the story and add that the company evolved and changed, and we still have good relations. I hold no grudge or resentment, and I am well aware of my own personality traits in the game.)
But she did not feel enough. So, she added an extra-occupational Bachelor’s degree in Business Informatics to her 60-hour weeks. She graduated “with ease” by the age of 27. She had met her boyfriend, and they were about to get married (spoiler: they are still happily married).
Still, things inside her started falling apart for (to herself) no obvious reason. She blamed it on changes in the company. People who would not do their work but burden her. Blamed it on herself. Not being good enough. Not being resilient enough. Not being positive enough. She failed time and again to “get her inner world back on track”.
Things had to change.
Covid-19
COVID-19 hit. She was grounded. Making things even more horrible. She hated remote work. She still liked focused desk work but did not like solely interacting with humans through computers.
She missed the ability to explore. Be curious about the world around her. She was 30. And probably like a lot of other people during this time, she started questioning:
What would you do if anything was available and possible?
I’d like to study something I am truly curious about. I want to be able to focus on being a student and learn something new.
Okay, what would you study if anything was possible?
Marine biology.
Well, what does it take?
As it turns out, studying marine biology usually requires an undergraduate or Bachelor's degree in biology.
So?
I am not going to sit among 18-year-old students studying biology from scratch for three years, following up with a master’s degree and then being able to get a sense of WHAT FOR?!
Well, then it’s a no?!
Not sure…
Some encounters in life are way too substantial in their meaning to be random. As COVID-19 regulations were temporarily lifted during the fall of 2020, our main character found herself in a surf camp on the French Atlantic coast talking to someone who told her about the interdisciplinary master programmes that Sweden had to offer. Snuggling in the cosy caravan at night, her husband wondered why she hadn’t considered looking elsewhere outside Germany for potential studies. Why hadn’t she? Since she didn’t want to be a burden? Cause trouble and disruption in their life?
Marine science - Sweden - Arctic
Fast forward to summer 2021, and she packed way too many things, including the family’s Corgi dog, into her BMW MINI, and waved her husband Sven goodbye to drive up to Sweden to pursue a master’s degree in Marine Science. What followed was a year full of arriving in a new country, getting entangled in trying to navigate by the coordinates of her inner compass, studying full-time, making friends for life, and struggling with life choices and long-distance relationship elements. And falling in love with Scandinavia. Then came year two.
2022/2023: Svalbard
Her interest in the ocean was always pointing north. The colder, remote, rough waters.
Call it fate, call it luck; she managed to get a highly contested spot for exchange studies at Svalbard, the northernmost university in the world, where your first day of lectures starts with survival training and learning how to shoot a rifle to protect yourself from polar bears. This is also the beginning of Postcards by Fabienne. A newsletter documenting life and studies up in the north for friends and family, which became what it is right now 🙂
If you are curious to learn more about these months in the Arctic, have another REALLY HOT drink and take a look at the post here:
She conducted a master's thesis project, which took her on a cruise vessel and back to the Arctic.
In September 2023, she graduated from the University of Gothenburg with distinction.
2024
As you might have figured, the main character of this story is me.
And real-life stories are never picture-perfect. They are depicted by battling with inner demons and unexpected life changes constantly.
I gained life experience. I dipped way more than my toes into what it is like to go all-in on your dreams. I learned a lot about myself and my presence in this mess called life, relationships, friendships, and marine science.
I also learned that writing and photography - both in a documentary, .raw style - are the media closest to me and my inner world. And that other people relate to it and see value in what I love doing. And that’s where WE meet along this story. Are you still brave and patient enough for this?
This is not about “How I did this, and you can too.” It is simply about figuring things out along the way and genuinely being grateful for anyone who enjoys my writing and makes me feel I am not totally lost. And maybe, down the road, you might feel a little less lost, too—or at least entertained.
What’s next?
We have arrived at the present time of the story, so it is the perfect time for you to join 🫠.
Venturing into my master's studies departed from a point where it could have been an alternative to a sabbatical and then returning to my career in software consulting.
I did not return to my old job. I work as a research assistant in marine acoustics and governance, travelling between Norway and Germany.
An in October 2024, I will start a PhD fellowship in marine science at Aarhus University in Denmark. You see, things are not getting boring over here.
I am incredibly curious about being able to conduct research on a topic that I am excited about (which is the cold oceans, marine mammals, shipping, and underwater sound).
Working in research is a challenging but creative mixture of curiosity, exploration, deep work, writing, continuous learning, contextual thinking, collaborations, travel, communication, and so much more.
Research and academia can seem like a secluded, mysterious world.
Like an isolated war college on top of an always foggy cliff. But it's not! It's a place filled with curiosity and genuine people who face daily struggles like anyone else.
So, let me take you behind the scenes as I go venture into this mysterious world myself.
I am curious about you, why you are following along, and what you would love to read more about. Let’s chat in the comments; send me a message or email!
See you around.
The warmest hug,
Thank you so much for taking us behind the scenes. (By the way, when we went to Germany as a family in 2019, we visited Köln!)
I love you followed your heart, even though it was unconventional and I’m sure very trying at times. Hooray for supportive partners who believe in us and what makes us happy!
I’m stretching my bravery muscles for whatever is going to unfold, so that I’m ready to do my version of the trip to Sweden, when the time comes. ✨
It’s intriguing to see someone map their path by the constellations of curiosity and passion, rather than the rigid coordinates of convention. Keep charting your course with the bold strokes of your pen and the vivid hues of your photographs.