This will very likely be my last post from Alaska. Since I don’t have Internet at home and today is my last day at work you will probably not hear from me until I am safely back in North Carolina. I’m set to get back early Sunday evening, but since I’m traveling the weekend after Thanksgiving who knows what that will turn into.

Today at work I’m transferring files, emailing contacts and cleaning out my office. I have accumulated so much crap…it’s really quite incredible. They’re doing some kind of going away pot-luck around lunch and then my boss and I are sneaking out for a celebratory, Yay for no longer working for the company! beer. I’ll then hand in my keys and my ID badge and leave this building, possibly for good.

I must say, I’m proud of the work I’ve done this past year. I’ve accomplished all the project goals I laid out and I’ve developed a sustainable outreach plan for the new library that will allow them to fully meet the needs of the community they’re getting ready to move into. I’ve worked hard to give the library something they can truly benefit from after I’m gone.

This experience has changed me. I am not the person I was when I moved up here a year ago. I am more confident, more mature and more self sufficient. I am still goofy, loud and fun loving, but being here has centered me in a way college never did. It has adjusted my priorities, given me direction and given me the chance to prove to myself that I can do absolutely anything that I set my mind to and do it well. It is with sure feet that I step from this to the next experience in my life.

Of course this journey would not have been the same without this blog and I appreciate everyone who has read and commented since I began. I have thought a lot about whether I would continue bloging after leaving Alaska and, for now at least, I plan to keep writing. I will be applying to schools, re-adjusting to life in the lower-48 and re-establishing my place in a world that I haven’t been a part of for a year. To say I’ll need an outlet would be an understatement.

For now I leave you with Happy Thanksgiving wishes and hopes that if you are traveling you travel safe. Have a wonderful holiday and I’ll be back in about four thousand miles.