Essay Alaska: View from Above
Alaska has been a dream for me and has treated me extremely well. For a couple of weeks I didn’t think much about who I’d been or needed to be nor who I left back home, though respectively, I kept in contact with them.
Periodically, I would send texts through a spotty Wi-Fi connection, which wasn’t too often. Instead, I found myself taking in pictures of the mountains I would pass along my way to the gym — or the breathtaking black sandy beaches you’d have to traverse to get to work. I breathed in cold air and raindrops, on special occasions salt water, and the smell of fresh fish. We didn’t do too much during the day, and I tried to do even less in the evening. Like is common for most excursions of this capacity I levied into conversations that became my God in the Alaskan mountains.
My silver lining in my new environment was the people I met and was excited to meet. I would stare and laugh and ease my way into conversations about new topics, old topics with new revelations from different faces. I could only count a fewcollegues I didn’t engage with as much as my curious spirit desired. I fell in love with the people I met, their new ways and handsome features.
It didn’t take long for me to get acclimated to the weather either, in fact, after the first night, I grew to appreciate its briskness, the assertive grasp it held over my arms and nose during the day, toes in the night. I eventually grew accustomed to even these extremes as well. Little by little I began shedding off the clothes that had wrapped me up so tightly on days one and two. Eventually, cold mornings just became mornings and I even looked forward to finding frost on the tent.
The sunrises were beautiful. One, in particular, was exceptionally captivating. It was my last day of training and I felt so happy. I walked outside in my shorts, luggage tied around my waist and hoisted on my shoulders, I didn’t have music in my ears just a camera in hand and a wide lensed smile. It was met with tears and the voice of another who couldn’t believe how beautiful the sky looked. A perfect day we agreed.
I shared a few moments over the summit during my two-week excursion; collective memories I share with those who came along with me for a hike up a very steep mountain. We climbed in the middle of May until we could see snow, once we got up to that elevation, we became once again misty-eyed above the clouds. Laughing joyous laughs, the tender moments seem so short I hate to think soon I will be leaving them behind me in photos that don’t feel enough.
Did I capture the essence? Did I hold on to its presence tight enough when it was with me as the clouds were on me, and the eyes on me looking my way and this way and that as we navigated new territory up and down the Alaskan mountainous terrain with many memories and steep hills?
I felt happiest talking to those people and the people that came before and after that regal moment.
My arms are folded now, as I think back to those moments in Alaska of suppressed sexual desire, attention to detail, comfort, music, crushes. They lay with me now as my eyes beckon sleep.
The greatest gift I gave myself during this trip was to fall lost in the day to day.
