Life Lessons from a Reindeer Herder in the Arctic Circle
By: Marianne Jennings
Tags: Self Improvement, Personal Development, Lessons Learned, Adventure, Life Lessons

Life Lessons from a Reindeer Herder in the Arctic Circle

How not checking bus schedules changed my life.

Photo by Warren Sammut on Unsplash

In March of last year, I found myself in the arctic circle in northern Norway. I had just finished a 7-day cross country skiing adventure across the frozen Finnmark Plateau where I got to sleep in the snow with strangers and be dazzled by the Northern Lights almost nightly.

It was a life-changing experience on its own and one I’ll write about separately, but as I started my way back home, I unexpectedly found myself in the company of a fascinating Sámi reindeer herder.

On our short drive to the tiny airport in Lakselv, Norway, he taught me about reindeer, gave me a peek into his life and what was important to him, and shared what in his life made him happy.

His views have stuck with me and have changed the way I see my life.

I want to live more like this wise reindeer herder.

Here’s what I learned:

Helping Others Can Be a Way Of Life

Missing The Bus

When I had arranged my little northern Norway trip, I forget to check one tiny detail about bus schedules and didn’t notice that buses don’t run on Saturdays.

I had a Saturday flight to make and to get from the town of Karasjok to the small airport in Lakslav, I was going to have to find another way.

A taxi seemed like my only option, but an expensive one. I told my guide, Liv, about my little oversight and asked what she suggested. Liv had grown up in northern Norway and said she’d put the word out to see if anyone was headed that way and would be willing to give me a ride.

Turns out, a friend of her friend was headed that way to check on his reindeer in the “summer place” just outside Lakselv and was happy to give me a ride. I was so grateful to Liv for her help and for this kind stranger willing to give a clueless foreigner a lift to the airport.

My Ride With The Reindeer Herder

My companion for the ride was an older gentleman with kind eyes, a weathered face and a large, furry Ushanka hat. I wasn’t able to properly pronounce his Sámi name, so he kindly said I could call him Jakob.

Jakob spoke as much English as I did Norwegian, which wasn’t a lot. But with the few words we knew between us and a lot of hand gestures, we actually had a pretty decent conversation on the hour-long drive to the airport.

Jakob had been a reindeer herder his entire life, just like his father, and grandfather before him. He loved his reindeer and taking good care of them was very important to him.

Part of taking care of his reindeer was being near them all year long. To be with his herd of reindeer, he would stay with different friends in different parts of northern Norway at different times of the year.

Jakob’s livelihood relied almost entirely on the generosity of his friends and family. But it wasn’t a one-way thing. Jakob would give back to his friends and family in all sorts of different ways, like providing food, clothing, and work while staying with them.

His friends and family relied on and supported each other for food, shelter, safety, and friendship. It was the best example of a mutually beneficial relationship I’d ever seen.