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Today is my fourth day at the new lodge I’m working/living at and it already feels like I’ve been here for months. Everyone is incredibly friendly and I definitely get along with the people here better than at the lodge that fired me, there is a culture of hard work/excellence that was lacking at the last lodge.

Image is extremely important here and one of the requirements is to be clean shaven before every shift, if you aren’t you’ll be sent back to your room to shave. I haven’t been clean-shaven in years and it’s strange looking at myself in the mirror without any facial hair, it does make moisturizing my face and washing it much easier. I didn’t have a razor when I got here so fortunately one of my roommates gave me an extra razor head they had, I’ve been holding the tiny plastic piece where the handle would attach and using body wash as shaving cream.

Yesterday was the first day I didn’t have a drink since arriving at Alta and today is day 2, considering my bank balance is at -$180 and this lodge doesn’t offer bar tabs I reckon I’ll be sober for at least the next 2 weeks. My mindset is very different then when I arrived at the previous lodge and I don’t see myself spending much time at the bar, especially since I just started my MBA courses.

The winter is already half way over and it’s crazy to think that we are almost in February, come April I’ll be headed to Alaska with my brother. I’ve mentally accepted I’m going to Alaska but it very much doesn’t feel real to me yet, I suppose it probably won’t until I’m actually there.  I’ve always wanted to go to Alaska and almost dropped out freshman year of college to go live there, now I’ll actually get to go and with much better conditions. Like many kids I was hooked on the idea of traveling to Alaska once I had read Into The Wild, even more so after seeing the movie. I’ll be running an ATV program for a guide company and since my brother isn’t working I had suggested that he apply as a well, he did and now he’s coming along for the journey. My brother will be an ATV guide and I’ll be his boss, the supervisor role will give me more flexibility to do my homework and the pay is better (my brother will get to spend a lot more time out on the trails riding though).

Day 2