I'm sitting on the front porch of the lodge house, remnants of this morning's pancake toss still floating lazily on the surface of the water, it's peaceful and calm and almost everyone is asleep because we wake up at such an ungodly hour every day. But naps hate me, so I'm awake and staring at the ocean, which is something I find myself doing quite often. Spokane has its views but nothing can beat the ocean. It catches me off guard every time. Seriously, the ocean. If you're curious how I feel about the ocean just find the cheesiest, sappiest love story and just replace the names with Molly and ocean and you've just about got it. I sit at breakfast in the morning and stare out the bay window and see whales jumping in the distance and clouds resting in the mountains in the (further) distance. (man this post started out really literate but it's deteriorated rather quickly hasn't it?)
Anyways, back to the subject at hand. I'm sitting on the front porch, pancakes on water, you remember all this... the ocean is pretty. Pretty ocean = inspiration for blog post. So, after a heart stopping moment of nearly dropping my phone into the water (I heard that sigh mom) I started writing. And then it took me another week to finish writing because I work seven days a week and there isn't a ton of quiet time other than when everyone is asleep like they are right now. ANYWAYS. What I am thinking about as I sit by the ocean is all the people that I've met in my short time here. From the crew to the guests, it's been a constant surprise. So (to connect back to the title) the first thing I've learned in Alaska is this: never judge a book by it's cover. It's the first thing they teach you in school, it's also one of the biggest cliches out there, but cliches are highly underrated. When you step off a boat at a fishing lodge in Alaska and everyone you meet is wearing at least one article of Carhartt clothing you form a pretty specific idea about them, especially when you come into the situation expecting to have a specific opinion of all these people. But (almost) every single one of these people has surprised me. Coming from city life (Laclede, ID is considered city life up here) I was very wary of spending my summer with fishermen and crew members I assumed I would have nothing in common with, but as it turns out you really only need one thing in common as a base and friendship will grow from there. And, for me, that base is Sea Otter Sound Lodge. It's crazy how much you learn about people when you spend twenty four hours a day with them seven days a week. Now I've always considered myself a pretty accepting person, but after getting to know all these people I'm realizing that I do judge people. Everyone does. We group ourselves into categories to try and make sense of the world around us and we stick to our category. Well I can definitely say I've stepped outside my category, and I would encourage every person to step outside of their category as well, because not only will you learn a lot about another category, but also about yourself. And the more people I meet the more I realize that maybe these categories aren't all their made out to be. So far I have met several BP executives, the man who inspired the Deadliest Catch, a South African molecular biologist, a man attempting to cure Leukemia, and more Northern Californians than I can count. These are people who study and wear suits for a living, but they come up to Off The Grid, Alaska and spend five days in a boat wearing suits of plastic and fish guts. So don't judge a book by its cover, because categories are meaningless.
Well there. I seem to have gotten my point across. To sum it up, I'm learning so much about fishing, working hard, and about the world.
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