Summer 2014 Film Montage

I've had terrible writer's block lately. I mean seriously, I've started and stopped about half a dozen posts since my last one, and just can't seem to find the words to say what I want to say. So instead, I ventured into my other creative outlet, and finished editing together my film montage of footage from this summer. I hope you like it.

Huge shout-out to Charlie Jones for letting me use her music in the background!

My last week, mostly in photos

Caution: This post is mostly going to be a HUGE dump of photos from the last week and a half, so if you're looking for deep reflective writings, give me a few days. Otherwise, if you're content with pictures, carry on. You have been forewarned.

My last couple weeks in Sitka were a great balance of work and play. I had a bit of comp time to use up and some annual leave, and with one of my best friends visiting, I was able to get out and have some extra fun in the great outdoors.

Local 1st graders studying macroinvertebrates

In addition, with my newly acquired camera, I was tasked to shoot photos for the park for work on several days, which to me, doesn't even feel like work at all. One of the park's biggest programs was a week of salmon education for every first and third grader in Sitka. We set up stations along the trail where the classes would rotate through to learn about salmon biology, life cycles, predation, and survival. It was pretty fantastic. I mean seriously, how many kids do you know who get to dissect a salmon in first grade??

The visitor center where I worked all summer

My favorite view (and my future house, FYI)

My other favorite mountains

Indian River estuary

My favorite part of the trail

Last whale flukes of the season

One of our other big end-of-the-year events was the National Public Lands Day beach cleanup. This is a national event where public lands across the country engage their communities in volunteer projects. We didn't expect many people to show up in Sitka, but we turned out to have over a dozen participants! Growing up in Florida, I've done my fair share of beach cleanups, but I must say, this was definitely one of the most epically scenic ones I've ever helped out at.

Families spread out along the beach

We found an otter skeleton!

Those mountains.

After my last day of work, I had a few days before my flight back to Florida, so one of my colleagues was generous enough to loan his kayaks to my friend and I. It also turned out to be the one sunny, non-windy day we had all week -- I couldn't believe how fortunate and grateful we were!

We muscled the kayaks down several blocks to the water, and took off across the glassy harbor out to the open seas. The water was crystal clear, so you could see the kelp almost all the way down to the bottom. Sea lions cruised along in formation in the distance, and we even spotted a sea otter doing rolls and flips at one point! A pair of puffins also graced us with their presence, an extremely rare sight so close to shore.

Paddling with a view

Although I didn't risk taking my D7000 along on this endeavor, I did have my GoPro and spent the whole time filming and taking photos from my kayak.

Smooth seas

Fresh snow barely visible on the mountains

We threw in a line to see if we could catch any coho, but we were much too far from any river mouths. At one point, we paused to untangle the line, and when we reeled it up, we found we had caught a tiny rockfish! It must have been THE laziest rockfish on the planet, because it hadn't pulled on the line at all or even put up a fight. After a couple photos, we released the poor guy and he swam away just fine.

The laziest rock fish

After 19 hours of flying and a lot of mixed feelings about leaving Sitka, I'm back in my hometown for the time being.

Washington looking all epic on the flight home

Not gonna lie, I really hate this feeling of limbo, of not knowing where I'm headed next, of having bigger aspirations than I can currently fulfill. But here I am. I will try to keep blogging as I embark on my next adventures, and maybe try to backpost some of the stories I've collected over the summer, now that I actually have some time to sit back and reflect. Til next time!

Small wins

This week has been SO good, for once! On Wednesday, I finished my last night working at the pub, which was a huge relief mainly because it's been getting VERY dark at night and I hated the walk home. It's so dark on my street that even a flashlight barely cuts through the blackness, and because it's almost always raining, the dripping noises in the woods always made me think there was a bear lurking nearby. That, and the fact that I would be so exhausted from working two jobs, I'd collapse into bed at midnight with my body sore from running around for so long, and then wake up again at 6:30 or 7 to do it all over again. It was a great learning experience, though. It toughened me up, kicked my butt, and helped me earn a little extra cash this summer that I wouldn't  have had otherwise. :-)

Life from death

I want to say there is nothing serene or comforting about the Sitka woods right now. The air reeks of dead salmon, seagull feces, fungus, mushrooms, and the rotting substrate of the forest floor. The soundscape is not the usual quiet whispers of the woods, but now a cacophony of screeching, whining gulls and eagles piercing the air with their bombastic cries. Every sense is filled with the rawness and harshness of nature's less-romantic side, the side we don't want to see, the side we often choose to pretend doesn't exist.

The DSLR Saga

When I first took this job in Sitka back in mid-April, my goal was to buy a DSLR camera with my second paycheck. My savings had dwindled to a frightening level after 3 months of winter travel. But I had my mind set on purchasing my first professional quality camera after having fallen so deeply in love with photography from my last job in Nome. It was like learning to paint with oils, and then moving away and only having crayons to use.

Well, my second paycheck came. Then my third. Then my fourth. Unexpected expenses arose, student loans nagged to be paid, the cost of living out here was more than I anticipated. I realized I couldn't just spare an entire paycheck to throw to my frivolous dream of owning a nice camera. So I got a second job.

