One Pump Chump.

"How come?"

This is the same reaction I get from both young and old when I answer their question about coming back next year. It's official. I'm not. I'm 'one and done' and rotating back to small town Minnesota and the nice little life I've built with my beautiful family. My wife has sacrificed so much and really stepped up to not only take care of our children but absolutely run the entire household while supporting my leave of absence.

My children continue to impress me daily with their maturity and love for each other and our family. Each one of them so talented and focused on being a good person, that I just beam with pride each time I think of it. This entire whirlwind of teaching in the Northwest Arctic has been a giant undertaking for the entire family and now it's my time to return home to them.

"I've worked hard here in Kivalina and I love you all but I have a wife and children of my own that I've got to go back to."

"How come?"

Every time, it's "how come"?

Some, reach out for a hug. Some smile and pump their fist that the disciplinarian is leaving the island. Yet the same little fella that did that upon hearing the news today also chased me down while I was on my walk and brought me a shiny rock he just found on the beach. Some smile and say "thank you." Others avoid much contact and are ready to move on.

This is the cycle of teachers in Bush, Alaska.

I guess somewhere somebody told us that it's typically a 2 and a half year average for teachers from the Lower 48 to live and teach in the Bush. Most come with a 5 year plan and rarely make it to the third year. Of course there are those that break the averages. Wild Bill is a Village Hopper and has been in Gamble, Bethel, LKSD and now KIVLS for the better part of 20 years. Lyle's finishing his third; Emma, her fifth.

But me? I never had much intention but to release some of my own wiggles. Serve a year out of Minnesota and unless Alaska knocked the socks off of me, I had no intentions on staying. Kivalina is not a place for my family. And from here on out, my family will always come first. So, back home I go.

In the Marines, a jarhead with only one deployment is called a "One Pump-Chump". There's no shame in that at all. I shipped out twice while playing Tough Guy. And I've kind of held this experience against those deployments as my only frame of reference. There have been a lot of similarities. Some of the best of times and some of the worst of times. But all in all, I'm glad I had the pills to pull this off.

Tomorrow my third "deployment" is done.