Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska What does it mean to you to be an Alaskan?

I don't know that I consider myself a "true Alaskan" since I wasn't born or raised here. As far back as my earliest memories I always wanted to live in Alaska. I can still remember my kindergarten teacher asking my class "What do you want to be when you grow up"? While there was the typical answers like fireman, police officer, etc., my answer was "a mountain man and trap for a living in Alaska". Well I'm not a mountain man and I've never made a living off of trapping, but I did make it up to Alaska for the first time when I was 21, worked on a commercial fishing boat in the Bering Sea for a stint, then eventually made it back up when I was 23 and never left. So, while I still don't know if I can call myself an Alaskan, I have always wanted to be an Alaskan, and now at 49 years of age, I've lived in Alaska much longer than any other place I've lived. I don't know if that answers your question, but that's the only answer I have.