I traded city life for a cabin in Lapland, Finland. I'm disconnected from the modern world — but I've never been happier.

• Petri Kokkonen is a wilderness guide and entrepreneur based in Lapland.
• In 2018, Kokkonen traded city life for a remote cabin in the Finnish wilderness.
• Kokkonen said he never felt truly happy living in the city and wanted to be closer to nature.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Petri Kokkonen, a wilderness guide based in Lapland, Finland. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I live in the remote Vätsäri area on the shores of Lake Inari in Lapland, Finland.

It's mostly just wilderness around me and there are no neighbors for miles.

I grew up visiting the area as a child during the school holidays. We would visit my family's primitive summer cabin for two or three weeks at a time, take boat trips on the lake, go fishing, and generally enjoy nature around us.