Now Gitte must return to research

Gitte bends down and picks up an egg from the ground. It's one of the things she loves most of all this season: going and collecting eggs in nature.

She is only a little girl of kindergarten age, but already used to the long trips with his grandparents, where they live in a tent and catch trout for food. One day they walk in nature, they are surrounded by the scent of heather and the picturesquely breathtaking mountains. Gitte gets tired of walking. She wants to be carried. She doesn't want to go anymore.

Gitte bends down and picks up an egg from the ground. It's one of the things she loves most of all this season: going and collecting eggs in nature.

She is only a little girl of kindergarten age, but already used to the long trips with his grandparents, where they live in a tent and catch trout for food. One day they walk in nature, they are surrounded by the scent of heather and the picturesquely breathtaking mountains. Gitte gets tired of walking. She wants to be carried. She doesn't want to go anymore.

She is used to getting his way. So when no one wants to carry her, she quietly turns away and goes in another direction without anyone noticing. For a while they lead restlessly after her until they finally find her again, standing by a dead seal she has curiously discovered.

That is typical Gitte. A willpower so solid that it sometimes tips over stubbornness.

Just like the early weekend morning when she stands in the window and sees several dog sleds, that drives off. She decides on the spot that she wants that too. She asks her grandfather, and gets a no. At least initially. After unimaginable many repetitions she managed to get the uncle to go dog sledding with her her. She had no idea how cold it would be or that the trip would last most of the day. When she finally got home, completely frozen to death the bones, she never asked her grandfather if she could drive the dog sled again.

The one willpower - that stubbornness - has followed her throughout her life, and carried her forth. It has helped her to take a long education, write a PhD thesis and then become rector of the country's only university, Ilisimatusarfik.

They first memories

Gitte Adler Reimer was born on 4 April 1968 in Nuuk - 57 years ago. Hers mother is Andrea Reimer, who comes from the now abandoned settlement Manermiut on west end of Saqqarliit Island facing Davis Strait at Aasiaat. Her father is Arnold Frederiksen, who comes from Harndrup.

- My father was a plumber, so we have traveled quite a bit around the coast, which Qasigiannguit, Aasiaat, Paamiut and Nuuk, Gitte Adler Reimer tells us.

Then parents separated, two-year-old Gitte moved with her mother to Asiaat.

- We lived with my grandparents, Evnike and Peter Reimer. When I was around four years old, my mother traveled to Denmark to go to hairdressing school, and I stayed living in Aasiaat, she says.

Gitte has an older sister from his father's side, and one from his mother, who died shortly after after birth.

- That's why I'm very loved and almost treated like a favorite child, simply because I survived, she says.

Gitte started the elementary school in Aasiaat.

- My grandfather used to walk me to school on his way to work. He met always at seven o'clock, therefore I was always early for it, she says.

Like As a child, Gitte was therefore often at school a full hour before classes started, one habit that has followed her into adulthood.

- I am very rarely late today. I got that from my grandfather. When I was studying at Ilisimatusarfik, I once made a mistake to say a wrong meeting time, and it ended with the whole team coming for late, she says with a laugh.

Gitte grew up in the prison culture and working class, the first years of her life.

Childhood in Aasiaat was safe. The weekdays was filled with being in nature, listening old tales like Anngannguujunnguaq and Kaassassuk as bedtime stories.

- My grandparents were also Christians, I saw went to church every Sunday at eight in the morning and prayed the Lord's Prayer every evening, says Gitte Adler Reimer.

Anngannguujunnguaq is replaced with Disney

When Gitte was about seven years old, she moved together with his mother, who had trained as a hairdresser, to Nuuk.

- I was so sad to have to move from mine grandparents and my whole family, we lived in a collective together with others of my family in Aasiaat. I had become so used to them, she says.

Suddenly it was 'only' her, her mother and stepfather who were to live together in Radiofjeldet in Nuuk. Now she had to go to school herself, without her grandfather by her side.

- My mother read Danish Disney books to me every night, so I also learned quickly Danish, remembers Gitte Adler Reimer.

She started at Nuukskolen, ASK, and went there until 12th grade. It was also good.

