On a sunny Sunday afternoon in mid May, I stood alone facing the doors of the Minneapolis Airport with nothing but a plane ticket, a backpack, and a destination – Anchorage, Alaska.

I had no promise of a job in Alaska, almost no money in my bank account, and even less certainty that either would become more promising upon reaching Anchorage.  The one thing I was certain of was that I was headed to Alaska in search of a commercial fishing job.

So let me back up a bit and set up this story for you.   I graduated from college in May in Michigan, and for the past few months I had been perusing the internet for a job after college – any job – and kept coming up empty.  The market was bleak for a young professional looking for work with limited experience in the real world.

Unemployment was high, especially in Michigan, and the loans I had accumulated from college were looming.  The lure of a job in Alaska connected with not only my desire for a great adventure to go on to celebrate graduating but also the hope that it would pay off for me financially as well.  So at the urging of my friend who lived in Anchorage, I took a chance and bought a ticket, and it led to one of the most amazing summers of my life.

I remember sitting with my parents at a restaurant in the small town where they live the night before I left, and they were asking question after question about the fishing industry, life on a boat, what I would do if I didn’t get a job, and I kept answering with a shrug and the reply “I don’t know.”  I had researched commercial fishing online prior to deciding to give it a shot, but the distance between reading about something and actually knowing about it can be very wide.  I answered in generalities, hoping that my answers were indeed true…. “No, I doubt I’ll fall overboard… No, I don’t know if I get sea sick or not… Maybe I’ll make good money, but fishing could be bad and the trip could cost more than I actually make…”

As I look back I see why they were so worried about their suddenly insane son who was throwing away his education to go on a seemingly foolish trip filled with unknowns and little promise.   But they supported my decision and were excited for me, realizing it was something that I had to do.

That Sunday afternoon I walked through the doors of the airport filled with an excited confidence yet there was still a part of me that was  nervous.  I’ve always been adventurous, but this was something else.  This was an adventure with an open book, and there was no way of knowing what that story would become.  I think that’s part of the allure of Alaska – you don’t know what it will hold for you, and everyone’s Alaskan adventure is a little different… but no matter what your adventure looks like, it’ll leave you wanting to come back to this great state.

** Mark Muha is our newest contributor to The Real Alaska. Look for his posts in the future and learn what it is like for a greenhorn to take the helm and fishing industry by storm!