I never sleep well (or really at all) on planes, so to say I was delirious upon my arrival would be an understatement. Thankfully, the flight was smooth and getting through Customs at 7 am at Keflavik International Airport is a breeze…I was one of the only people heading through, quite different from most of the Customs experiences that I’ve had in the past. Due to the delirium, all qualms about feeling old and out of place had escaped me, that is until I showed up at the coffee shop where we were set to meet and saw a few younger people that looked like they belonged to my group. Clinging to my introverted ways, I grabbed a coffee and chose a seat alone so that I could observe.
Once our guides, Erla and Bjarni, showed up we were informed that we had a few delayed students and they corralled us all together to get us interacting while we waited. I found a friendly-looking face at a table next to me and was quickly invited over to talk to him. Stephen is a 21-year-old from Fort Collins, Colorado. My love for, and too many trips to, the state of Colorado helped me to open up to him quickly. Despite feeling anxious to tell anyone that I am 30, I took the leap and started by telling Stephen. I was met with, “you’re HOW old?” He followed up that the exaggerated statement was only because I didn’t look the part. He was very open to the story of my years of schooling and work, and I felt no judgment at all like I was expecting to face.
As they say, the first step is always the hardest. Letting my guard down with Stephen gave me the boost that I needed to tap into my confidence and interpersonal skills. Meeting the rest of the group felt very natural and I felt very comfortable being myself from the start, which is a rare occurrence in my day-to-day life. I quickly realized that age was on my side, allowing my nurturing instincts to shine. The group mom (me) took her rightful place, knowing that the extra blister Bandaids and toiletries that she packed would be handy. Side note: those toiletries got lent out within a few hours of being at the guest house, haha!
I touched on two of the statements from the Student Engagement Network survey today. The first was a statement that I originally gave myself a 9/10 on, “I feel that I have the skills to try to overcome cultural barriers in intercultural situations.” I am hoping to chalk it up to lack of sleep, but I was having trouble understanding the locals through their accents and also with pronouncing names. Pretty embarrassing, but I muddled my way through. I’m hoping for better luck tomorrow!
The other statement comes from the systems thinking section, “when making a decision, I go with my gut feeling.” I didn’t pay attention to my gut when it told me to opt for a different Capstone project topic or to push more for one of my ideas. Instead, I got pigeon-holed into a project topic that I don’t know much about, microgrids. Originally I was okay with it because the group was well-rounded, consisting of an engineering student, a geography and urban planning student, and a finance student (who was spearheading the idea). The problem happened when he decided to jump ship to another group and topic, leaving the rest of us feeling a bit apprehensive. Going forward, I hope that we can reevaluate our skillset and come up with a topic that is conducive to our areas of interest.
I’m off to finally get some sleep, although it will be hard with the lack of nighttime (see photo – approximately 12 am). I think I forgot to mention, but Icelandic summers don’t see a real sunset, and it is at least partially light outside all day.
Until tomorrow!
Kelli
