I am a winter person. I love the snow, the cold, the dark. I've been cross-country skiing and ice skating since I was a kid in Duluth.
But I am nervous about this coming winter. And I know others are, as well. Nobody knows exactly what is going to happen with the pandemic, but we have all heard that it is likely to get worse again during the colder months, before it gets better.
When I moved home to Minnesota after nine years living 200-plus miles above the Arctic Circle in Norway, I was asked one question over and over again: "How did you survive those dark winters?"
Tromsø, where I spent the majority of my time, is situated at 69 degrees north latitude. Toward the end of November, the sun sinks below the horizon, to resurface again two months later.
The return of the sun in January is not as one might imagine or hope — a blast of heat and light lingering overhead for hours. Instead, on the day the sun returns, it barely peeks above the horizon (if it isn't cloudy), before descending again until the next day, when it makes another, slightly longer appearance.
The two months of complete darkness in the Arctic (referred to by those who live there as "the dark time") is bookended by months of mostly darkness.
Arriving in the Arctic for the first time, I was given three pieces of advice by someone born and raised there:
1. Don't snooze your alarm clock in the morning.