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Old 06-24-2015, 07:28 PM
 
77 posts, read 131,451 times
Reputation: 187

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Metlakatla View Post
I live in Oregon. I can live anywhere, and Alaska just isn't it anymore.

If a dream is worth having, it's worth doing right.

Perhaps, but still, if it truly is a dream worth having, better to do it less than ideally rather than never doing it at all simply because every duck wasn't lined up perfectly in a row.


Time waits for no man..
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Old 06-24-2015, 08:43 PM
 
26,486 posts, read 36,326,066 times
Reputation: 29543
Hey, for all I care, the OP and the rest of them can throw their crap in some "big ass truck" and live the dream. I'd be thrilled if some of them in my current location would do the same. But the OP asked for advice, and my mates here gave it to her straight. Lots of people who want to move to AK are operating on false impressions (such as jobs growing on trees and on docks) and will have a better chance of making it if they come prepared for hardships.

Last edited by Metlakatla; 06-24-2015 at 09:14 PM..
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Old 06-24-2015, 09:19 PM
 
2,025 posts, read 4,140,962 times
Reputation: 2534
Quote:
Originally Posted by Meemur View Post
We don't do a good job of teaching geography in a lot of our schools, so many people have very little conception of how far it is to drive to Alaska and why it's so necessary to have a lot of savings, plus money for a return trip.

It's pretty far to move to Ely, MN or Houghton, MI but getting out of there doesn't require a trip through Canada.
It was 3700 miles, 2 vehicles, one a U-Haul that averaged 4 to 6 mpg at $3 US to $6 in Canada. Just fuel was thousands. Doing it again to leave if the dream doesn't work is going to be a disaster.

And that is why we who have done this try to temper the desire to move to AK. It's all good and fine to preach all the usual platitudes about following your dream and such but some folks clearly have unreasonable expectations. Alaska can lift your soul but can also crush it.
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Old 06-24-2015, 10:21 PM
 
2,668 posts, read 2,592,465 times
Reputation: 5238
Quote:
Originally Posted by SickOfAllThePC1983 View Post
You -can- do it, if only you decide -to- do it.
This is true. But it shouldn't be interpreted as a statement of bravado. Success comes from being prepared - understanding in detail what's required to be successful at your objective, making plans, testing your plans, and making adjustments as you learn. If it's important to the person and they put in the work they'll probably be successful. Showing up without preparation is just gambling, it isn't deciding to do it.

I don't live in Alaska and it doesn't matter to me if the OP moves there or not, but if they really want to move there I would recommend they prepare so they're successful rather than just roll the dice and hope for the best. Hope is not a strategy.

Last edited by jdhpa; 06-24-2015 at 10:48 PM..
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Old 06-24-2015, 10:24 PM
 
Location: Not far from Fairbanks, AK
20,243 posts, read 36,902,658 times
Reputation: 16373
Quote:
Originally Posted by SickOfAllThePC1983 View Post
"There is nothing that cannot be done."

Regardless of the economy, Alaskans and Hawaiian folks will always come out en masse on City-Data and try to scare you off following your heart and making the change you feel is right. Take heed of a dire job situation, but also realize that many, many folks make the relocation to AK every year and *figure out* a way to make it work.

If you are willing to accept defeat, then of course you shouldn't attempt the move. But if on the other hand, you're like my older brother's best friend who just this past April successfully moved to Seward, AK, and are full of grit and gumption, do NOT allow these naysayers to stop you.

"Get a job before you come." While it appears like productive advice on the surface, this is a classic case of bait and switch. It will be roughly 10 times as difficult to accomplish that feat compared to actually getting up there and hitting the turf. That vitriolic line everyone keeps spewing is designed to keep you OUT of their state, not help you move INTO it.

As I say, regardless of any economic conditions or what have you all folks from HI and AK do their darndest onnC-D to keep people out. Understand it's ultimately their own personal preference talking and not tbeir desire to "save you from heartache and dissappointment."

Nothing worth it in life is ever easy. You -can- do it, if only you decide -to- do it.

Good will overcome. Trust in those words, not in these people.
I would like to see you going to Hawaii and then landing a job, but I bet that unless you are being relocated by your company to Hawaii, or are a Hawaiian, you won't get a job there. My youngest son and his girlfriend could not land jobs in Hawaii for nearly a year, and had no choice but to return to Alaska because they were running out of money, but were smart enough to save the cash to buy an airplane ride back to AK.

