𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐅𝐀𝐒𝐓 / 𝒽𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓉𝓈

HISTORY

THE EARLY YEARS :

— isak sjöberg was twenty-seven, in the prime of his would be historic nhl career, when nadia was born in detroit, michigan : the result of certain traditions of a wedding night. he had hoped for a SON, but loved his daughter from the moment he set eyes on her, big brown eyes taking in the world quietly. she had a comfortable life, the kind that’s informed by multimillion dollar sports contracts and a loving mother to soothe away the long absences demanded of her father.

— her life was living in detroit during the school year and long summer back in her parents’ home country of sweden, örnsköldsvik to be exact. her father’s desire for a son rubbed off on her instead : and it was her that was raised in hockey locker rooms and getting skates almost before she could walk. ( she took to the ice so well, it was almost lamented that she wasn’t a boy ). this continued on until she was EIGHT and her father retired, permanently returning the family back to sweden. there she continued to grow and flourish, attending school, making friends, until several years later, her father picked up a coaching position back in the states.

— nadia was just finishing the equivalent of her first year of high school but already knew what she wanted to do with her life : her father who he is and the life she was brought up in, of course it would be hockey centric. knowing playing wasn’t in her future, she chose instead an almost equally difficult task : the still all-male cohort of athletic training. so nadia returned to the states with her father, finishing out her final three years of high school in public school, but spending every ounce of her free time around hockey teams and picking the brains of their athletic trainers.

COLLEGE :

— new york univerity. new york. it was all too alluring for nadia to resist when her acceptance came, and so in fall 1989, nadia was on campus pursuing a sports medicine degree — and of course spending all her free time assisting with the various —albeit mediocre — sports teams of nyu.

— after her graduation from nyu, with an impressive resume dotted with internships and temp placements in semi-pro teams, she was accepted into boston university where she is in her first year of her masters in athletic training.

MISC

— despite being isak sjöberg‘s daughter ( now a household name in sweden, and certainly known in all hockey circles  — think on level with forsberg, lindstrom, sundin ), nadia had a rather ordinary upbringing. her father’s albeit specific fame rarely leaked to her, many viewing her shared surname as a coincidence more than anything. nadia was more than fine with that, though the misfortune of the situation is she wants to go into a career in the world of hockey and no one overlooks her surname there. if she’s successful with her dreams, she wants it to be on her own merits, not because of her name.

— fully fluent in swedish and english. she doesn’t really have an accent per say, but there is something a little odd about the way she speaks. some people notice it, others don’t. it’s always a little more noticeable after summers when she’s spent time in sweden.

— used to play hockey and quite well too. she’s still a superb skater and if she comes across a game of pick up she’s very good at convincing the boys to let her play.

— loves the smell of pine and regularly uses a lotion with that scent.

— truly does not get cold. she’s lived through her fair share of swedish winters. see that swedish saying : there’s no such thing as cold, just bad clothes.

— nadia is a lesbian and has known that for a rather long time. it’s not really something she shares, not out of any shame, more because her focuses are put elsewhere rather than her romantic endeavors. she certainly experimented in undergrad, but never had a true relationship.

— definitely would’ve had fika with her friends 🥰.

— organized.

— surprisingly bad with plants. she says it’s because they can’t talk and tell her what they need.

PERSONALITY

         never a pushover and never one to back down, nadia has always had a CONFIDENT aura — perhaps it was being the only girl on her hockey team, perhaps it was something she inherited from her mother, whatever it is, she practically exudes it. being sure of who she is had gotten her through a lot of doubt and adversity in her path to being an athletic trainer : the rest of the journey is no easier, but nadia is prepared to face it head on. she’s a hard worker too : once she puts her mind to doing something, it will be done no matter what. this kind of DETERMINATION definitely defines her as well. all that confidence and determination have heavily contributed to why she’s gotten where she is and are well founded ; however, sometimes they mix into something too much as well — toeing the line of ARROGANCE, and sometimes, frankly it is. nadia doesn’t like to be questioned when he truly believes what she’s doing is correct, and other times she will not be the first to ask for help. i can take care of myself and i can do it myself are practically key phrases for her.

         she is NOT self-centered though. it may not be obvious at first glance, but nadia is a caretaker personality, she just has interesting ways of showing it and definitely almost never admits it. often times, she comes off as ambivalent but also cannot stand to leave someone who needs her help, especially if it’s someone she cares for. so no, she’s not going to be the mom friend to tend to every need or have a purse full of every object needed for any situation, but she will be the kind of person who berates you for your stupidity while gently but efficiently bandaging / cleaning / tending the wound. consider it a kind of gruff love when it comes to nadia. that being said, she’d definitely much better with tending physical pains and aliments than emotional ones. unless you’re looking for someone to just listen to you and then offer ice cream as a cure, psychological issues are not her forte.

