Something New

One thing that people outside of Wrangell may not know about this town is that it’s very transient. While we have a large share of lifers – the ones who were born, raised, and have never left here – we also have the four/five month seasonals, the ones we hang out with and consider our friends for the time being, the ones who leave soon after that. It’s kind of like those friends I made at sleep away camp, except now we’re older and don’t make any false notions of K.I.T. (keeping in touch). Of course, as in most situations that involve expiration friendships, there are the special few who I never want to lose touch with.

And then there are the Crossings folks. Besides the Forest Service, Crossings employ the other population of young people in town. They constitute another breed of transient. Because of the nature of their job – three guides go out into the wilderness with nine troubled youths for 46 days in a row – Crossings people will be away for a month and a half at a time. While a few of them stick around Wrangell for the full time they are not in the woods, many of them will only be here for a day or two before going somewhere else, only to return for a day or two before their next program starts. And programs are starting and ending at all different times. So, for me, someone who is here ALL the time, this creates a revolving door effect of ‘Welcome back’ and ‘Have a good trip. See you in 46 days.’

Common questions that get asked by someone who has just come in from the field (i.e. the 46 days of hanging out with troubled teenagers) are, “What’s new in Wrangell?” “What happened in the past month and a half” and the ever popular, “What’s new in your life?” These questions are usually pretty daunting for someone like me, who, again, stays in town ALL the time, as life is life and the everyday, no matter where you are, tends to become a routine. It’s a darn good routine, but a routine nonetheless.

But this time around in the revolving door of hellos and goodbyes, I actually have something new to share. I am starting to teach dance class next week. Someone actually just came into the Sentinel office to pick up a registration form. There will be two classes on Wednesday afternoon – one for grades K-1 and one for grades 6-8. It’s all very exciting and nervewracking as I have never taught a dance class and I myself have been out of practice for a good two years now. But I think I can do it. It’ll be hard, to try to convey modern dance to students who don’t know what it is and to be in charge of them. But for many reasons, it seems like a good thing to do right now.

And it’s something new.