This Project Man

Icelandic is 1/3 of this class. Another 1/3 of this course is on renewable energy technology and economics, which we had for 2 weeks in Ísafjörður and will continue to learn about when we get to Reykjavik in a couple of days. And the final 1/3 of this course is an independent project on a topic of our choosing. The only guideline is that it has to be energy-related.

I did a very similar project in a class that I took last semester called Global Energy and the American Dream. The main reason that I took the class was because of this program. My final paper in that class focused on Iceland as well, so I could probably turn in that exact project and get full credit for it.

But that’s no fun at all!

So there I was last week, project-less. This is my emotional journey to find a new one.

Since pretty much day one of this trip I have been writing down potential project ideas. I had a list of about 10ish when our project proposal got assigned about 2 weeks ago.

Because I am a prideful person that doesn’t like hearing the same thing twice, I didn’t want to do the same project as someone else on this trip. That would probably be the worst thing that could happen – if I presented, sat down, and the person after me went up and gave the same exact presentation. Or worse, if I had to sit through my exact presentation given by someone else before I gave mine. Tortuous.

As people began to talk about their project ideas, my list of 10ish ideas dwindled to only 4. I am a much better writer under pressure, so I waited until the weekend before our projects were due before I began to research and write a proposal. The journalist in me wanted to uncover some dark Icelandic energy secret and present it to the world. So I decided to talk about the aluminum industry in Iceland – a key component of their energy consumption and something that we barely talked about (I found that suspicious). I started doing research, got really excited for my project, and was ready to turn in my proposal. I just wanted to check some of my citations with my program instructors.

I walked into class the following Monday morning (as in the Monday after the Sunday that we rode horses), and sat down. From the back of the room, I heard it – a girl in my class explaining my project proposal to our program instructors (both are named Alex, so we call them the Alexes). Well, it wasn’t my project proposal – it was hers – but it sounded an awful lot like mine. Perfect. I had exactly 12 hours to find a whole new idea, research it, and write a whole new proposal.

Ready, set, go.

Because my friends on this trip are great, they immediately began shooting off their leftover ideas from their own proposals. Also because they are my friends, they immediately began making fun of me for being so last minute and for my clear signs of stress.

Natalie, my friend I mentioned to you a while ago, is famous for her one-liners that can bring you to your knees in laughter almost instantaneously and leave you laughing about the same joke for days on end.

Carter was on his laptop throwing out ideas. In my stressed out state, I wasn’t really listening that closely, until I picked up on the fact that every single one of his ideas had something to do with horses.

Remember my horse-riding tragedy? Yeah, they heard about that.

So I tuned in to Carter’s horse ideas and joked back, “Carter! I just want one energy idea that isn’t horse related, is that too much to ask?!”

Alex, my friend from Texas, goes, “I mean, you do have a personal experience with horses and their endless amounts of energy.”

And Natalie goes, “In that moment, as you were riding along in panic, you thought… ‘Wow…this energy…WE CAN HARNESS THIS!’”

Which made me laugh so hard I started crying. Maybe some of those tears were partly post-trauma tears as well. But still. That’s good stuff. 

In the end, the Alexes gave me an extension on my project proposal. And after an emotional journey of figuring out what I was actually interested in, I’m going to research electric cars and hydrogen fuel-cell powered cars and how Iceland can head towards a fossil-free future. At least I hope – fingers crossed.