Iceland Through My Eyes

This is my inspiration. What's yours? 

          Before traveling to a new place, I always try to envision in my head what it will be like, I google pictures of the landscape and wonder how the experience will affect me. Of course I can only do so much and the rest relies on physically going to that place. All of the above is exactly what I did before coming to Iceland. I saw the vegetated landscape that stretched on for miles, volcanoes erupting bright lava and smoky ash with the northern lights flickering in the twilight. The city of Reykjavik lit up against the snow-covered mountains in the background and I wondered if we would travel there. I couldn’t wait to purchase my first woolen sweater at the thrift store and bring a ridiculous amount of hiking socks, because I love socks. I imagined myself walking on a glacier or seeing a puffin because they are so cute! I couldn’t wait to go on another adventure to discover even more about myself.

            One of the things that really drew me to this program was the hands-on learning. As a geology major at Lafayette College, our courses focus on learning by doing. Field trips galore are a part of most classes I take. There is nothing quite like seeing the geology you are studying face to face. I believe that is the best way to learn and it is easier to make a connection to the bigger picture when you have a visual. I couldn’t wait to get to Iceland where I could see, hear, touch and smell the environment while having the opportunity to learn about sustainability and pressing issues nature is faced with today.

            This is what we have been doing in Iceland with CELL. My favorite experience so far was the SOLO where we sat alone amongst the landscape for thirty minutes and spent time with ourselves, something I love to do. I chose a place that was nestled between the trees, but clear enough for me to see the mountains in front. I sat down on my pad and stared out at the landscape before me.

            Whenever I sit and “just do nothing,” I sometimes feel pressured to have a life revelation about myself or a situation I am dealing with. I decided to just be and allowed my mind to wander. Julia said once that when she writes about things it is just a stream of words on paper. That is what I did in my head. I thought of my home in New Jersey and how I missed it, I wondered what my friends at school were doing at that exact moment and I was curious about where I will be this coming summer. Sometimes I would just sit and allow my mind to go blank and watch the grass waver in the wind, hear the buzz of insects or listen to the trickle of the stream down below. The most vivid memory I have of this experience is the deep musty smell of the ground, the smell of nature. I smiled because it smelled exactly like the ground does in Glacier National Park, Montana, where I had such a memorable opportunity last summer as a park ranger. I think I actually did have a revelation, a revelation that wasn’t planned. I felt an inner peace and was comforted that I was able to find a piece of my memory of Montana here in Iceland of all places. I discovered that Iceland holds the same possibilities for me as last summer did. Nature may look different wherever you go, but when you get down to it, it is the same. It smells the same.

            One word to describe my journey in Iceland so far is inspirational. I feel inspired to break out of my comfortable world of education, geology and college and explore new avenues that I did not know could help me grow. I still have more to explore and it is challenging to look at yourself in ways you are not accustomed to. That’s the most interesting aspect of experiences like this: you have to expect the unexpected and be ready for whatever comes across your path. I am excited for more experiences similar to SOLO and other opportunities that are in store for me to continue this growth. I found contentment in Iceland’s soil, and that, was definitely unexpected.

                                                                                                          - Liana M. Agrios