         nadia has never been in a true romantic relationship : she focuses are much too solidly on realizing her career goals than fulfilling that part of her life. however, she does believe in love and is a bit of a romantic deep at heart if that right person ever came along — she just believes that in that one regard, whatever happens... happens. she’s good at pining and never acting on her feelings. that confidence that seems to dictate the rest of her life becomes a bit soft when it comes to romantic endeavors. all that being said, if she’s not interested in someone they almost certainly know. a lifetime in hockey locker rooms and dealing with too much testosterone has made her quite good at that.

APPEARENCE

— 5′10″ with a penchant for chunky heeled boots that often put her over 6′. definitely got her height from her father l o l.

— long dark brown hair with a slight wave that hangs to her mid-back, often left loose or put into a bun. large dark brown eyes.

THE STORY

— finley was born on an unnaturally cold may day in st. cloud, minnesota, her father an aerospace engineering originally from hong kong who married a bright photographer who never left her hometown. she’s the youngest of two with a brother, luke, two years her senior.

— her childhood was seeped with warm happiness. their family never really struggled financially, and though her and her brother didn’t exactly get everything they want, they were comfortable. their allowances stopped at 16 when they were able to get their own jobs and after that they were responsible for anything they bought / did for their own leisure. the exceptions to this were sports and camps. finley’s first job was scooping ice cream.

— finley was in skates almost before she could walk. her brother, two years older was already zooming around the ice and finley wanted nothing more than to join him. the two grew up skating and playing hockey like most children do in minnesota : games of pick up on frozen ponds and homemade backyard rinks in the winter, street hockey where the nets had to be dragged to the sidewalk for every passing car. she played organized hockey officially up through high school. luke continued on longer than that, playing for st. cloud state.

— but unlike her brother, not long after her first skates, finley also took an interest in her mother’s career of photography. she had her first camera —a cheap polaroid thing— at age four and from there her love for it grew even faster than her love for skating and hockey. finley was good at hockey, but she was even better at photography, especially candid shots and nature photography — and then finally came the marriage of her two favorite past times when she found sports photography. she was still in middle school when she was shooting her brother’s high school hockey games — not the greatest photos out of those rolls, but everyone has to start somewhere.

— she stuck with it. hockey is hardly a rare thing in minnesota and it gave her plenty to work with. she nearly got frostbite one winter trying to get the perfect shot of pond hockey, but the result was more than worth it : winning her $1000 in a photography contest. she was sixteen and knew what she wanted to do for the rest of her life.

— college provided a difficult choice for finley, unsure if she wanted to remain in minnesota or go somewhere out of state. eventually, nyu’s phenomenal photography program lured her away from the state of hockey — the innate magic of new york city was also a factor no doubt. she ended up double majoring in communications and photography with a minor in graphic design. all the while she went and shot as many sports games as she could.

— her repertoire expanded to include soccer, football, lacrosse, and dance, though hockey remained a personal favorite of hers. her freshman and sophomore years she blew most of her extra cash on tickets to rangers games, to islanders games, to devils games, shooting as much as she could possibly afford. managing to sell a few to help cover her costs. a budding freelance business helped as well : as she was sought out by dancers and other athletes and daredevils alike.

— she earned an internship with the rangers her junior year in their social media department and though it wasn’t exactly what she wanted to do, it was an in with a pro-hockey team and so she took it. she held that position for two years until her graduation in 2019. in her time there, she plucked the brains of the team photographers, making herself known to the head team photographer, striking up a friendship with him.

— there were no full-time openings on the photography team when finley graduated and finley was faced with another choice : leave the connections she had taken so long to build in new york to somewhere where there might be more opportunity or stay. she was still mulling it over when a part time photography position with the rangers opened up and with her connections, she was offered. she excitedly accepted.

— a part-time position with the rangers wasn’t going to pay for an entire life in new york city, finley knew this and she knew she was going to have to find somewhere cheap to live and somewhere with extremely flexible hours / scheduling. after graduating, she picked up a gig as a delivery person, but the hours weren’t as flexible nor the pay as decent as she would’ve liked. so began the search for a new job.

THE PRESENT

— it was almost luck that she found the hostess opening at a restaurant based in an apartment complex, along with rooming with a couple other girls in a discounted three bedroom that made it affordable, even in the heavily sought after chelsea neighborhood. with more flexible hours and higher pay, and msg a ten-15 minute walk and even faster skateboard away, finley was more than pleased with the change.

