As I prepare to leave this beautiful state of Alaska that I have called home for so long, I have often found myself thinking about all of the things I am going to miss about this state. I have claimed Alaska as my home since I was a small child and grown to love this state dearly. This is the location in which I became the person I am today minus some short stays away in the grand scheme of my life. I said when I came back to Alaska that I would never leave again, yet here I am preparing to do just that, thanks to my health. 

When I talk about things I will miss with those in my life that love me I am often met with “We have that in this state or other places” but it is not the same. So today I wanted to write my list of things I will miss and why I will miss them specifically in Alaska. 

1. The Day and Night Cycle: 

When people think of Alaska Day and Night Cycles they often think of either the very long winter nights or the very long summer days. Alaska, to many, is the land of the midnight sun. It throws a lot of people off at first and can be rather annoying to some but I love it. I love the near constant light around the Summer Solstice and the sense of growth, happiness, and magic that it gives the land. I love camping and having that light to play games by and to soak up well into the night. And though the winter months can be cold, bleak, and dark, the night adds to that feeling of waiting. Waiting for the spring to come, waiting for the light to return, and the excitement as the days grown longer and the nights shorter once we get past the Winter Solstice. It is almost like breathing in a breath that’s been held for so long when the daylight returns. A release that is magical in its own way. Though the rest of the world is affected by the Winter and Summer Solstice as well as the Equinoxes to some degree, it is not like the Winter and Summer Solstice in Alaska. I will miss it. 

2. The Mountains: 

Everywhere you look the skyline is DOMINATED by mountains here. Large mountains with rocky crevices at the tip that grow more and more covered in greenery the further down the slope they go. Mountains that warn of the coming of snow in the months before it gets here because their tops get covered in snow and we can watch the progression of that snow down the mountain to a point before it reaches us here in the Valley. Mountains that when the sun hits it turn magenta and purple depending on the time of year. Those mountains are the home of winter sports, camping, hiking, and beautiful views. I will miss the mountains. 

“There are mountains in other places in the states. We have mountains here,” Some say. And to that I say, yes but they are not Alaska Mountains. 

3. The Wildlife:

Oh the wildlife experiences we get here in Alaska. There is wildlife all over the states and world. Bugs, skunks, possums, deer, etc. It is NOT the same as the wildlife in Alaska. 

It is not two bull moose duking it out in the middle of the road of a suburb in Anchorage, AK or watching a mother Moose raise her young in your own backyard. It isn’t the site of a herd of caribou in the tundra or the musk ox that found its way into the village. It is not the experience of having a bear run at your car from across the highway on your way home from work or the terror/excitement of hollering at your Mema to stay in the outhouse because a bear just ran across the parking lot ten feet from you in that direction and you have to put your bear gun back on to go get her not the feeling of being stalked on your way down the trail when all the birds have gone quite hoping your bear spray works. It is not camping and wondering what is crashing through the woods next to you, knowing if you open your tent flap it’s an equal shot of you facing a bear or a moose or a porcupine. It isn’t the black capped chickadees and the loon calls on the lakes, or the eagle at the camp site flying off with the baby loon in its clutches. It isn’t the mountain goats that you see on the cliffs at times driving to Girdwood or the lynx and arctic fox running through your neighborhood trying to pick off your chickens. It isn’t the porcupine and her porcupets that are boldly walking through the camp like they own it daring anyone to close to feel their quills. It isn’t the wood frogs that came out of hibernation, or the salmon that you cooked fresh from the water you fished it from or the pod of Killer Whales saying hello to the tour boat on the fjord. It isn’t the seals basking in the sun or the walrus on the rocks or the beluga in the inlet chasing the tides. 

Nothing has, in my experience, beaten out the wonder of the Alaska Wildlife. 

4. The Northern Lights

When one gets to see the northern lights so bright it colors the white snow in the winter night as a child, nothing else will ever compare. Other northern lights sightings that happen in the states are cheap in comparison to that. Brilliant greens, blues, and purples that dance through the sky bright and clear with minimal light pollution to drown them out or dull them. Magical. Truly Magical. I have missed that since leaving the village but we do still get Northern lights here in the Valley that are breathtaking if not quite as clear and visible as frequent as it was then. And I will miss it. 

5. The Community: 

The final thing I will miss is the community. Alaskan’s are a different breed of people truly. I have never lived in a place with more community support and togetherness than here in Alaska even in rural locations in the lower 48. It’s the rugged nature of Alaska that does it. The need to support one another because the land can be harsh and we know it, we experience it. The farmers markets that pop up over the summers, the festivals where people sell the crafts in the winters and summer times for everyone, the high school football games with fans shivering and wet in the stands sharing their warmth to cheer on their teams despite the biting cold. The community that celebrates the return of the sun and the fans laughing at the baseball game on the fourth of July as some brave souls entertain the crowds with bawdy songs while waiting for the sun to set enough for the fireworks to be seen. The community of Talkeetna, AK or Fairbanks, AK where people can become isolated from the outside world for a time in the winter when the blizzards rush in and bury the town making the roads almost impossible to navigate before they are cleared. There is always some festival, some community event, something that brings the people together. 

I have yet to find a community quite like that of Alaska’s as a whole. 

I will miss this state. I really will. I will make my home elsewhere and it will be okay but I don’t think anything will ever replace Alaska in my heart. 

-Dare.