Tristan from the Matinkylän lukio general upper secondary school: “I want to be a fighter pilot in the future”

Tristan Rekonen is a second-year student at the Matinkylän lukio general upper secondary school. His dream job is to become a fighter pilot. At his school, he is actively involved in a wide range of activities.

Tristan Rekonen is a second-year student on the general programme at the Matinkylän lukio general upper secondary school. Matinkylä was a natural choice, as Tristan lives nearby. “It's a new school with brand-new facilities. The Iso Omena shopping centre and its library are close by. The metro is right there as well, so you can get anywhere," he sums up.

The teachers at the Matinkylän lukio general upper secondary school also earn high praise: “There are so many great teachers here who really get you interested in the subject and know how to teach well,” Tristan says. He has plenty of favourite subjects: physics, social studies, philosophy, psychology, history and PE. And PE leads neatly into Tristan’s future plans.

Physical fitness and exercise are essential for Tristan's dream job: he wants to become a fighter pilot. For that, school PE simply isn’t enough. Tristan has quite an intense fitness regime: during the week, he goes to Muay Thai training a couple of times and hits the gym just as often. At weekends, the schedule includes jogging and cycling.

A career as a fighter pilot has been Tristan’s guiding star for a long time now. At seven years old, he was mesmerised by an air show, and his goal has been clear ever since. Even if a career as a pilot does not materialise, Tristan still wants to work for the Finnish Defence Forces in the future, perhaps as a paratrooper. Later on, he might also be interested in peacekeeping duties. At the call-ups info day held for all second-year students in August, Tristan turned up with a whole host of questions for the Finnish Defence Forces representatives.

Tristan is involved in all sorts of activities: he is on the board of the student body, takes part in year-group activities and serves as an UNESCO ambassador.

He was drawn to the board of the student body by a desire to make a difference and a sense of community with others. “I’ve found that on the student body, you can genuinely influence things like what gets bought for the school and what events are organised,” Tristan says. Members of the student body board also get to introduce their work to first-year students and host events like live music performances. Year-group activities include all sorts of year-specific traditions, from the second-year students’ dance to leavers’ hoodies. These require planning and fundraising.

the Matinkylän lukio general upper secondary school is one of Finland’s UNESCO schools, with activities that place a particular emphasis on human rights, world heritage and environmental education. Tristan is one of his school’s UNESCO ambassadors. The ambassadors are students from educational institutions within the UNESCO network whose main focus is their own school, where they plan and carry out UNESCO activities alongside teachers and other staff. Tristan has taken part in international events as well, including a seminar on the Suomenlinna fortress island focusing on the state of the Baltic Sea. The seminar brought together representatives from countries around the Baltic Sea. “The ambassadors have also organised events like an Autism Awareness Day,” Tristan explains.

For most upper secondary students, the highlight of their school years is either the second-year students’ dance or penkkarit, the final-year carnival. Both are still ahead for Tristan. So far, his best memory has been the school spirit and “getting to be at the same school with friends and study things that are actually interesting”.

To ninth-graders, Tristan wants to say that upper secondary school is nothing to be afraid of. The school spirit can be even better than in lower secondary school. “Life in upper secondary is great because you get to choose what you study and what you take in the matriculation exams,” Tristan says. His advice is to apply to the schools that feel right.