Hello there everyone!
It’s been a long time since we posted, but now we have something to tell you about. Last Friday on the 15th of October 2021 we had a visitor in our school. Mikko Kekäläinen, who is a Finnish journalist originally from Pieksämäki, came to our school to give us a speach and answer our questions. We have a media course going on and Kekäläinen has worked in different media fields for his whole life so the visit was topical for us. Kekäläinen told us about his life, for example his studies, jobs and family. He also explained the interviewing process and the making of the show he is in, Puoli seitsemän. The name translates to half seven, which referres to the time the show is on, from Monday to Friday at 18.30. Kekäläinen is one of the two hosts of the show and they have different guests every night with whom they talk about different topics.
Kekäläinen graduated from Pieksämäki high school in 1996. It’s the same school we are in and he had the same Finnish and media teacher Marianne Tyrväinen, who keeps the media course for us. After high school he kept a gap year before going to Jyväskylä university. He hasn’t graduated from there yet, because he started working while studying. He strated working on the radio while he was still in high school and made it his career in university. He moved to Helsinki and kept working on the radio, till he was asked to be a host on tv. He has been in the show for twelve years now and has done more than 1 500 episodes. Kekäläinen has also recently written a book, which is Olympic wrestler Perta Olli’s biography.
The whole visit was a great experience for us because of the media course but also because of this project. The erasmus project has been also media related because of the online slavery theme. We also got to do a little interview for Kekäläinen in English, so here are his answers.
What kind of experience was your time in high school? What memories do you have from Pieksämäki high school?
”Very fond memories. It was time of very specific personal growth for me. I wouldn’t say that I was all antisocial when I was in high school, but I was kind of very adamant about authority. I was questioning my teachers a lot. I would not always take their word for granted. I think that I was pretty much searching myself in high school very much. But it was good time because although I did a lot of stupid things, it was something that I have built my whole identity on afterwards. So, I was a young person that was searching for my own way of thinking and that is something that I think has pretty much to do with what I do today. That’s also something that I would recommend to young people. Don’t do all the stupid things that I did but dare to question. If someone tells you that something is like this because it is like this, well that is something to question I would say. Search for your own ideas, your own thoughts, and your own way of thinking. It will carry you a long way. And Pieksämäki high school is a very, very, very lovely place although it is a different building than it was back in my days. I have only golden memories from my high school years.”
What made you interested in being a journalist? What was your studying path like?
”I wanted to do the radio. I had my own radio idols. I was listening to a lot of radio. My dad used to work in the local radio station here, but I wouldn’t say that he was one of my idols. Anyway, since my dad was working there it was a possible path for me to go to the radio. I saw that it’s something that is doable. My idols were radio personalities and when I started at the local radio, I was just imitating them. And then after high school I went to university to study communications. Alongside my studies I continued working on the radio. I did radio for quite many years. I was drafted by this TV producer guy and now I have been doing television for twelve years of my life. I never graduated from university. Yet. I will, but not yet.”
You have worked on the radio, the TV and recently you became an author. How did you end up working in those jobs and which one of them has been your favorite?
”The radio was my dream when I was a high school kid. I wanted to go to radio. I really badly wanted to go radio. And I got to go to radio so I was pretty lucky. I always thought that radio was my business forever but then the TV people actually reached out to me. They had heard me doing something stupid on the radio. Then this new programme was about to start and the first producer of the TV-show, I suppose, saw or heard something that I had done. It was the same way of thinking that this TV-programme was aiming for, so they asked if I was interested. Of course, I was. And now I’ve been doing that for a long time now. I still have a dream of going back to the radio. I dream of doing something big on the radio. I don’t know what that would be, but I still hope that I will do that again someday. This author thing just kind of dropped in my lap. I was asked if I’m interested in writing a biography of this Finnish wrestler. Of course I was interested. There’s no bigger story to that. They offered me the job and I took it. And I’m really happy that I did.”
Until next time,
Iina Lehikoinen & Oona Romunen
