Winter is coming

This was going to be a challenge from the beginning. I knew what I was signing up for with this adventure, but I never expected it to go down the way it did.

I arrived in Levi, Finland, on the 6th of November 2024. I was committed for 5 months, deep in the Arctic Circle. Life was going to become brutally difficult for me. Daylight was going to disappear, and I was going to experience cold like I had never felt before.

I had found a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work with reindeer and for an amazing young woman. I had never done anything like this before, but I was so ready to get my hands dirty, ready to survive the winter ahead. I wanted to grow from this experience.

When my flight landed, my boss picked me up from the airport and took me over to the house I’d be sharing. I met the others who would be helping over the season, and then, first thing in the morning, I got to work.

I was introduced to our base and got to meet the reindeer. It was awesome! We were riding around in ATVs, trudging through the mud, climbing up trees, running cables, organizing equipment, feeding the deer, and taking care of lots of other chores. I even helped slaughter one of the reindeer. The experience was like nothing else.

Life in Levi, otherwise, was very quiet. I got into a couple of small adventures and met some interesting people. I wrote some letters, got into an exercise routine, and loved going for hikes in the vast surrounding forests. One of my absolute favorite little details was really how quiet it is. You only really hear the sound of the wind and the leaves. The air was also extremely fresh and clean.

Aurora Borealis

One of the other major things that I was looking forward to on this adventure was seeing the northern lights! I downloaded an app that let me monitor where they were in the sky and get an alert if there was a chance to see them outside. So, when I got the alert one day, I ran outside.

I walked around looking up at the sky for an hour or so before I first saw them. I had read online that it takes your eyes time to adjust and that it may be a disappointment to anyone who has seen photos of them. However, if you are patient and give your eyes time to adjust, the color will come out. This was definitely the case for me, but something that I really was not expecting and can’t describe easily was the way they moved in the sky. The heavens were dancing.

So, for the next couple of hours, I just stood outside watching these ethereal lights dance across the sky. Of course, being so far north, you can also see a nearly unobstructed view of the night sky. To say this was a beautiful experience would be a gross understatement. I had goosebumps all over my skin as I watched.

Felina

I had settled into my life, and we were just getting our first bit of snow. Everything seemed fine.

We were on our way to work one morning, we arrived, made our coffee, and were chatting business as usual. A few minutes later, my boss pulled up. She came in and announced that she had some paperwork that needed to be completed. She excused one of the other workers and said, “I have some bad news,” as she pulled out the already signed termination papers for me.

She explained that she felt it was not going to work out with me, and as a business owner, sometimes hard choices need to be made. I was given a week to leave.

To say that I was hit hard would be an understatement. I did not see this coming at all.

I reached out to all my friends, and within an hour or so, I had word that I had a place to go. I packed my bags and booked a flight back to Germany for the next morning.

I was a mess for a while. I was incredibly lost after my experience in Finland. I didn’t know what to do with myself, really.

All I can say in the end is that it was a very interesting experience. However, the silver lining of this entire experience was that I did get my wish in the end: I am stronger and wiser for it now.

I was also very glad that I had so many amazing friends to return to.