First Law of Alaska Dynamics...

You may or may not be familiar with it. The First Law of Alaska Dynamics: The closer you get to the middle of nowhere, the smaller your planes get. 

Case in point:

Make Space for Dreams

"Dreams take up a lot of space?"

"All you'll give them." 

- From Blue Highways, by William Least Heat Moon

Rather than being the clarifying experience I hoped it would be, in many ways my 9 months in northwest Alaska left me feeling more lost than ever. Books like Into the Wild and even Blue Highways, which I just started reading, aggrandize the enlightening qualities of such solo pilgrimages into the unknown, but in all reality it takes more than just having the experience to learn its lessons. It's a cumulative process, a continually growing path built from the bricks of reflection, perspective, challenge, and constant questioning.

Alaska video montage

I've only been home a week and a half, but already Alaska seems almost as distant in memory as it is in miles. I'll be totally honest, as great as it was to experience a "real" Alaska winter in one of the harshest environments on earth, it feels damn good to be able to just walk out my door barefoot now that I'm back in Florida. No more spending 10 minutes to put on enough layers to step outside. I've even started to get a tan again (currently in the form of sunburn, but hey).

It wasn't quite as hard to adjust to living in "civilization" again as I thought it would be. It's nice to see affordable prices in the stores once more, and have more choices in products. The harder part has been getting used to living at home after being on my own for so long. I miss that freedom already, but I keep telling myself it's only temporary. Because I know it is. Hopefully within the next month I'll be on my way to a new job, whatever it may be (fingers crossed that it will be in Alaska again).

I hate this period of limbo where I have no idea what I'm doing with my life. But in between job-searching and car-searching and freaking out about the future, I've managed to finish putting together my video montages of all 9 months in Alaska. Just watching them over again gives me the travel bug, so maybe it'll inspire you to get out on your own adventures as well. :)  Enjoy.