- Suzanne

Alaska Is...

      Alaska is a peaceful pause from a scheduled lifestyle.  It’s closure to a lonely year.  It’s a beginning to a new chapter in my life. 
            Alaska is a helpful reminder of what’s important and what’s not.  It reminds you of who loves you and who you love. 
            Alaska makes you slow down, breathe easy, and think; think of everything.
            Alaska stops you with its beauty and holds on to you with its raw and unperturbed peacefulness. 
            Alaska reminds you of how small you are and shows you how there really are things worth fighting for.  Alaska is the thing that broke my walls down and made me realize how beautiful life really is. 
            Alaska is my great escape. 

Final Reflections

            I applied to go to Alaska on a whim.  I really had no reason in particular to go back, besides the fact that I just wanted to go.  I had wanted to go back for a while, but never really had the drive to apply until this year.  When I found out I had been accepted, I was happy, of course, but I didn’t realize how much of a godsend going to Alaska would be.  As the year progressed, everything that was right in my life started to turn for the worse and pretty soon, I was not a happy person.  It came to a point when I just knew I needed to get away.  I needed fresh people and places.  So by the time everyone was ready to leave, I was right there with them, anxious to get out.  I got on the bus, then the plane and was so happy to be on my way to anywhere but Marshall.  Once the trip actually started, I was very lost and confused.  I had so many different things going through my head, I didn’t even see Alaska.  I literally was walking in a fog all the time, until we came to Grizzly Bear.  It was late one night and mostly everyone was in bed.  I decided to go down by the river by myself for just a little bit.  I walked down the path and found a rock that overlooked most the river and the mountains and sat on it.  For the first time, I actually opened my eyes and looked at the gigantic mountains before me.  I took in the smell and sound of the river and trees around me and literally felt my heart melt.  I took in everything I had been feeling and everything I was feeling then and let it overwhelm me.  I sat there for a good hour, and then finally got up and started heading back.  That’s when I realized I was finally letting everything go.  All the self-pity and bad feelings I left at that river.  So from then on, I really saw Alaska.  I saw it with everything in me without all the distractions I had before.  I came to Alaska to escape for a little bit, but instead it healed me.  Alaska helped me through something that I couldn’t figure out how to shake.  Alaska stunned me in more ways than one.  It stunned me into joy and left me eager to come back and never leave.