Tag: writing

Five years of My Alaskan Odyssey

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This fall, My Alaskan Odyssey turned five years old. In the last half-decade, I’ve moved to and from Alaska (twice), finished a master’s degree, gotten married, celebrated some victories and mourned a few losses. This blog started as a way to keep friends and family up-to-date when I moved to Alaska for grad school in 2012. I posted sporadically for a few years, and then, when I got serious about writing, I started posting something every week. Since its inception, My Alaskan Odyssey has been a place to post silly lists and longer musings and, occasionally, share good (and bad) news. I still can’t believe anyone other than my mom reads it. Continue reading “Five years of My Alaskan Odyssey” →

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Things I would rather do than write a blog post this week

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I started My Alaskan Odyssey in 2012, when I moved to Anchorage to start graduate school. Since then, I’ve posted sporadically, sometimes going weeks or months at time without posting squat, and occasionally, when things got lonely on the Last Frontier, writing three or four very manic posts in a week. Continue reading “Things I would rather do than write a blog post this week” →

The subtle art of being rejected

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You never forget your first rejection. Mine came at the tender age of nine, at the hands of a haughty fourth-grader named Tommy, whose name I have changed here so he can’t come out of the woodwork and sue me for libel. I used the old have-a-more-popular-friend-pass-a-note one Friday afternoon, prompting Tommy to announce, in front of the entire cafeteria (on pizza day, which should have been a joyous occasion), that he would not, under any circumstances, accompany me to the Square Dance we would be performing for our families later that month. Continue reading “The subtle art of being rejected” →

When you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there. (Turns out this is still true.)

Emma4 Comments

When I was 21 and thinking about moving to Alaska, I paid my bills by waiting tables at a local sports bar. I had a very wise manager with whom I occasionally butted heads, due in no small part, I’m sure, to my stubbornness. I spent months waffling endlessly on whether I should apply for this teaching job or pack everything up and make for Anchorage, and one night, as I begged him to please cut me from the floor so I could go home and study, he dropped this major bombshell on me:

“When you don’t know where you’re going,” he told me, “Any road will take you there.” Continue reading “When you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there. (Turns out this is still true.)” →