An Arctic adventure

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An Arctic adventure

As his plane broke through the billowing clouds and he began his descent toward the 78 north latitude line, the first thought that came to Junior Zak Dombrowski’s  mind was, “Zak, you might not make it.” Sharp escarpments separated a bottomless sea from the towering peak of Mt. Rasek. But this harshness of the Swedish Arctic was an obstacle that he had been waiting to overcome.

Dombrowski describes himself as a lover of adventure. His strength rejoices in challenges far beyond the classroom walls of Hillsdale College. He spent the last year and a half working for an American family living in a suburb of Stockholm, Sweden, educating the family’s four young boys as they traveled throughout Europe.

In May 2011, Dombrowski decided to take some time off from Hillsdale. During that summer, he was looking for work in the Detroit area when his friend had told him about a job opening for a family that needed a summer caretaker for their young boys.

“At that point, I wasn’t sure if working with children was what I wanted to do. I was a little hesitant, but I needed a job,” Dombrowski said.

He spent the summer taking care of the four boys. Once September came, Dombrowski returned to his hometown of Higgins Lake, Mich., again looking for work.

On a Thursday in mid-October, he received a email from the family asking if he was willing to continue to work as a caretaker for a six-month period. The job, however, required Dombrowski to move to Östermalm, Sweden. That next Monday.

“I was in a whirlwind,” Dombrowski said. “I wasn’t able to formulate a lot of emotions. All I saw was that it was going to be an adventure. And I love adventures.”

It was at a young age that Dombrowski refined his love for the great outdoors. As a child, he lived on Higgins Lake located in northern Michigan. His involvement in the Boy Scouts of America imbued within him an older understand of manhood.

“I remember in middle school, I found something so beautifully hostile about the extreme conditions of nature, especially the Arctic,” he said.

In Sweden, he spent six months mentoring four boys – aged 8, 6, 4, and 2. The parents wanted Dombrowski to be a resource for their children, teaching the boys life skills including woodcrafting, fishing, and archery in addition to more conventional subjects such as English and history.

Dombrowski combined his love for ancient military history with each day’s lesson plan. As their own soldier unit, the group of boys would “conquer” different places using a map to guide their trek through woodlands, farmlands, and waterfronts. Each child had their own uniform personalized with their individual “warrior names.” Dombrowski led the unit as Captain America while the older boys chose their own names: Claw, Shark, and Sword.

“My current course study is ancient Greece. Their fierce individuality and deep sense of pride resonates with me,” Dombrowski said. “It was great to be able to share my love of adventure with these boys. Once I moved to another country, I suddenly had four human beings that I had to care for, protect, and educate. It was a massive responsibility, and an unexpected adventure.”

Dombrowski moved back from Sweden in June 2012. This past January, he re-enrolled at Hillsdale.  At the request of the family, during Presidents’ Day weekend, Dombrowski returned to Sweden to travel with the family to Saltoluokta. The family wanted Zak along to add education and adventure to their family vacation.

When he arrived in Sweden, he was greeted by the four young boys wearing their camouflage uniforms. Dombrowski and the family stayed at Saltoluokta Fjällstation, a mountain station at the base of Mt. Rasek. Dombrowski took the boys on adventures, chasing Arctic ptarmigan and searching for wild berries.

But Dombrowski’s highlight of his trip was a personal adventure he had been waiting to tackle: a skiing adventure to the top of Mt. Rasek. Mt. Rasek is one of a chain of five mountains located in the Swedish Arctic. The total assent from the lodge to the mountaintop was roughly 3,000 feet and took more than eight hours. The warmth of the bright sun made for spectacular climbing conditions despite the negative temperatures.

“I remember sitting at the top of that mountain with two bleeding blisters on my hand,” said Dombrowski. “I looked around and said to myself, ‘Damn.’ I couldn’t believe I was there. At that moment, it became real.”

Having been skiing only a few times in his life, Dombrowski’s trek back down the mountain was rough – he hit multiple rocks, wiped out, and landed in deep snowbanks. But like the initial assent, he persevered, disregarding the obstacles in his way.

Dombrowski described learning as an experience: “it is more than listening to a historian tell stories while drinking a glass of scotch. It is going there, seeing it, feeling it.”

His adventures with the family brought him an unparalleled joy and support, a feeling of accomplishment he had never experienced before.

“I realized I needed to stop underestimating and to stop defeating myself before the task has been undertaken,” Dombrowski said.

“My move to Sweden was a time for me to tell myself that ‘I have the skills, and that I am constantly growing those skills.’ It was a needed confidence booster. And though adventures can be easily perceived as a self-centered endeavor, you do learn from it. More importantly if you are able to do it with others you are able to teach others. It is a great setting to show skill sets and mindsets that can be beneficial not only during the adventure but throughout life.”