In relation to Alaska, our economy is in a downturn that began a few months ago when the price of oil per barrel dropped. For you to tell others to come up here without a job shows a complete lack of common sense. Right now a great number of State employees' jobs are hanging by a thread, and since nearly half to the workers in some areas of Alaska work for or have contracts with the State, there are a lot of people who are scared of the future.

It would be wise for you to read all you can about the Alaska's boom and bust economy. The last bust happened in the mid 80's, and back then there was an exodus out of Alaska. While you become informed about the "boom and bust economy," see if you can figure what has been the reason for such.

Last edited by RayinAK; 06-24-2015 at 10:46 PM..
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Old 06-25-2015, 01:41 AM
 
77 posts, read 131,451 times
Reputation: 187
I'll have you know, I have personally moved to a multitude of cities in the past that were supposedly "jobless", only to somehow, by some wild chance of a miracle(sarcasm), land a job within a month or two at MOST. The vast majority on here who admonish a sudden move without all the trimmings in place lack the life experience that these here soles have treaded and therefore simply are out of their depth when it comes to speaking in regards to the process of winging it and turning nothing into something.

I speak from direct experience, and most who warn others away have a friend of a friend, or a brother, or someone who isn't them they refer to and tell their horror story from the third person. In fact, most all who ward people off of moving to their 'own private Idaho' are career folk who have remained in one place for years and while responsible, lack the savvy, ability and real world intangible understanding of just what it means to think on your feet and how entirely doable it actually is.

Of course their rationale and thought process find it foolhardy, but then, they're speaking toward something that has no practical application in their own personally structured, day 1, long-term prosperous existences.

Yes, I do have the gift of gab and a certain charm about me, and yes this does go far in landing a seemingly impossible job that pays decent, but more than charm, what the process ultimately requires is utter and absolute resolve and belief in oneself. It also requires you don't listen to the naysayers, of which we've already demonstrated that they have their own personal preference and self-interests for you to stay away at heart, rather than being the good helping samaritan they are attempting masquerade as in their warning to not move in their direction.


I'm from Jersey, and as such, it never fails to bemuse me at just how narrow-mindedly provincial most states are when it comes to shunning outsiders. It's almost an affliction. And it has far less to do with them trying to help you and far more to do with them keeping you away...and thusly keeping you from following your dreams.



The best piece of POSITIVE advice I can offer someone wanting to make a new start in a distant state they've never been to is this: 99% of the opportunity that awaits for you in said far-reaching locale will only reveal itself to you AFTER you have bucked up, faced your fear, and made the move. It's just the way it works. No, I'm sorry, but when doing something of this magnitude, you simply can't have your cake and eat it too. You have to pay the Piper first so to speak, and that means taking the plunge 100%. The plunge is the very catalyst which allows certain heretofore invisible doors of opportunity to be discovered and subsequently opened. Without the plunge, of course there's no chance, because guess what? You're not even there yet! It's all really common sense.

The concensus on C-D that one must have every idiosyncratic detail planned, some glorious job lined up, 20k in the bank, ...well I'm here to tell you they are just plain in error. You don't -need- those things. What you DO need, is to SHOW UP. After that, the outcome is what you make it. Now me? I believe far more in the power of my own mind than any of the naysayers discretionary tones on C-D. The only self-limiting variable is you. If you buy into alllll the folks on C-D who endlessly chant, "No! Don't! You'll be sorry!"...well, then no, I can assure you that you do -not- have what it takes to make it. Be it Alaska or the American Samoa.


City Data is, was, and always will be a snake pit of negative Nancies who by-and-large discourage, disenchant, dissuade, and dismiss any and all hopes and aspirations that aren't 100% done by the book and outlined much as you would your masters thesis. There's no life on this site. No life. It squarely corresponds with current day America, just a bunch of spiteful downers, who simply never tell anyone, "It can be done, and you -can- do it." Shame. Gets old seeing the same tired suburbia pettiness all around the board. Why then, do I continue to post then is the forthcoming response of course. I'll tell you.


To keep hope alive in the people's hearts who need it the most.


Hope you see, is always very important.


I'm done in here I think. I can only hope through the passage of time, there will be a few wayward, wandering souls out there who read these words and do indeed seize their day before their day passes them by.


Ya'll have a good evenin' now. -tips hat-



"May no fate willfully misunderstand me, and half-grant what I wish, only to snatch me away, never to return."

