A few years back, I decided to try to improve my possibilities as an artist by applying to a master’s degree program here in Finland together with my spouse, and we both got accepted. Here you can receive unemployment benefits while pursuing certain studies, which was necessary for us. My benefits application was accepted, but my spouse got rejected on the very same day, a Friday, making his studies impossible. I was very mad and contacted the unemployment office to try and fix it. Unfortunately, in the end, specifically because I attempted to challenge it, they looked at my own application again and ended up rejecting us both.

Their decision was based on a small and vague textual regulation about the necessary intensity of the study programs, and they decided that this degree was just not intense enough in terms of how many classes there were. My officer from the unemployment office thought it might be possible to challenge the decision. But I didn’t want to risk it, because after six months, they reevaluate whether your studies qualify for the benefits – and if they decide they do not, you must then reimburse all you were paid. I obviously didn’t want to risk that in case another official decided differently about our case. So we had to tell the school that we were not coming after all.

We were frustrated and disappointed. Since we also knew people in the same position who had been given the OK, we were also surprised. But I had also feared that I would have to do the degree alone, which would have made our collaboration more challenging – while the process had been infuriating, it was also a relief that we both got the same decision. 

I don’t regret not studying art. I guess in a way there was no room to “mourn” the lost education opportunity, because I was so preoccupied with other emotions at that point. I was so angry at this situation that I decided to study something completely different: I now have a bachelor’s degree in business studies. 

This freedom that I gained came from these big changes that I made because I was so angry at our rejection. It helped us focus and has given us so much freedom to make art. Now we are both in a much better position than before. And ultimately, this position we are in is the result of one rejection that transformed into two rejections when I tried to challenge it.