— the apartment is actually pretty organized despite finley’s very distractible tendencies. having an organized space to hang out in helps her keep more on track of things and maybe even have more organized thoughts. it certainly isn’t the sterile feel though : the apartment had a distinct lived in feel. lots of blankets on the couch and the bookcase right by the door is often cluttered no matter how hard she tries. all her clothes get put away but it’s an uphill battle to make her bed every morning so it’s hit or miss if it actually gets done. she has a habit of always doing the dishes in the sink and buying too many candles.

— her hope is that her part-time position with the rangers will put her in the position to someday become a head photographer. the current rangers head photographer is her mentor and she looks up to him tremendously. sometimes in her off hours, she will hang around public rinks and central park to shoot some candids there. in her free time, she’s always in search of a game or something interesting to shoot.

— she does have a bit of a freelance business going, that’s been steadily growing in popularity. she shoots a lot of dancers and is sought after by people looking to get that epic action shot, no matter what that context is. action shots and candids really are her specialty and she wants her BRAND to be that.

MISC.

— give finley the aux cord and she’ll blast bops from the early 2010s. she loves music that makes her happy and in her opinion things peaked musically with pop in 2010. PLAYLIST.

— a HERITAGE SPEAKER of mandarin chinese. she’s more than adept at spoken conversation but her reading and writing literacy is sorely lacking beyond the most basic characters. it wasn’t always that way, especially when she was younger but she’s lost a good chunk of her literacy as she grew older.

— absolutely will host hot pot nights in her apartment. also makes homemade ramen like champ — none of that cheap 99 cent stuff. in general though, her cooking skills are mediocre. not someone getting take out every night, but outside a few dishes / desserts her creativity in the kitchen is lacking.

— has a big love for asian bean buns and bean bread.

— she loves ice cream a lot. no doubt frequents the local ice cream shop frequently. pad thai is her other weakness.

— probably plays pick up somewhere. just a casual thing every now and again. always down to go ice skating tho !!

— knows how to skateboard but only cruising — no tricks or anything. it’s a form of transport she uses sometimes to get places faster than walking and if the weather allows.

— most of her clothes are thrifted or bought off the local facebook group resale group. she’s been meaning to learn have to alter but she’s never gotten around to it — preferring more active past times than the tediousness of sewing.

— is a lesbian !! has known since high school. isn’t really all the shy about it 😘

PERSONALITY

       finley is someone who really takes things as they come. she’s always on her toes and it takes a lot to phase her. DOWN-TO-EARTH is a good way to describe her, though LAISSEZ-FAIRE is also pretty accurate. taking initiative isn’t her strongest suit, mostly because she doesn’t always sees things as serious until it’s too late. her attitude makes for fun attitude, almost down for anything and able to talk to just about anyone. a very FRIENDLY she’s known for making quick friends, though ones who truly know her deeper than at a superficial level aren’t as many as one might think. it’s said sometimes she comes back to the apartment every time with a new instgram follower and friend.

       all that said, finley isn’t the most focused person in the least. she’s so EASILY DISTRACTED by anything and everything that claims her attention. she doesn’t like to be still very long, another reason she likes sports photography with its fast pace and demand to constantly be switching positions. she tried studio art for a while, but she lacked the patience and motivation to see anything through. her life is full of unfinished projects and paths only trod down a few steps. truly the only think that’s been a constant driving force is her desire to be a team photographer for a major sports team. a night with finley starts with one thing and takes the most convoluted path possible : sometimes things end with the beginning intention, sometimes they don’t. she’s a bit SCATTERBRAINED, something that she really should get a grip on with planners and calendars but every time she buys one it goes untouched after a few days. the only thing mooring her life and making sure she’s not late to things is her google calendar.

       you could call finley a bit of a FREE SPIRIT in the end : someone people tend to find so cool though she remains oblivious to the fact. other people are far more interesting in her opinion and why she also loves candids so much. there’s a lot you can’t tell about a person from the outside, especially when they’re posed. the humans of new york page is one of her favorites.

APPEARANCE

— 5′6″. naturally very dark brown almost black hair with bleached blonde streaks in the front.

— not really one for jewelry, though when she does it’s usually a few rings and a necklace — all quite minimalistic.

— STYLE : crop tops pairs with oversized flannels or cropped sweaters, mom jeans rolled at the bottom hem, incredibly beat up black converse she’s “waterproofed” herself. when it snows she reluctantly concedes to wearing lace up ankle boots to keep her feet dry or wraps her feet in plastic bags inside her converse to keep them dry. when she skates she usually wears winter leggings with wool socks.