-Robert Frost
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Old 06-25-2015, 02:07 AM
 
26,486 posts, read 36,326,066 times
Reputation: 29543
I stopped reading when you started yelping about how no one here has any real life experience with this....I saw -- firsthand -- plenty of people get stuck in Alaska during my time there, usually because they saw some fishing show on TV and thought they could get hired off the docks. Hired myself for short term work, too, so they could earn enough money for a ticket home.

I'm pretty sure that several of posters in this thread have had similar experiences. I remember when every ferry had yet even more people who'd "hauled ass" to Alaska. There was nowhere for them to live and no jobs. They lived in unsanitary conditions in trailers or vehicles by the side of the road. I think it was shortly after this that the state pulled the program that used to buy them tickets back to where they came from because it got sick of paying -48er's travel costs.

If you have any real advice for people who want to just SHOW UP on where to live, we'd all love to hear it. Housing is difficult to come by in Alaska; in some places, rentals simply don't exist. Communities get tired of people who just SHOW UP and live out of their vehicles or try to camp.

There's no reason anymore for an employable person to fly blind when checking out Alaska. Get a seasonal job and take it from there; most seasonal employers provide housing. If you've got solid references and can pass a background check, getting hired long distance is not at all difficult.

There are many -48 truths that just don't work in Alaska.

Last edited by Metlakatla; 06-25-2015 at 02:26 AM..
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Old 06-25-2015, 02:48 AM
 
Location: Bernalillo, NM
1,182 posts, read 2,459,009 times
Reputation: 2325
Quote:
Originally Posted by SickOfAllThePC1983 View Post
...it never fails to bemuse me at just how narrow-mindedly provincial most states are when it comes to shunning outsiders. It's almost an affliction. And it has far less to do with them trying to help you and far more to do with them keeping you away...and thusly keeping you from following your dreams.
I don't disagree that drive and desire and grit can take a determined person a lot further than the average one. But what you don't seem to get is that the common advice on this forum isn't because all the C-D folks are bound and determined to keep others out of Alaska. There are real differences between Alaska and other places which many folks who haven't lived up there just don't understand, including:

- The isolation and winter darkness. Many folks just can't take this. They may have visited the state, but that's usually in the summertime. And living up there for an extended period is very different from a quick visit.

- The economic conditions. Alaska's state budget situation is the worst in the country and it's not going to get better in the near to mid future. Instead it will probably get even worse. I don't have the exact figures at my fingertips but I believe the state budget shortfall is around 50% of the total budget! The legislature played some games this year to defer the problem but that will only work for a couple of years at most. A lot of state jobs may be shed over the next couple of years or the tax burden may increase significantly. Plus oil industry jobs are also being shed at a high rate on a separate path from state budget concerns. These in turn will ripple through local government and other private sector jobs. The hammer is falling, due to low oil prices, and its impact will be tremendous. Lots of folks may leave the state, and businesses will fail and close. Marginal jobs will be filled by folks who lose their current jobs. Plus there's a 100+ year history of extreme boom and bust conditions, so the current situation is not an aberration.

- The cost of living. Costs in Alaska have always been high, but the cost of energy in the Interior and Bush have skyrocketed. Some folks just think they can live frugally and get by, which can work elsewhere, but much less so in Alaska where basic living costs can be extreme.

- The impact of not having a job. Other places you can be homeless, living in your car or on the street, and survive. In Alaska, trying to live like that in the winter can kill you fast, particularly in the Interior. The social services net is also thin and will probably get a lot worse due to the current budget crisis. If you end up without a job and don't have enough money for food or rent, you're screwed big time.

I grew up in Fairbanks and spent 40 years there. I know a lot about the area and still have lots of connections, and even with all this, I wouldn't want to try to go up there to live now without having a job in hand or at least a very solid Plan B.
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Old 06-25-2015, 06:20 AM
 
2,025 posts, read 4,140,962 times
Reputation: 2534
Quote:
Originally Posted by Metlakatla View Post

There are many -48 truths that just don't work in Alaska.
This is the ultimate truth about Alaska. It is only truly grasped by those who live in Alaska.
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Old 06-25-2015, 06:30 AM
 
Location: Hillsboro Beach
1,618 posts, read 1,624,035 times
Reputation: 1529
"New rhythm" in Alaska ? I advise you to rethink as many times as possible to give up the idea to move up to Alaska and stay in South Carolina. You have a teenage son, so don't make his life horrible at a very early stage of his life. I believe that South Carolina is more promissory in horizons of possibilities for a young student.
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