The author rows with hard-earned confidence. (Jeff Lund / For the Juneau Empire)

The author rows with hard-earned confidence. (Jeff Lund / For the Juneau Empire)

I Went to the Woods: Confidence through experience

One of my favorite parts of living in Southeast Alaska is the accessibility to reality…

  • By Jeff Lund
  • Wednesday, December 8, 2021 12:25pm
  • News

By Jeff Lund

For the Juneau Empire

About a month ago, a student of mine was happy to report she had taken her first buck of the season over the weekend. She bubbled with excitement.

She is far from the first student who has shared the success, nor the only female.

I took my first black bear in 2014. Upon hearing this, the editor in chief of the school newspaper quipped, “What took you so long, Lund? I shot mine when I was 10.” Hunting didn’t really stick, but she had experienced it and could still talk the talk.

Contrast that with a reflective essay one of my sophomore English students wrote a few years into my teaching career in California. She said what she loved most in her life was to hunt elk with her dad. But what mattered most was that her friends didn’t know. She was a cheerleader type, and for a cheerleader type to hunt, well, it didn’t fit the type.

I told her that if her friends were really her friends, they wouldn’t care. With an enrollment of 1,500 students it is more difficult to keep tabs on all the students you have after they leave your classroom, but I did ask her when I saw her as a senior what came of that whole elk hunting situation. She said she waited another year then told her friends. They thought it was cool.

It’s impossible to imagine what it’s like to be a kid these days. I worried distractions and algorithms would turn vulnerable students from promising, aspiring, creative kids into apathetic, validation-seeking, angry, uncompetitive adults. Then COVID-19 hit, and I worry more than ever. Everything can hinge on just one generation. For the better or the worse. What are kids going to want to share? What is going to get them excited? What is going to make them want to go brave the wild by themselves? Not in an ideological, naïve to reality Chris McCandless sort of way, but with confidence through experience.

Here, there’s plenty.

One of my favorite parts of living in Southeast Alaska, and Alaska in general, is the accessibility to reality and the willingness of so many to access it.

I love living in a town and teaching at a school in which anyone and everyone has a weekend story of everything from their first buck to an ocean plunge with a dozen friends at a local beach. What doesn’t matter in those moments are measures of comparison we are obsessed with. What matters is something was done with friends, family or even strangers.

It’s what the Meta folks are trying to, but never will, manipulate or replicate into extinction.

But I hope we don’t squander what we have. I hope that the medicinal qualities that come from an active outdoor lifestyle aren’t wasted. I hope that the togetherness ethos that Alaskans mostly share most of the time isn’t replaced by the stupid ways we subdivide ourselves based on technicalities, expectations or types.

It’s going to be another cold, dark winter. We know this. We’ve always known this. Some are easier than others and sometimes it feels like the weight of the last five teams up with the current one. But there will be opportunities to do things that are worth sharing. Communities in Southeast have a disproportionate amount of opportunities to gather and celebrate hunts, music, art, culture, heritage. To be excited and proud to share how we came through in 2021 and new things we’ll take up in 2022.

And to remember the importance of keeping the next generation involved.

• Jeff Lund is a freelance writer based in Ketchikan. His book, “A Miserable Paradise: Life in Southeast Alaska,” is available in local bookstores and at Alpha XR. “I Went to the Woods” appears twice per month in the Sports & Outdoors section of the Juneau Empire.

More in News

(Juneau Empire file photo)
Aurora forecast through the week of Feb. 1

These forecasts are courtesy of the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute… Continue reading

Two flags with pro-life themes, including the lower one added this week to one that’s been up for more than a year, fly along with the U.S. and Alaska state flags at the Governor’s House on Tuesday. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Doublespeak: Dunleavy adds second flag proclaiming pro-life allegiance at Governor’s House

First flag that’s been up for more than a year joined by second, more declarative banner.

Students play trumpets at the first annual Jazz Fest in 2024. (Photo courtesy of Sandy Fortier)
Join the second annual Juneau Jazz Fest to beat the winter blues

Four-day music festival brings education of students and Southeast community together.

Frank Richards, president of the Alaska Gasline Development Corp., speaks at a Jan. 6, 2025, news conference held in Anchorage by Gov. Mike Dunleavy. Dunleavy and Randy Ruaro, executive director of the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, are standing behind RIchards. (Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
For fourth consecutive year, gas pipeline boss is Alaska’s top-paid public executive

Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, had the highest compensation among state legislators after all got pay hike.

Juneau Assembly Member Maureen Hall (left) and Mayor Beth Weldon (center) talk to residents during a break in an Assembly meeting Monday, Feb. 3, 2025, about the establishment of a Local Improvement District that would require homeowners in the area to pay nearly $6,300 each for barriers to protect against glacial outburst floods. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Flood district plan charging property owners nearly $6,300 each gets unanimous OK from Assembly

117 objections filed for 466 properties in Mendenhall Valley deemed vulnerable to glacial floods.

(Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
Police calls for Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025

This report contains public information from law enforcement and public safety agencies.

(Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
Police calls for Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025

This report contains public information from law enforcement and public safety agencies.

(Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
Police calls for Friday, Jan. 31, 2025

This report contains public information from law enforcement and public safety agencies.

University of Alaska President Pat Pitney gives the State of the University address in Juneau on Jan. 30, 2025. She highlighted the wide variety of educational and vocational programs as creating opportunities for students, and for industries to invest in workforce development and the future of Alaska’s economy. (Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
University of Alaska president highlights impact on workforce, research and economy in address

Pat Pitney also warns “headwinds” are coming with federal executive orders and potential budget cuts.

Most Read