Hopes for Aya Kanbar to Return as a 'Sommar i P1' Speaker

Aya Kanbar, 20, dreams of riding the subway in Stockholm and misses her high school in Örebro. Anna Gullberg is reminded of why life experience should be a prerequisite for 'Sommar i P1'.

I hope poet Aya Kanbar gets the chance to speak again on 'Sommar i P1', perhaps in 20 years. She has a beautiful language, an eye for detail, and a passion for sharing the magic of everyday places she has visited.

Kanbar loves her Örebro. She attended high school next to Campus Risbergska. Like the rest of us, she hopes the city and its residents will heal after the school massacre. But she is on her way out, on the threshold of adulthood. That's where her thoughts are, and that's how it should be.

I recognize the thrill of being a small-town girl discovering the subway in the capital for the first time, the city's lifeblood with unknown places to conquer. The identification of oneself as destined for a greater adventure than Åmål, Sundsvall, or in this case, Örebro.

But also the occasional longing to return to the safety and predictability of high school years. This is what it's like to be 20 years old; everything is enchanted.

But not necessarily for the listener.