When you least expect it, there it will be.

I want you to close your eyes and imagine the following:

You wake up in your bed and everything seems as usual. The wallpaper is where it always is, the door is ajar and you stretch your arms to remind your body that it’s morning. The only thing that’s bothering you is how it smells a bit like smoke. Gunpowder. A bit like when you blow up firecrackers on New Year's Eve with your dad. But where is he? The house is in complete silence. When you get up, you hear distant thunder, heavy and muffled bangs that make the walls vibrate a little. You cry for your parents and your siblings. No one responds. When you go down the stairs, you hear your dog barking. The door to the house is open and for every step down the stairs you see more of the driveway: Your dad's bathrobe. Your mother's coffee cup in pieces on the asphalt. The red spots. The exit wounds. The dog licking hands in vain, and poking at them with his nose. Your loved ones not waking up.

You can open your eyes. I know you think I'm mean now. That I gave you a lump in your stomach for nothing. But you’re wrong. It’s not in vain. I want to strengthen you. Make you prepared. Force you to ask the question: what would I do if there was war in my country today?

The problem is that if there’d be war in Sweden today, it’s over 200 years since it happened last. There’s hardly any knowledge of how we would act, and if the knowledge exists, it rests within the government not the average person. The average Swede doesn’t know a thing about black-out curtains, first aid, focal points and survival tricks in the woods.

There are things you can do to become more prepared.

1. Find out if there are shelters in your staircase, basement, or near your house. Visit the shelter. Take a look at how it’s set up.

2. Watch war movies, read books that take place during wartime and talk to people around you who have experienced war. Both older Swedes and younger people of foreign descent.

3. Learn things that might be useful in a war affected country;

- First aid 
- Self-Defense

- Extinguishing small fires

- Surviving in the wilderness

- Map reading and navigation

You can either google these things or, better yet, go to a library.