Put yourself in the way of beauty

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Bonnie Grantham
  • 319th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
As many people may know, the winters in North Dakota are not something to take lightly. Frigid temperatures with extreme wind chills plague the season along with piles of snow and shortened periods of daylight. These conditions can be a deterrent for some Airmen to go out and can even lead to depression due to lack of vitamin D, among other factors.

Senior Airman Sara Yandell, 319th Security Forces Squadron military working dog handler, chooses to look at those things as a challenge instead of a barrier.

"You acclimate," Yandell said. "You just have to go outside to do it. You can't blame it on the cold."

Yandell joined the military four years ago to give herself a purpose.

"My dad was in and so is my wife, so I got to see two sides of it," she said. "I wanted to do something important with my life."

Grand Forks AFB was Yandell's first assignment and is where she's been for the past two-and-a-half years.

"I was excited to go to Grand Forks. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but it's really different from Oklahoma," Yandell said.

Ever since Yandell landed in Grand Forks, she's spent her time exploring the outdoors and learning the lay of the land.

"I don't like being inside all the time," she said. "Nature's healthy. Every time I go out I find myself a little more."

Yandell chose security forces for her job, and applied to be a K-9 handler as soon as she could.

"I'm really glad I did it," Yandell said. "Every day is always different with [Atti]."

Recently Yandell has delved into the sport of cross-country skiing, which is a form of skiing that relies on the individual's own locomotion rather than ski lifts and such. The skier propels herself by striding forward or side-to-side and pushing on ski poles in the snow.

"I honestly just did cross-country skiing to say I've done it and then next thing I knew I was renting them for the whole season and looking into dry skiing," Yandell said.

Yandell and her wife both enjoy spending time together outside, but being outdoors and surrounding herself with nature is even more important to Yandell while her wife is deployed.

"I choose not to be depressed, even though my wife is deployed," she said. "I don't let anyone keep me from doing what I want to do. A lot of people don't go do stuff because they don't have anyone to go do it with, but if you can't do that stuff by yourself what fun are you going to be with a bunch of people?"

Yandell's resilience echoes the long-standing military sentiment that every assignment truly is what you make it.

"You have to be open-minded, honestly," Yandell said. "I've made the best of it and tried things I probably would've never tried if I stayed back home. I choose to put myself in the way of beauty instead of having a bad attitude because it's really not that bad here."