- I became part of the city orchestra when I was 10 years and was there for many years. When the king got married, then he was crown prince, we played music at their wedding, she says.

- I learned a lot from the city orchestra. Everything from them different musical instruments and being able to stand on a stage in front of many people, she says.

Gitte was involved in several 'extracurriculars' activities' which were - in addition to the city orchestra - handball, French lessons and needlework.

Like At 18, she finished primary school and got her driver's license. Welcome to adulthood.

Wanted to be a lawyer

After primary school, she started at the upper secondary school in Nuuk - as part of the very first high school team in the city's history. Gitte had a goal: She was going to be a lawyer.

- But when I became a student, I got pregnant, says Gitte Adler Reimer.

That ended with her not traveling to Denmark to take her law degree. Ajunngilaq. She got her Nivi in ​​1989. Nivinnguaq, she calls her. Gitte was 22 year.

Then her Nivi was about two years old, she continued her studies at the university in Nuuk. Her educational dream was still law, that's why she wanted to go social sciences when she applied to Ilisimatusarfik.

- But along the way I found out how much I loved cultural and social history. That was where I was supposed to be, she says.

- I was studying for a longer period when I had several children at the same time, says Gitte Adler Reimer has three children born in the years 1989, 1993 and 1998.

It later turned out that one of her children had the chronic disease diabetes.

- He was so small when we found him out of it. At the time, the disease was still relatively 'new' in society awareness, so I really fought hard for the cause, among other things by organize demonstrations for children with disabilities. It was a tough time, but today is he well, and that is the most important thing, says Gitte Adler Reimer.

Career woman

I In 2011, Gitte defended her PhD thesis "Kinship and gender in Greenlandic urban community - feelings of connectedness". She then became department head for the education Culture & Social history, and from 2015 she took over as head of department for the Department of Culture, Language & History. Two years later - in 2017 - she stayed officially appointed rector of Ilisimatusarfik, as the second woman in it role.

- When I want to achieve something, I become very stubborn. It doesn't matter how long time it takes as long as I achieve it. I wrote my Master's and PhD thesis for several years, for example, she says.

Hers commitment to studies and work has meant that she does not see her children much often.

- I have four grandchildren and my husband has six grandchildren, so we therefore have 10 grandchildren together. I don't see them very often. I am one career woman. Growing up, my grandmother was always at home, I wasn't been that type of grandmother, says Gitte Adler Reimer.

She have always believed that there are too few people with a higher education and that society needs them. That is why she has fought to contribute as much as possible possible. She agreed to everything - panel discussions, board positions, council member service trips and the like - and even wished her principal's office had a bed because it was too difficult to go home with all the work she took on. But this has changed. Now she feels she has done her part.

- I myself have chosen not to continue as principal at Ilisimatusarfik. It has been a fantastic time, with many challenges and development. I feel that I have achieved what I want. Now the new principal must continue work, she says.

No is also okay

Now Gitte Adler Reimer returns back to research – something she is also deeply passionate about.
- I'm really looking forward to it. I love research; it almost feels like to be a detective, where you ask questions and go on a discovery. I can can hardly wait to dive into the archives and research again, she says.

And she is at the same time working on it to learn to speak up. For example, Gitte was asked if she would participate in one panel discussion.

- I called them about Monday and said no. I'm not very good at setting boundaries when it applies to work. I spent an entire weekend figuring out how to had to say no. But when I finally did, I was so happy to discover, that it was actually quite okay, she says.

Now she is sitting at home in her living room, enjoying his much-needed holiday and having time to talk to people on the street – without having to rush on. And she practices accepting that she doesn't need to be involved in everything.

- I am so happy now that I don't have to worry about anything. I becomes completely warm to the heart, think that life can also be like this, and I hope it will continue to be so, she says. - I will never, ever let work take over my life again, life is simply too short for that. I've forgotten myself in the midst of all this. I have took the responsibility on me so deeply that I lost myself along the way, says Gitte Adler Reimer.

I today she enjoys the time at home - at her own pace and with small steps at a time together with her husband, Otto, and spending time with their children and grandchildren. She practices says no, and dreams of being there for her grandchildren at any time, just like her aanaa was always there for her when she was a child.