Six months! Wow. Half a full revolution around our sun could feel like an eternity. As a child, I remember summer vacation, which was only 3 months, feeling like it would never end. Taking into account that the first half of my volunteer year has already flown by… I’m forced to believe that time is subjective. Meandering or racing along as the user chooses to see it. I could make this whole post a philosophical waxing surrounding how we perceive time. Or lack thereof. Or even that Alaska had five time zones before the eroding power of business finally swayed the state to stick to one time zone. Regardless… I digress.
Here is a list of lessons my time here has taught me:
1. When encountering wildlife, use a deeper voice when trying to scare them off.
Screaming at your normal voice — or if you’re scared, your above-normal voice — can result in being called “prey-like” by your friends. Regardless, it is important to remember what you sound like before you try to scare something off.
2. Humans have a remarkable ability to adapt to their surroundings.
Whether it’s to new cultures, new jobs, or new temperatures, human beings are inherently tough people. As someone who recently (recently…ish? I guess?) made these changes, I can say with an open mind you can embrace any situation. If you’re cold towards the beginning of the summer, just remember you’ll be walking from home to work during -10 temperatures in only a hoodie and slippers when it gets here.
3. Cold is relative.
Probably Alaska’s most mind blowing secret. My time here has driven me to the conclusion that cold is not dependent on your ending temperature, but rather the variance in temperature you’ve experienced. For example, a specific subsection of TV news anchor, specifically the Californian kind, are occasionally known to wear jackets and call 50 degrees “arctic weather”. It happens all the time. Like this Jimmy Kimmel clip right here. This prompts an interesting question: why are California’s “Arctic” conditions 50 degrees, yet my sub-Arctic breeze (which I proudly write un-ironically and without quotes) is somewhere around -20º? It seems the answer lies in the variance of temperature you experience. Though our ending place is different, both the Californian anchor and the strong, well-adjusted, too-confident-about-his-ability-to-handle-the-cold Nome anchor share is a drop in around 50 degrees. Which is why 50 degrees makes me sweat, and conversely, Californians bundle up.
If you wanna hear what else I’ve learned in my first six months, listen to the audio blog above!
