- Kendal Jasienski

Loving The Land Forever

       It was in a cute little coffee shop, filled to the roof with artwork, where I met Juno Prochaceka. She has been working there since May of this year, but, Juno has lived in Seward, Alaska all of her life. She is currently enrolled in UAA. Juno stays in Anchorage and comes back to Seward for the summers.
         As far as college goes, Juno doesn’t have a major yet. Right now she is just taking her prerequisites. However, Juno would like to go into Forensic Sciences. “I need to find a good-paying job somewhere,” she said. Juno also might go out of state for school. It was just cheaper and easier for her to stay local.
         Juno told me about a recent story that is definitely out of the ordinary. Apparently, there was a moose in her yard that kept returning. The moose would eat her mom’s expensive flowers. They had some wind chimes in their garden, the moose was a small, young male moose. So he was just now growing his antlers, which Juno thought was pretty amusing.
         I questioned Juno about any misconceptions she might want to clear up about Alaska. One thing she told me about was that the majority of people in Alaska are not Alaskan natives. Juno informed me that there are a lot of natives, just not everyone. Also that, “We don’t all live in igloos.” Another thing is that it isn’t always dark in Alaska. Just certain parts of Alaska stay darker longer.
         So now that Juno is old enough to leave home, she might go to another state for school. Or just to try out living somewhere else. Even if Juno doesn’t stay in Alaska, she will always come back to the land she loves.