meet me in the woods

(i flew home from alaska on the 22nd and then flew to boston on the 26th. this post is still about my time in alaska. also, the title is my favorite lord huron song)

there is a saying among alaskan natives that anchorage is like fairbanks, except with more people and all of them are meaner. the statement about population size is certainly true; i can’t confirm the claim about how mean the people in anchorage are, but i believe that part as well. back in may when we were deciding what house in alaska to rent, my housemates and i were considering places in the anchorage and fairbanks areas, and ultimately we picked fairbanks because it felt much greener and less urban

i think those elements are very important. when a city is littered with ponds and driving a few minutes in any direction leads you to forests, it is difficult to not feel calmer, kinder, more in touch with nature. urban centers are great for culture and convenience, but at this point it’s almost universally agreed upon by urban planners that large cities and suburbs tend to make people more stressed and anxious and depressed, and i think that plays a major role in why people in fairbanks are so much nicer than the people in pretty much every other location i’ve lived in. museum staff were happy to stay past closing hours to talk about art exhibits, random locals would point out different kinds of wildlife they saw earlier in the day, and taxi drivers were always willing to have substantive conversations about their pasts. i was especially surprised because alaska is fairly strongly white + republican and i am obviously chinese so i expected some tension there, but for the most part people genuinely seemed to not care. one of my friends who biked the silk road had told me similar stories about natives in kazakhstan and uzbekistan being really nice which i assumed was due to some central asian cultural elements, but i literally didn’t think it was possible for strangers in the us to be so consistently open and welcoming

to be clear, this is the first time i’ve interacted with a lot of locals in a rural area – the only other time i lived in a rural location (actually lived in, not just a vacation) was in truchas last fall. but truchas was so remote that there were basically no locals to talk to, whereas goldstream on the outskirts of fairbanks had enough civilization to support things like stores, restaurants, and taxis where you’d interact with other people regularly

of course there are other factors for why the people were nice. remnants of native american culture, strengthened by the large native american population in the area, probably have something to do with it, as does alaska’s version of universal basic income, which isn’t always enough to survive on but probably does help take the edge out of people. or maybe it’s just the fact that the population is relatively old, whereas i’ve been surrounded all my life by selfish immature young people (and i’m not excluding myself from that characterization). though i do still believe fairbanks’ location in the alaskan interior is the most important reason here

i think fairbanks people have a much better understanding of the temporary and cyclic nature of life than most urban and suburban americans, which in turn supports a better relationship with mental health. temporary because, when your city is so small and remote, normal services and supplies can be scarce and the perceived impact of natural forces is greater, so that life inherently feels more fragile and real and isn’t taken for granted. cyclic because, when you alternate between warm summers of constant light and -40 degree winters of constant darkness, it is impossible to not be aware of the repetition in time and the fact that every season, no matter how harsh or pleasant, is bound to end and recur. these are very simple observations, but truly recognizing them brings you a lot closer to a more realistic understanding of your own life, which i believe makes people healthier and gentler than they otherwise would be

when i lived in large cities like sf and nyc this year, every uber or lyft ride was extremely saddening. the main reason was that every time i entered a driver’s car, the class disparity was blatantly obvious. and it’s not because my parents are wealthy or i own expensive trendy products or anything like that; none of those things are true, but regardless the underlying inequality is still clearly visible if you pay any attention to it. even when i tried to have innocent conversations with the driver there was always the thought in the back of my head that i’m sorry your life is like this, i’m sorry that you have to rely on uber and lyft for income and that these companies are keeping you poor, i’m sorry that i’m the passenger and you’re the driver, i’m sorry that you’ve probably worked much harder and endured much more than i have but still have a less comfortable existence. so it was legitimately shocking when i rode in lyfts and taxis in the fairbanks area and the drivers were often people with stable well-paying jobs who just wanted to drive in their free time to make some extra money and have fun conversations. that was an unfamiliar dynamic for me, but one that i wish were more common

when’s the next time i’ll be able to live in a forest and feel in tune with nature and be surrounded by housemates i love and strangers i like? the wave of group houses i’ve been riding for the past year, buoyed by remote work and virtual class and covid-induced deflated housing prices, is coming to an end. it will never again be this easy to get a group of half-strangers to spontaneously commit to moving to alaska for a month, not for the foreseeable future at least. i think i want to return sometime though; at minimum i want to experience one of those dreadful arctic winters and see auroras in the sky at least once. it’s often said that you learn a lot from traveling and most people interpret that to mean they should go on vacations, but i think most of the knowledge gain comes when you stay somewhere for longer than the initial vacation/sightseeing phase; i feel like fairbanks had a lot to teach about living a more deliberate and focused life, and i was just beginning to catch on when i had to leave