Why Alaska?

Lately, some part of me has been wondering if I've lost my mind to be doing what I'm going to be doing this summer. I honestly don't know why I feel that way, because there's really not much that could go wrong with it. I guess the anxiety stems from the fact that it's a pretty drastic change for me and that I don't really know anybody up there aside from one girl who goes there in the summers to work....but she very likely won't be able to go this year. Fortunately as the departure date gets closer (only two weeks left!), the nerves start to fade away and the excitement starts to kick in. At this point, I'm just glad to be leaving Alabama because I cannot stand it here. There's nothing to do here, there are no decent jobs to be found, there's just nothing here and more than one person has told me that the smart thing to do would be to find some way to stay up there year-round and never set foot in this state again. That would be okay with me, but I'm leaving that door open for right now.

Last night I was listening to some old Jimmy Buffett records of mine and I came across a song called "Stories We Could Tell". In it, Jimmy says that we do the crazy, spontaneous things that we do for the stories we can tell afterward. If you can live through it, then you've come away with some great stories and that song has kind of become my anthem for this trip. Can you imagine the stories I'll have to tell in just a few months? I really can't wait!