When we got here, we barely knew each other. We had spent just a few days together, a training weekend in April, a day in Anchorage, and two in Bethel. Although upon our arrival we were already laughing together like friends, we only knew each other on a superficial level.

Nothing changes that faster than spending time together in the field. While trekking through the tundra, we learned the songs of each other’s hearts. In the record-breaking heat we learned each other’s limitations, in the storms we learned of each other’s bravery, in the cold we learned to make each other warm with cheerful jokes shared over steaming cups of morning coffee.

We learned to read each other’s faces, we learned when to give space, and when to step in and offer help. When tensions rose, we learned to listen and when we hurt, we learned to speak up.

Today is our last full day all together in camp. Half of us will fly out tomorrow and the other half the next day. Since our arrival, we’ve grown from a group of like-minded strangers into a family. These are people I know very well now and remember for the rest of my life.

Although leaving the tundra for the second year in a row feels like pulling my heart away from its place of passion, I look forward to the start of my time in Woods Hole with this group. Only time will tell all of the adventures in store on the next step of this journey.

— Rhys MacArthur is a student at Hampshire College and member of The Polaris Project classes of 2018 and 2019