Friends and family,
Many of you know this already but just in case- I have accepted a position as an itinerant therapist for a hospital in a small town in north western Alaska, just north of the arctic circle! The job is working with native Alaskans that are scattered in the north west arctic borough. I leave on Friday (9 July). I've spent the last 8 or so weeks saying "good-bye" and "see you soon" to the people in my life and one thing that comes up every time is that I should start a blog and document my experiences. So, here we are. Fortunately I love to write and was likely to blog some of it anyway so now I'm just making a firmer commitment to blogging.
For this first post, while I am still in the lower 48, I thought I'd answer all the questions I've gotten several times as well as just share a little bit about how I'm feeling about the transition. I've organized this is in a FAQ format for convenience :)
How did you even find this job?
A friend at work had family who had worked for Indian Health Services (IHS) and worked on reservations before so when I decided to cast a wider net in terms of my job search I thought it would be cool to live and work on a reservation. I started looking for jobs through IHS and that's how I found this one. I applied on a whim, I was so used to being rejected at that point that I truly did not think I'd get interviewed or even called. Immediately I started researching Alaska, the organization, and the town. Honestly it just seemed like an adventure, and I am so down for that after being grounded for so long due to the pandemic. So that's how it all started. At some point I obviously made a choice to pursue this opportunity and a choice to move. I spent a lot of time talking to friends and the people close to me about the pros and cons. At the end of the day the pros outweighed the cons.
How are you feeling about leaving?
I leave on Friday and I am feeling pretty good. The anxiety is present but comes in a waves. A few days ago I was in this "what have I done?" place but the last couple days I'm just getting excited. It's all very surreal, I don't think I have any clue how much my life is about to change. I am excited though, and as ready as I think I'll be. Honestly the "see you soon's" are starting to get to me. It's emotionally exhausting to process and transition and/or terminate all of my relationships. I'm a sentimental person and I feel my feelings big so all of the goodbyes and starting to wear me down. It's just a lot of feelings all of the time.
Won't you be cold? I thought you hated the cold?
Yes, I will very likely be cold. And yes, that's not my favorite thing. The weather on the arctic circle is obviously extremely cold in the winters with very mild summers and lots of snow. It's not my ideal climate by a long shot. I had to really think about this and I just decided that rejecting this job because of the weather conditions sounded really stupid. To me that is just a silly reason not to do something. As I've gotten older I've appreciated the cold more and the heat less so at least there's that. I just figure people live this way their whole lives, it can't be impossible. I've been doing a lot of shopping and gathering my gear to get through my first winter.
Well, I think that's about it for this first post. Feel free to comment if you have any questions you want answered either now or in a future post!
Love to you all!
Veronica
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