In the life of a KNOM volunteer, every day is a learning opportunity. It sounds clichéd. Mostly because it is. At a minimum, there exists a weekly lesson in what it means to persevere. At our corner of the world, challenges are environmental, personal, and professional. And sometimes, they’re all three.
Your microphone dying within the first fifteen minutes seems like a professional problem, until you realize that the same cold that sapped the life from your equipment is the same environmental force that makes your nose hairs freeze into tiny spears. It’s an uncomfortable lesson to learn, reminding you that Arctic survival is the result of thousands of years of people who knew that rocking the marshmallow-on-the-plane look is totally worth the funny looks. Because when you’re boarding the first flight to leave that day, nose hair stiff, and lips cracked, your noticeably-colder-than-the-rest-of-your-face-eyeballs feel like a personal problem.
Luckily, like boats against the tide, we push onwards. That perseverance is one of the many lessons we learn over our time here. As this week’s audio blog discusses, we have grown in all areas of life. The group has accomplished some goals, and still continue to work on others. Take a listen to the link at the top!