6 years ago I had a chance to continue my soccer career for a season after finishing my university eligibility (go Razorbacks!) on a Swedish island in the Baltic Sea called Gotland. It’s a very beautiful place and I enjoyed so much having the chance to be there and meet new folks and learn to love soccer again. At the same time I was really quite

6 years ago I had a chance to continue my soccer career for a season after finishing my university eligibility (go Razorbacks!) on a Swedish island in the Baltic Sea called Gotland. It’s a very beautiful place and I enjoyed so much having the chance to be there and meet new folks and learn to love soccer again. At the same time I was really quite homesick and I struggled with the dichotomy of feeling really lonely and sad while I was having this incredible, once-in-a-lifetime experience of playing semi-pro soccer abroad. I felt so guilty because often the narrative in our world is “you should be so happy” in whatever experience or place you are in - especially if it is something like getting to live and play a sport abroad. In a lot of ways I was really lucky to know that my family was going to have a chance to come visit and that my then-partner-now-spouse was also going to have a chance to visit. I was counting down the days!! The chorus of the song bubbled out first (I was going to travel to the mainland to meet Jonathan in Stockholm and then travel back to the island with him) and I was really hesitant with it because I thought “well it’s totally silly to put Swedish in one of my songs - I barely know ANY Swedish.” After a while I allowed myself to lean into it and the feelings of distance and time separating me from the homey and familiar feeling of being wrapped in my best friend’s arms and accepted playing with the language. Even though the song has a longing and melancholy note and feel to it, it became a really sweet and amazing memory of my individual experience there and also our time there together. I’ve since gotten a bit better at Swedish and have enjoyed learning more of the language over time. In the chorus of the song there are two simple phrases - jag älskar dig means “I love you” and kommer du is a question: “are you coming?” So you get a song and a Swedish lesson :)