Three Life Lessons Learned at a Border Crossing…That Made Me a Commercial Salmon Fisherman in Alaska

The Setting

It’d be in a hot, dusty and chaotic bus station on the Guatemalan/Mexico border that we’d meet. Them, a couple heading north for home. And myself, eager for information about what awaited me on my solo journey south. Three traveling souls, happy to pass the time with banter.

How the topic of salmon fishing arose is beyond me to this day. But the words, ‘My sister and her husband have been fishing in Alaska for 12 years,’ caught my attention. Perked my ears instantly and, eventually, led to two names and an address being scribbled on a piece of paper. The wheels of fate set in motion.

The Result

Two summers spent commercial salmon fishing out of Pilot Point, Alaska.

All while living on a beach in a wall tent, surrounded by snow-capped mountain ranges, with people I still consider friends today.

It was a fortuitous meeting, to be sure. But the lessons I learned from that first encounter are far more valuable.

The 3 Lessons

·???????Opportunity is where you least expect it: Everyone has a story. And some of those stories are more educationally beneficial than others. Make the moment count and pay attention to the people speaking your language. Where it can lead, just might surprise you.

·???????Dare to ask the question: True, I’d only known the two travellers for barely 20 minutes. But it didn’t matter. I knew what I had to do. In this case, that meant asking for the contact details for the family of strangers. Being sincere and curious makes it easy for people to want to help.

And most importantly,

·???????Follow through: Another four months of travelling would unfold with that piece of paper stashed away in a journal. Ample opportunity for it to be lost, forgotten or easily dismissed. Instead, I’d write and mail the most random letter of my life. A letter that would illicit an even more random phone call in return. Fortune favours the brave.