- 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. Final ReflectionsI 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.
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