Life here can be monotonous in the extreme, an endless series of days similar to the previous, surrounded by the same people as the day before, walking the same hallways, all exacerbated by the isolation preventing change.

Life can be that, if you let it.

Or you can laugh as those around you join in the goofy, bizarre pursuits to keep life here interesting. You can find change in watching a movie in a different building, admire the surroundings (and the shadows) beneath the brilliant light of a full moon, dig deep in old memories, make art, make conversation… It is all a matter of perspective. If you can stay entertained here, live off of your own intellectual fat, then you can make it anywhere.

If you can stay alive and intrigued here, then the rest of the world is a miraculous playground by comparison.

So here’s to the simple joys of Pole - the friends, the explorations, the sky, the clear and cold air in your lungs, the simplicity of life, and the mental clarity sans out-world distractions. I may not encounter any vastly life changing moments that can be easily described here but the subtle effects of the landscape, the horizon, and the winds are carving something finite, something literal that will be with me for the remainder of my life.

The subtle interplay of the environment, of the line where sky and land meet - it becomes a reason for my pursuit, for my home here, my home on Lake Superior, my comfort on a coast or beneath the skies of the Great Plains.