Have you ever asked yourself "why couldn't I do that?" or "Why can't something like that happen to me?"?

Last year I met a woman at the NA meetings I go to and when she told me where she worked I about flipped out. She works in Alaska, on the northern slope. Those of you who don't know the northern slope is the northern most part of Alaska...above the Arctic Circle!

She operates a camp in the middle of nowhere. Catering to everyone from Geologists to Oil Tycoons to Flippin' Movie Stars and everything in between! It's pretty much a hotel in the middle of nowhere and the only way in and out is by plane. She does everything from cooking meals, fixing things, taking people hunting, fishing, rafting and kayaking down the river, really anything anyone needs.

Well you can imagine what was going on in my head. In a wimpering voice and asked myself "why couldn't I do something like that?. Then my eyes opened and I remembered that she had told me she does all of this by herself. Again, this time in a more pronounced voice I asked myself "Yeah...why COULDN'T I do something like that!". Something in my gut had told me to ask her before she left for Alaska last year but I didn't do it. Story of my life, let another golden oppurtunity pass me by.

Well...almost anyways...

A few months later I had found her e-mail address and e-mailed her and this time I wasn't gonna let it pass me by. Sure enough, even though she's a strong self willed person who happens to enjoy her time alone up in the Alaskan wilderness, she told me she could use some help.

I've waited patiently for a year, held enough jobs to get by while I wait, Now it's less than a week until I leave! I'm surprised I was as patient as I was for as long as I was becuase now that it is so close I want it to happen tomorrow! Monday, March 16th, I'll be leaving for Alaska either out of Dallas or Oklahoma City to start my new job and hopefully my new career. The reason I say hopefully is becuase lets face it...I'm gonna be working in Alaska!

My bosslady has told me if I don't like it that I could leave at any time with no hard feelings or burnt bridges. I began to wonder about why she kept telling me this and it finally hit me like a ton of bricks. How could I be so stupid...I'm fixin' to leave for ALASKA!!! Not just Alaska but the middle of the Alaskan wilderness. Do you know what's in the Alaskan Wilderness? Grizzly Bears the size of houses! Grizzly's have a burst speed of 60 mph and can sustain burst speen for about a 1/4 to 1/2 a mile. After that they slow down to about 40 mph. Yeah...there's no running away from a bear! Hell I'd be surprised if I could escape on a four wheeler. I'm sure bear attacks aren't that frequent though right? WRONG! My bosslady has been doing this for over 40 years and has survived half a dozen bear attacks, and this last one broke her back and almost killed her. Like a said...she's a tough lady!

She has also told me if being at the bottom of the food chain doesn't put me off it the environment will. Among her other special guest at her camp she also caters to military, specifically Navy Seals. One in peticular was a battle hardened veteran with plenty of experiance in the worlds most inhospitable locations. He left after only 2 days.

So I'm sure you're wondering what on Earth I'll be doing at this camp. Well as fate would have it I'll be doing what I've been doing my entire life. Construction! Ya know, fixing things that need fixing, putting things together and taking them apart, just an all around handy man type. Well That's what I thought at first. Seems as if my bosslady decided to feel me in on her hidden agenda a week before we were set to leave for Alaska. Seems she getting older and she knows it. She knows she won't be around much longer and she wants to retire soon. She wasn't training a helper or a partner, she wants me to come up there so she can train her replacement! Uh...ok...no pressure...I just need to prove to be the perfect person to do what 999,999 out of 1,000,000 people wouldn't or couldn't do!

However that is just it. I have no doubt in my mind that I'm that one person who is perfect for the job. I've felt like this is what I'm suppose to do. She hasn't named off one thing about the job that I couldn't be able to do. Finally my construction experiance will pay off big but that doesn't even help me with half the job. Things like taking people hunting, fishing, hiking, kayaking down the river. Well, I grew up in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas! Those things come natural to me. I'm just an old hillbilly! I never once imagined that skipping school every year at the first of November to go hunting would pay off later on. I never once thought way back then that skipping school to go kayak the river on the last warm day would ever pay off! Who'da thunk my wild days in Arkansas would prove to be job experiance!

Funny how things turn out!

Hell two years ago I thought I'd be a construction laborer for the rest of my miserable life! All I can say is don't give up before you're one chance comes your way. I think we all have one chance. One chance will come our way to do something for the rest of our lives that will truly make us happy. Imagine having a job that you're excited to go to. A job that doesn't really seem like a job, that almost makes you feel guilty for getting paid to do!

"So how much you gettin' paid anyways" you might be asking yourself. Yeah I know...haven't really mentioned this. Every years only consists of a season and a season only consists of 6 months in the summer. I'll be making $100 a day, which comes out to $700 a week (WHAT!). So in the end, after taxes, that's about $15,000. The really groovy thing is it's not like I can walk down to the store and buy a coke and a candybar...so I'll be coming home with that entire chunk of change. On top of that if I wanted to I could stay and work in a gold mine that is opening up at this very moment. But that's just the first year. Next year I could be making anywhere from $150-$200 a day. If I run the camp I could be making as much as the bosslady and she makes more in 6 months time than most see in 2 years of the same old 9-5 grind! And I'm talking on an upper middle class wage!

That's not at all why I'm excited. Not by a long shot. I didn't even know a job like this was real. Hell I took the job before I even heard what I'd be making.

I just hope I can hang (good chance I can, I'm just crazy enough to like this shit), hope I prove to be a good worker (I'm a workaholic and a perfectionists so I have the upper hand on that), and I hope I don't get eaten by bears. One thing I can say is if I do get eaten by bears then just know I died doing what I loved to do and if you ever wanna come see me then take a trip to Alaska, go into the woods, and look for some bear shit on the ground! :D

Take it easy and if ya get it easy...take it twice!