Frozen in a New World

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is home to over a million seeds. They rest in a steely, permafrost fortress nestled in the Norwegian mountains, surrounded by guards, polar bears, and the Arctic Sea to the North. A silent monolith, a castle that houses the seeds which are the blueprint for the plant biodiversity of our planet.

Even their individual containers are frozen. They are so cold that even if the vault were to lose power, the seeds would not thaw. Life perfectly encapsulated and stopped in time. Verdant and pure. I could only imagine walking through such a facility, knowing how much vital life sleeps in huge, sealed, black boxes for shelves and shelves.

But I was more than 5,000 miles away, planting maize in the scorching sun on my Abuelo's farm.

"Belen! Don't stand there daydreaming!" My two primos, Paloma and Celio, were helping me to plant the maize, and they did not have much patience for my tendency to let my mind wander to other continents. We had 200 acres of crops to plant, though my Abuelo had other workers in the fields as well. He still wanted us to learn how to work, and so before we went to school and when we got home, we helped for several hours planting and watering crops.

But he also still wanted us to have an education, though working so much gave me less time to study. When I came inside for dinner, my body was covered in sweat and gritty soil. I ached from my brain to the bones in my toes, and after I ate and showered I hardly felt a desire to do anything but sleep.

Even so, I loved books too much to sleep.

My favorites were huge photo books my papa had bought for me. He had wanted to be a scientist, but he was not able to get funding for his research in Mexico City. Even so, he had seen that I loved to learn, and so he made sure to fuel my love of reading with his books.

I loved all the photos of cold or frozen places. Scotland in winter, Iceland, Greenland, Scandinavia, Antarctica, the Arctic Circle. I loved them so much that for my seventeenth birthday, Papa bought me an enormous painting for my room. It was of a gorgeous, crystalline lake in Norway, frozen in the winter. I did not know how much money he had spent-Papa did not like to talk about money around me. However, as I saw it, I knew he supported my dreams. Our dreams.

My primos, however, were not so supportive.

"You can't even spell the name of it," Celio had puffed once, as we sat at the dinner table.

"Oh yeah? Can you?" I had challenged him.

He paused and put down the plate of chilaquiles he had been eating. "...Merida...Mer...Marida...Maridalsa...vannet?" He had grinned at his botched attempt, while Papa and Abuelo shook their heads. Paloma rolled her eyes and took a long, agonized sip of her coffee as her brother waited for the verdict on his attempt.

"Okay, you got it right on the fourth try." I smirked back at his bruised pride, which appeared as an annoyed scowl on his face.

"Now, now, you're all going to be late, finish eating and hurry to school. You can't afford to miss any of your credits this year, you graduate soon!" Papa gently reminded us.

Two weeks ahead, all three of us had been studying for our final exams. Between preparing crops for the summer, going to classes, and diving headfirst into our textbooks, we were exhausted for 17 hours of the day. I drank so much coffee that Abuelo warned me I would become a coffee plant.

"If I can still read books and be a coffee tree, I submit to my fate," I had responded, which made him laugh.

My ultimate dream was to study in Norway, to research crop preservation and to visit the lake in my painting. Maybe I could even see the Svalbard Vault one day. Even if I couldn't, living in a tiny research cottage somewhere by the lake in Oslo, drinking hot chocolate and writing for some journals about rare plants sounded like a great goal. My primos still said it was impossible.

Paloma had scoffed while digging maybe the fiftieth hole she had dug today. "Where are you gonna get a ticket to Norway?"

"I'm gonna go to the University in Mexico City, I'm gonna study, and when there's a chance to study overseas, I'm gonna take it!" In the last five months, I had been focused on getting a scholarship. My grades were excellent, I was one of the top ten students in my class. I was not sure what I had to do, in order to convince Paloma and Celio that I could actually do it, but I would.

"Okay, but what if you don't get the scholarship?" she had questioned.

My throat had welled, like the springtime sky thirsting for rain. I knew what would happen if I didn't get the scholarship. I had heard Papa talking to Abuelo one evening, when they had thought we were in bed or studying in our rooms.

"I'll pay for it, don't worry."

"...Belen?"

The rain fell, and I swept a grime-covered arm over my eyes. "...I'm gonna get that scholarship. You'll...you'll see."

They didn't mock me for the rest of the day.

Today, I stood in the fields and stared into the distance. Hundreds and hundreds of miles of maize, rice, and everything else my Abuelo wanted to plant. Miles and miles of plants, so diverse and beautiful. When we walked inside and had dinner, my eyes surveyed the table. Celio ate in tired silence, while still swallowing food faster than he could chew it, and Paloma texted on her phone.

"...Papa?" I turned to him.

"Yes, nene?" He smiled at me.

"Did you know that Svalbard has over 39,000 seeds just of maize?"

Abuelo laughed. "Ha! She's saying that because she's been looking at the maize all day! Poor thing." He grinned over at me, and Celio and Paloma did not look up.

I grinned. "When I get to work in the labs in Mexico City, I'm gonna see a lot of other kinds of plants, Abuelo," I boasted.

My primos were still silent, but I looked back to my papa and his quiet, gentle nod. I did not care what it took. I would dig and plant maize and rice and flowers for a dozen years, if that was what it took to accomplish my dream.

Our dream.

Far away, in that lake in Norway, where the world was always cold and the seeds slept in their secret mountain home.