For anybody who follows me on Facebook, you've probably already seen that I have put in my "official" decision and am planning on heading back to Alaska for the summer. I plan on driving the ALCAN highway northward starting the end of May or very beginning of June. So now I have the semi-daunting task ahead of selling off or donating everything I don't deem necessary to bring along. I'd like to fit my whole life in my car if possible so I can be easily ready for whatever happens next.

I plan on making myself available to help people out with commercial fishing or whatever other tasks are at hand over the summer. If nothing else, I'm sure I'll have a great time being with family and playing with my camera down on the beach. When fall rolls around, after a probable trip to Norway, I'm likely going to be looking for a job in Anchorage area. It's funny. I never thought I wanted to live there, but within the last couple of months I've decided it could be fun for a few years. We'll see what life throws at me though, because as was made very clear by an opportunity in someone else's life this weekend, your whole plan can change in a matter of days.

Getting Ready to Turn the Page

I've been with my job for three years now and as much as I love my organization and the people I work with and for, the stress of field season finally caught up with me last year. There are a lot of factors that play into why it's so hard on me, but I think it's enough to say that if I did it again, I think I would end up miserable. So I'm not going to do it. Why should I subject myself to that? I have no debt and I've only got myself and my doggy (Polka's still kicking!) to worry about. I've submitted my resignation letter and my last day is May 15th (unless I find some awesome job sooner).

At this point I don't really know what I'll do next. I'm leaning toward heading back up to Alaska for the summer (and maybe longer). Hopefully if that ends up happening someone will have a spot on their commercial fishing crew for me. Even if I can't fish, I can't say I'd be disappointed to just hang out with as much family as I can and maybe finally get my chance to spend a summer taking photos instead of doing the dirty work.

Ideally I'd like the next step in my career to be in the direction of working a little more closely with mammals, but I'm willing to do something else interesting in the interim. Maybe I'll find a calling I didn't know I had! If nothing else, I could stand to gain more experience in a lot of areas.

For now I'm content to ride the waves and see where I end up next. At times like these I feel incredibly lucky to have so much family to fall back on and a place that I can always go home to. I try not to be a drain on anybody, but knowing that you have people to stand beside you (and behind you and all around you) when you need time to figure out what's next is indescribably comforting.

That's all for now! Just wanted to give a short update. I'm going to try to get into the habit of using this thing now that I'm not on Facebook as much. I feel like I have much more freedom to ramble on my own blog ;)