Post by Andrea Russell
Graduate Student at College of the Atlantic
Samsø is a place that grabs hold of you and doesn’t let go.
From your first footsteps on the island to your last ferry boat ride away from
its low-lying shore, there is a magical intensity that captivates your soul and
inspires your being. The rhythm of pedaling a bicycle drives the pace of life
here, and when you leave this coast for the mainland on the distant horizon,
your internal metronome still sways to the Samsø tempo.
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| Photo by: Gabrielle Clary |
I feel tremendous gratitude to have visited Samsø twice in
my life. I hope to come here many more times. This trip is different from my
first experience. My first trip to Samsø was also my first experience with
College of the Atlantic, when I met many of the students who I would share the
next few years with, and also my first introduction to the collaborative
efforts that COA is known for. On that trip we traveled with six local Mainers,
leaders in their un-bridged communities, who were looking to facilitate change
in energy usage on their islands. On this trip, we have traveled with two
wonderful Washington, DC students looking to make similar systemic changes in
their communities.
This time our group is smaller, I have more
responsibilities, and I know more people. It makes for a more tight-knit group,
and heightens my awareness of the dynamics contained herein.
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| Photo by: Anna Demeo |
The first trip was in September 2014. The weather was cooler,
and I remember dreading the coin-op 3-minute shower. Still, I milked those
showers into warm moments of solitude. This time I enjoy my showers more. I am
blessed to be here.
I do not remember so many birds. They waken me every morning,
joyfully pouring their
hearts out to the arriving day. Then they proceed to
sing all day long. The wind has blown stronger than I remembered, and daylight
extends well beyond reasonable waking hours. Evening bicycle rides are a new experience
for me, a joyful memory.
Strawberries and new potatoes overspill the edges of
road-side farm-stands, in place of the cabbages and pumpkins of the fall.
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| photo by: Sig Eschholz |
People are here. Tourists. I am not alone. During the first
trip, I felt as though I had stumbled onto a little-known secret island. Now,
during the high season, it feels more like my home-base Bar Harbor in the
summer: busy. In fact, there are quite a few cars on these roads, and traffic
to be cautious of. Nesting birds have arrived along with the tourists, and I
have to be mindful of their locations as well. Limitations on place and space
serve to heighten my memory of the last trip. There are precious memories that
I will always hold from 2014, such as campfires and hikes to the end of a (now temporarily
prohibited) reef.
I have new experiences to remember, such as the security of traveling
the island without a map, navigating with an internal compass. The roads and
villages come back to me from memory, the town names seem easier to pronounce,
and the faces of old friends and acquaintances fill my heart with a joy that
brings tears to my eyes.
I have memories with new friends now. My first Samsø
experience included an international exchange with Maine islanders, and my
second experience included students from Trinity College in Washington, DC
along with their professor, joining us in examining the transformation of Samsø
to a carbon-negative municipality. All of us have come here to learn the
community-building, organizing, and energy activism skills that could potentially
make our hometowns more like Samsø. The Trinity students are incredibly eager
to learn from this island, as are the COA students. We all will forever
remember the sense of joy and excitement as the ferry docked at the pier on the
Eastern side of this small, windswept island in the middle of the Kattegat Sea
in the center of Denmark.
Thank you 