The Last Frontier: A Trip of a Lifetime – My time in Alaska

Growth is relative. You do not have to be in a big city to find what you are looking for but you do need the sense of adventure that can help you discover your passion. NEVER. STOP. GROWING.?

Alaska is a beautiful piece of freshness that cannot be explained with words and cannot be fully described with pictures.

Here is my perspective:?

Have you ever been so ready to travel that you buy a travel planner, a backpack, some good walking shoes, and even a nice camera for all of those amazing moments to come? You even go out of your way to tell all of your friends that you’re taking off for a few months for an once-in-a-lifetime kind of adventure. You can’t wait to get on that airplane and get there! Well, that is not exactly what happened to me.?

Growing up, I knew I wanted to travel and visit as many places as possible while working. However, Alaska was not exactly what I had in mind when I thought, “I’d go anywhere.” One evening, I got a call from one of the partners of the company I was working for, asking me to go to Alaska. At first, there was a moment of silence and then a rush of adrenaline as I thought of how cool it would be to live in Alaska.

Let me first break the news: Alaskans do not live in Igloos. Everyone lives in regular houses and some people even prefer living on boats. I remember taking an airplane from Seattle, Washington to Juneau, Alaska on a Sunday morning. When I arrived, I got off the airplane and it took me less than two minutes to walk from the door of the plane to the outside of the airport. I thought, “there has to be more to this airport”, but guess what? It really was that small.?

While I was driving to my hotel, I remember thinking: “Eleazar, what did you sign up for?” A few minutes later, I arrived at my hotel and thought I could start feeling at home by doing what anyone does as soon as moving to a new town, order pizza! To my dismay, the Dominos in Juneau did not have the same deals as those in the “lower 48.” In fact, their only deal was a one-topping pizza for $13. Aside from the overpriced pizza, you know what broke my heart? No $5 foot longs at Subway. Fun fact: if you look at the fine print on commercials for Subway, Dominos, etc. it says that the promotion does not apply in Alaska or Hawaii.?

One of my favorite first memories in Alaska was learning that everyone stores their trashcans in a shed or inside their home. I was confused, “Do people get rid of pieces of gold or something? Why are they ‘hiding’ their trash?” To my surprise, they were not hiding their trash; they were required by law to secure their trashcans to prevent bears from getting into them. In fact, you are not allowed to put your trash out the day before trash collection or you will be subject to a fine.?

Speaking of bears, let me break some more news to you: there are no polar bears in Alaska. I wish I could have seen a polar bear or a penguin at least, but the only place you can find them is at the Zoo. I did, however, see a grizzly and some black bears, but believe it or not, they are more afraid of you than you are of them. The only time you need to be slightly weary is when you find a cub because you know that the mother is not far behind. Before arriving in Alaska, I always wondered if it was possible to ride a bear. So, what did I do??

Food. Oh yes, all the amazing seafood you can find. My favorite? Alaskan king crab (and wild Salmon!) After you have this experience, I kid you not, but everything else just becomes imitation.?

The same goes for beer. Juneau has its own brewery and beer line. It is really hard to go back once you try Alaskan.?

As far as the climate goes, sometimes it is sunny during bedtime…you just get used to it.?

During the summertime, it’s light out most of the time, so you may wake up at 3 a.m. and think that you are late for work (see picture below)! It’s best to invest in some black-outs curtains to block the sunlight.

There is sun for about 3-4 months out of the year, and if you don’t take advantage of it, you’ll miss it once the winter months hit.?

To put it in perspective, this is how much sunshine there is during most of the winter months. (See picture below).?

When it is summer, you can enjoy an amazing time that you cannot experience anywhere else in the world:?

During winter, you have to get creative:?

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(Frozen local lake on the above picture)

You can go skiing, hiking, or pretty much anything during the summer. Sad Fact: Dog sleds are not very common and are kind of a rip-off. Not only is it illegal to ride a homemade sled, but it costs roughly $100 for 20 minutes of fun.

To close out, I believe the best experience I had in Alaska was visiting the North Pole. Yes, there is an actual city called the North Pole, and Santa lives there. And guess what? It’s open ALL YEAR LONG! Sounds amazing right? Before you continue reading, just take a minute to imagine what the North Pole should look like. Image: a bunch of elves building toys, Santa feeding his reindeer, maybe even a snow-covered road that winds up to Santa’s house.

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Here are the pictures:

Is this what you pictured? Turns out, Santa lives in a gift shop just outside of Fairbanks in the small city of the North Pole.?Do not get me wrong, I loved the experience. Who has the chance to tell their friends and family that you personally went to the North Pole to visit Santa? I bet you my kids are going to want to go here someday.?

Overall, Alaska was an amazing experience. I was there for over 2 years and many great things happened to me while I was there. I discovered my passion for helping people; whether it is a client, a colleague or my team or just a friend. I learned that there is a lot of joy in helping someone succeed and get closer to his/her dreams. (This is when Autentico Ventures – my Career Coaching pro-bono business was born to help underrepresented high school students go to college).?

I learned that no matter where in the world you are, you can always find a place to call home.?

Growth is relative. You do not have to be in a big city to find what you are looking for but you do need the sense of adventure that can help you discover your passion. NEVER. STOP. GROWING.?

Here are some random facts I remembered after I wrote the above:

There is no bad day for a BBQ. Rain or shine, you just got to do it.?

Alaska is so wild, that they even had their own reality show, Slednecks.

When I first got to Alaska. People told me I should buy some Alaskan tennis shoes. They are unisex, and people wear them everywhere, every day. And there is no such thing as “My shoes don’t match my outfit”

There is also no such thing as washing your car. Since it rains so often, it is pointless. Most of the time your car looks like this:

Archery is also very popular, but very hard to master. My aim was not that bad, at least I hit the target.

Santa Claus also visits, you can see him here on a fire truck giving candy to the children:?

You can see Moose on the side of the road – they are huge!

Lastly, the aurora borealis is a thing you can luckily enjoy very frequently.

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