The Whole Wide World

The days are kind of starting to really blur together and time is going by so quickly. Knowing that the season is coming to an end, I’ve started getting a little anxious about redeploying. My supervisor back in the States reached out with my off-ice date earlier today. October 16th. I arrived on October 17th last year, so I’ll officially have a year on the ice under my belt. Crazy.

It’s going to be so interesting readjusting back into society, paying for food, seeing the sun, hearing the rain, smelling the smells. Traffic, animals, colors, fresh herbs and foods…having all the things this frozen continent deprives us of. When I finished the Peace Corps, I’d spent twenty-seven months in Morocco. I often describe that readjustment back into the developed world as time travelling into the future. Living in Morocco often felt like I’d time travelled backwards three hundred years. Once I got home, I found myself getting incredibly irritated by petty complaints. It’s too hot, too cold…all of our privilege was so evident. Then when I finished my AT hike, I missed not just the simplicity of life on trail, but the purpose each day came with. Getting those miles. Making it to the next water source, to camp, and town.

The in between is a hard space. It’s hard not to let fear of the unknown creep in. That said, I know it will all work out, it always does. Carnie life between England and Antarctica is a perfect example of how much it really does always work out. That was a great adventure and that’s the beauty of this lifestyle. I can do whatever I want. Just gotta make it happen!