The Last Frontier

Let's back up a few months...In May I had the opportunity to graduate from a fine academic institution in arguably the greatest city on Earth: New York. I had worked my butt off to get to New York and pretty much decided upon my arrival at the airport that I never wanted to leave. (This was of course after I learned that the city wasn't really wasn't like Law & Order all the time.) But I look at my relationship with New York City like any relationship. Although you're pretty sure you've found "The One," sometimes you have to try out a few others (cities in my case, not men) just to make sure. So one sleepless night when the looming thought of unemployment after graduation again had me awake until 4am, I started researching other possibilities in case my dream job in The Big Apple was in fact just a dream.

I started looking into AmeriCorps. AmeriCorps, for those of you that are unfamiliar, is like the Peace Corps only in the United States. You can volunteer in every state doing just about anything your heart desires so long as it is related to making the world a better place (fighting hunger, helping kids learn to read, building houses, working for hurricane relief, etc.). I looked at programs all over the country, excited to use this opportunity to flex my educational muscles and put all that "book learnin' " to the test. I applied for college prep programs in Texas, university service learning programs in Massachusetts, Habitat for Humanity programs in New Orleans, after school programs in Nebraska, and volunteer recruitment programs in New York. Although I initially accepted a position that would allow me to stay in my beloved New York, the financial implications of spending a year doing volunteer work in the most expensive city in the country were just too great. So back to the drawing board.

One night in August around 3am, I had a crazy thought (as I tend to do around that time of day), "Hey! I should move to Alaska!" So I applied for a handful of AmeriCorps positions in Alaska. A crazy impulse in the wee hours of the morning and submitting my online application was all it took. Without even so much as an interview (apparently the resume was enough...much appreciation to the career services offices at my alma maters. :) ), I was offered a position as an AmeriCorps member in Anchorage, Alaska.

I packed up all my winter clothes (or at least what the FAA would let me check into three suitcases) and headed West. And as of last Monday, I am officially a resident of the great state of Alaska. I will be working for Nine Star Education and Employment Services, an organization doing all kinds of amazing things in the way of job placement and educational attainment for the people of Alaska. I haven't gotten my exact placement yet (I'm really hoping to work with the English as a Second Language program. Fingers crossed!), but I figure no matter where I'm placed, I can't go wrong.

It's only been 10 days and already I've seen a bear, a moose, and a glacier so who knows what the next year will have in store! Please join me in my journey as I explore The Last Frontier and do some self-exploration as well during my time as an AmeriCorps member in Alaska. It's gonna be a wild ride.