Sometimes you have to disconnect in order to reconnect. . .

Sometimes you have to disconnect in order to reconnect.

I read this in an advertisement recently in the Alaska Air Magazine on my way home from Anchorage from the District Test Coordinator Training. I found myself reflecting on our experience here upon reading it.

We finally broke down and purchased Internet for our house this week. After 7 months without it, we are now connected to the World Wide Web again. Living in a small rural area Internet can be spendy. We didn’t see the point of spending money on it when we are only blocks from the school where we can use the Internet for free any time we want. What used to be a necessity in Portland is now a luxury. And after paying off the remainder of my student loans last month, we decided we can now afford this luxury!

I complained a lot about not having Internet or cable . . . which may be why Jason finally gave in (ha ha). But in all honesty, I did appreciate the time we spent here disconnected from the rest of the world. We were forced to get creative. Watch old movies. Hang out with people and have actual – real – conversations. Or get up off our bottoms and walk to the school. We looked out the window, a lot, at our beautiful mountains and water. Things you don’t need to do when you have the Internet at your fingertips to entertain you. I hope that this new luxury doesn’t keep us from these things.

And who knows, our house just may be the new “Hot Spot.” With Internet and an espresso machine, we are sure to have many guests!

The World Wide Web is not the only thing we have been disconnected from. Moving to Alaska, we had to make the decision to leave all of our family and friends. This was not an easy choice to make. When we bought our house in Milwaukie we thought we were settled. We thought that we would be comfortable there and start thinking about having a family. Then we went to grad school.

Leaving Oregon was difficult, but probably one of the most important moments in our lives. Making the move to Alaska and leaving everything that made us comfortable helped us reconnect and become closer with many family members and friends. Not only that, but it made us appreciate what’s really important in life – relationships with those you love.

Disconnecting from our friends and family and from the rest of society, as most people know it, made our lives richer than we could have ever imagined. It reconnected us to what’s important in life. I would encourage others to keep an open mind when faced with opportunity. This journey for us began with a co-worker of mine at Concord recommending me to look at jobs in China! And when I went home and told Jason (still as a joke), I said “We couldn’t do that! . . . Could we?”