I’ll Take It On Ice Please: The Antarctic Princess

As I sat shivering on that enormous C-17 Air Force jet next to 16 pallets of dynamite, I started to rethink some recent life decisions.

I had committed to working at McMurdo Station in Antarctica on a 22-week contract. Surrounded by hard-core Alaskans, Minnesotans, Northwest Americans, the Air Force, the Air National Guard, and U.S. leading scientists, I felt like a complete Texas princess. How on earth did I bluff my way into this job? Why did I just leave my family, friends, and property to live on a frozen wasteland for 6 months? When are these people going to figure out that I am a poser and that I hate cold weather? How can I give up pretty dresses, makeup, cocktail parties, dancing and country music for 6 months?

Then I remembered….This is my seventh and LAST continent to work on. I had worked all over the world and visited 90+ countries but this was my Last Battle. My Travel Magnum Opus. My Geographical Everest (although I have been to Everest Base Camp, and it wasn’t that impressive)

But this….Antarctica….A complex ecosystem. A territory occupied by 56 nations. A landmass twice the size of Australia. An entire continent ruled and controlled merely by a science treaty. THIS WAS ANOTHER PLANET. I had to be a part of it.

I also realized that I was doing all this to flatter my own insatiable ego. I was not going to Antarctica because I had always adored penguins and seals. I was not going because I had a burning interest to study glacial movement. I was not going to help stop global warming. I was not going to help anyone or anything. I just wanted to go so I could brag to the world that I lived in Antarctica…..completely selfish and ignoble reasons. I often tell people I suffer from “Conquest Syndrome.” I just want to conquer places and events in hopes of emerging victorious and regaling people with outrageous (and slightly exaggerated) stories.

Without getting too deep or turning this into a “confess-all blog,” I humbly ask my readers to take my silly words with a grain of salt. I am not a blogger, but if it helps to describe this amazing continent God gave us and to relay this unique experience God blessed me with, then I count this blog as a “win.” Thank you for reading my Ice Story.

Love,

The Antarctic Princess