Moving to Alaska

[PennyAgain]

One of the most difficult things I've ever had to do was get on a jet plane and fly out of Alaska in order to take a job that would meet our needs. I cried for hours.

 

Lots of folks see Alaska as the Promised Land, but when push comes to shove and you have to earn a living, sometimes the only course of action is to leave.

 

Lots of folks assume they will make it in Alaska. I had everything going for me including a strong, local family unit that supported our decisions; but they couldn't help pay our bills.

 

I agree about the comments about small town living and thinking. You can't slam a car door shut without having rumors that you had a fight with your spouse.

 

I intend to return to Alaska, but as the years pass it gets harder and harder to do so. Will I ever, make it back fulltime?

[wrp96]

My parents moved to Alaska in the 70s on the basis of an ad in a magazine that said the state of Alaska was looking for accountants and auditors. Neither had ever been to Alaska. Both my brother and I were born there. My mother finally left after 19.5 years living there and dragged my brother and I with her (both of us kicking and screaming). Believe me it was a hardship getting back on the ship on our cruise last month.

 

It's been 15 years since we left but Alaska is still home - and I have 4 years to go before I can move back up there without having to retake the bar exam.

[PennyAgain]

wrp96! I support you completely! Make your move back before you get too old. The excuses pile up. Where I live now in Texas, we're leaving cheap. Can't do that in Alaska.

 

Start downsizing now and keep your eye on that North Star. Save your money and keep driving your old car!

 

I took care of everyone else's needs before thinking about taking care of myself. I should have packed up and moved north about 10 years ago.

[vannagreen]

There will always be excuses...reasons not to do something. But just put them out of your mind and follow your heart while you are still young enough and have no kids, motgage etc...! In the end...I think we all regret the things we didnt do but wish we had...so do it!

[Nancyquilts]

Thought about it all of 2 seconds, when I heard -20 and -40 in the Winter.

We spent a winter in Fairbanks. Below -20, it really doesn't matter. The ice fog settles in about that temperature.

[trooper 1]

There are a couple of (in my mind) crucial questions to ask yourself before "moving to Alaska."

 

1. Where? It's a giant place, with settlements ranging in size from Anchorage to bush villages that 20 people call home, to cabins up the holler. And of course there are several climate zones - coastal/SE where it's wet and snowy (winters too) to the interior where it's 90 above in the summer and 60 below in the winter, to the arctic where it's never above 60 F, to the Aleutians where it doesn't rain locally but the wind blows it there from Russia.

2. How will you make a living? The range of jobs may appear a mile wide but it's often an inch deep. If you know construction, you can work reliably for 7 months a year; if you're a skilled professional (accountant, lawyer, bureaucrat etc.) you can work, but only in a relatively few places.

3. How often do you / will you want to travel outside to see family, thaw out, etc.? "Cabin fever" is no laughing matter - just look at alcohol abuse and suicide statistics for Alaska (and indeed for all northern areas around the world.)

4. And a very important point, how well to you get along in a fishbowl? Aside from Anchorage, towns in Alaska are all very small by lower 48 standards. In places with a year-round population of 10,000 or fewer, the business of everybody is everybody's business. Even Fairbanks and Anchorage can feel like very small towns, once you subtract the portions of the population represented by kids and military folk, who are transient and often keep to themselves anyway. We used to laugh (funny ha ha and the other kind) that you never went to a movie or to the airport without seeing somebody you know. Some people thrive in that atmosphere, others find it claustrophobic. Add months and months of living indoors due to dark/cold, and the results can be quite severe.

Before anyone moves to Alaska I always recommend that they take a second trip, this time in late January or late March (midwinter and/or "breakup") and spend at least a week.

This is not meant to be discouraging - not at all. Tens of thousands of people have made the move and wouldn't think of going back. But the old slogan of measuring twice and cutting once really applies to Alaska.

 

Very well said. Y'all come. I am not meaning to be discourgaging either but people must realistically be prepared for many, many shocks. Seven former Washington State Patrol troopers were in my Alaska State Troopers recruit school class. One year later, one was still there. Are there more positives than negatives? Absolutely. The rose colored glasses do get a little foggy sometimes though.

[PennyAgain]

I have many good memories of my time in Alaska: some aren't so much fun to recall.

 

Trying to unload groceries from the car with bears on the prowl!

 

Having a family member have a stroke while alone in a house at the end of the road in the dead of winter. She couldn't talk so couldn't call anyone....if the phone was working. She put on a blanket as she couldn't manage a coat and hat and walked to a neighbor's house. The neighbor was home and did call for help.

 

Absolute terror and fear of loss!

 

Running out of money and not being able to make ends meet. Having to decide whether to buy toothpaste or toilet paper. (the toilet paper won out).

 

Making the decision to fly out and start over again in Texas. Decided finally on a cold October day as the Termination Dust was working its way down the mountains that we couldn't make it through another winter.

 

Going to the airport in Anchorage alone to fly out to take that new job thinking that I would be back home soon. Returning for funerals as the older members of the family died off. Missing the key events in the lives of so many people as I was 'outside'.

 

Still working 'outside' as the cost of living is so cheap by comparison. Delay, delay in plans to return to Alaska.

 

Make your decisions carefully. Alaska can be very sweet in summer, but is a bear in winter. Months of not being able to send the children outside to play in winter can make a monster out of about any parent.

 

And the bottom line, always. Do you have enough money to make it?