Help me study and live in Finland!

My name is Terry Halvorson and I am 57 years old. I have many things to say to help you to understand who I am as well as about my life and my current situation, but I have a tendency to ramble and to write as I think, which is often not perfectly chronologically; so I will try to write this in such a way that it will make as much sense as possible. Please pardon if I repeat myself a bit.

I was born in the U.S. and have been a professional musician (woodwinds: oboe/ English horn, clarinets, flutes, saxes, recorders, whistles) since I was 14; being a musician is just who and what I am. Sadly though, things have been much slower for me the past few years. I now do food delivery (DD, UE, GH) about 14 hours a day, every day, unless I have one of my rare gigs, and even then, I try to do a few hours of deliveries before or after, just to make ends meet.

When I was young, I was diagnosed with what used to be called hyperactivity (now called ADHD) and for several years I was given 50mg dosages of Ritalin to keep me calm (the currently dosage is 5-10mg); unfortunately, as Ritalin was relatively new at the time, no long term trials had been done on possible side effects. Years later, studies found that high dosages such as I’d been given were responsible for long and short term memory loss (of course finding this out thirty years later didn’t allow for a lawsuit for something that has made my life quite miserable at times.) My memory issues have occasionally manifested into forgetting or leaving my instruments (something a professional would never do) and having trouble retaining information long term. To counter my terrible memory issue, I enter almost everything important into the calendar and notes apps on my phone; I live by this.

In approximately 2007, after many years of being a bit of a social outcast, and with the help (and some urging) from a friend, I was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome (aka ASD: autism spectrum disorder, or HFA: high functioning autism), as well as ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), and bipolar 2. I took some medications for a while that helped to even me out a bit, but stopped after a few years due to cost and just forgetting.

In late August 2019, I started an eight month contract as a musician playing in a production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame in Tampere, Finland. The contract ended a bit early due to COVID in March, 2020 and I applied through the Finnish immigration service to try to stay. Having worked as a fast food manager for ten years and as a food server and a cafe manager (all in the 1990s-mid 2000s), the plan I came up with was to open what I was calling an arts cafe which would serve high end coffee (French press and aeropress) and American style cookies and pastries (which aren’t very common in Finland), as well as host small jazz and classical music ensembles. Sadly, my business plan wasn’t accepted, mostly due to some bureaucratic technicalities, and I wasn’t allowed to stay, so I returned to the U.S. in February 2022 after living in Tampere for almost 2.5 years.

Over the past three years, I have been working here and there as a freelance musician and doing the food delivery jobs, but I have also been dealing with some physical problems which make it difficult to maintain playing at a professional level. Unfortunately, being a freelance musician and food delivery driver doesn’t provide good health insurance, and due to my lack of insurance, I haven’t been able to receive the necessary care.

I also recently completed my undergrad degree (which I’d stopped early in 2003 due to gigging a lot and some personal issues). Completing the degree has allowed me to apply for a masters program in Music and Science at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland.

As part of the application process, we had to write a four page preliminary research plan and I decided to do mine on using music therapy with HFA adults. Most music therapy with autistic people is done with children, and usually with those with special needs, while adults with HFA are left to fend for themselves. Many adults with HFA go undiagnosed due to the stigma of being on the autism spectrum, as well as the hoops people have to jump through just to get diagnosed, so many adults with HFA just go through life as the odd or quirky friend who never really fits in or understands things the way their peers seem to.

Anyways, I visited the university in January and presented my plan in person to the music therapy professor and she really liked the idea. I received my acceptance letter on April 3rd and am starting the process of getting the residence permit and student housing.

Here’s where I need some help… since I have been a freelance musician and a food delivery driver, I don’t have very much money in the bank. I *can* manage to pay tuition and rent for at least the first year and survive if I’m frugal. Jyväskylä (where I’ll be going to university) is somewhat small and has a large international student population (with little or no Finnish language skills), so part time jobs that don’t require you to speak the language are few and hard to get.

Because of this, I started thinking back on my arts cafe idea and thought, what if I could open it near the JU campus and have it be a place for musicians to play as well as a safe space for HFA adults to be able to hang out and talk about things with others like themselves. This would allow me, as well as other JU students to have a part time job, and it would be a great place for musicians and HFA people!

And this is where I come to my financial dilemma… I truly hate asking strangers for help, but I could really use some financial assistance for airfare (I have a lot of belongings, including delicate musical instruments and equipment, so I’ll probably need a couple of trips), as well as living expenses for rent, food and tuition for a couple of years. But I would also need money to help me with  applying for the permits, renting the space for the cafe, and to get all the equipment, supplies, etc.