As I've mentioned before, waitressing is not exactly my cup of tea, but I've always been taught that sometimes you need to do some things you don't like in order to get to what you do like. This summer has been a good example of that, and it feels good to know that I'm finally reaching my goals AND I've worked my butt off for them. It really hasn't been that bad, either -- I love my 40 hours a week as a park ranger enough that I can put up with 15 hours of hell on the side.

What's more, I'm a strong believer in having the right tools for the job (even if that job is just a hobby at this point). As I'm looking to explore media more for my graduate studies, I see this as an investment in my future. Taking all these factors into consideration, you can see now how badly I've been wanting to get this camera. I promise, I'm not completely crazy.

Well, some 12 paychecks later and 5 months into the summer, I finally made the big purchase today.  In two weeks when it arrives, I will be the proud new owner of a Nikon D7000, with an 18-105mm lens. It's a huge investment, but I'm hoping it will pay off.

Despite the mini-heart attack I had when I first hit the "purchase" button, I feel so good! I can't wait to receive it and start posting the millions of photos I plan on taking my last few weeks in Sitka! Thanks to everyone who has morally supported me through this crazy summer, given me all sorts of great camera advice, and helped me remember why I'm here. I love you all!

Where to next?

It’s getting to be that time of year where people are starting to ask me the dreaded question: “Where to next?”

It’s an exciting question, to be sure, but unfortunately for the asker, not one to which I have an answer.

I had one of those shower epiphanies the other night, thinking about this question. It occurred to me that around this time last year when I was living in Nome, I was considering the novelty of not going straight home after my season ended, for the first time in my life. I remember the giddiness I felt when I bought a one-way ticket to Anchorage, and quickly soon after, plans formed to spontaneously move to Washington state for no particular reason, and then take a road trip across the country with my boyfriend. These dreams crystallized into reality.

I had no idea how these experiences would change me, or even that they did change me, until recently. I realized in the shower tonight, that these experiences now define who I am. A year ago, if you’d asked me “where to next?” I would have said, “back home I guess.” But today my answer is a confident and content “I don’t know!”

Of course I have some ideas. But the novelty of living on the road without a plan is somehow different, now that I know what it’s like, and have been essentially living out of a couple backpacks and a duffle for almost a year.

You might be surprised (and relieved [looking at you, Mom and Dad]), but believe it or not, I’m starting to feel ready for grad school. My wanderlust remains strong as ever, but an even stronger part of me has an urge to reach for something greater. I’m starting to miss the structure and directness of school, and I’m beginning to see how easy it would be to hit a dead end if I stop trying to achieve.

Maybe working at the pub is helping with this too. Not to say there’s anything wrong with waiters and bartenders – I have high respect for many of them who have clearly come up by their bootstraps to get where they are in life. But there’s also something maddening and saddening about the fact that some of them will never be anything but bartenders and waiters. It’s not that difficult of a job, and I can see how it would be easy to just go from place to place working at restaurants for quick money once you have the skill. I don’t want to do that though, tempting as it is. This experience has been a good kick in the butt to get myself into gear for higher aspirations.

If we’re going to be completely honest here, I probably have at least another year of vagabonding ahead of me, if not more. I don’t mind at all – in fact, I’m looking forward to a little more wandering, now that I’m so used to it and have learned a lot. But wherever I end up this fall, my main goal is to research my higher education and further career options. I’m ready to get focused again.

So, for real: Where to next? Well, I told you: I don’t know! Of course, the answer is more complicated than that. I’ll go here and there, figure out some things in my personal life, go home and visit the family, hopefully pick up a job somewhere for the winter to support myself while I look for grad schools. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that all realities start with the seed of an idea. Last year, that idea was to wander the country for a while, and look what happened. This year, I’ve planted the seeds of higher achievement into my brain, and hopefully if I nurture them enough and refrain from the entangling distractions of life, they will grow into fruition and I’ll find myself a little more ahead of the game.

We shall see. Please don’t hold me to any of this. Like I said, I’m partially going on a shower epiphany here, and we all know where things in the shower usually end up (down the drain).

Picturing Sitka

It's been a long 3 weeks. We had something like 6 inches of rain in one weekend and it rained almost nonstop for 2 weeks straight. And I hate to think that something as simple as the weather can affect my mood, but I have to be completely honest and admit that that much rain definitely put a damper on my attitude for a while. That's part of the reason I haven't felt like blogging, but I am so far behind I thought I would throw these pictures up anyhow from our last sunny day, whenever that was.

The sea walk, with Mt. Verstovia in the distance

Crescent Harbor

Mountains across from the park

Fireweed and mountains

World's Most Beautiful Trailer Park Award goes to...

Can't get enough of those mountains

Modern totem pole

One one of my days off last week, I finally managed to get some decent salmon footage as well. The spawn isn't quite at its peak yet, but it's still absolutely incredible to witness and I had way too much fun throwing my GoPro in the river all day. Here are some of the shots I got (and make sure to watch the video in HD):

Perhaps tomorrow I'll try to actually write a post (rather than just throwing pictures up) and put into words some of my reflections and observations from the last few weeks. Until then, enjoy the photos!