Living in Alaska, it is easy to become lost in the frozen darkness of winters that span across most of the months that make up our calendars. It is easy to be isolated, shut into your home until break up thaws the ice and melts the snow, ushering in a shock of spring that runs into a rapid warm summer and almost always forgotten fall before swiftly diving into the next winter.

With this, it is easy to become trapped to ones family, broken off from the rest of society. This was especially true during the years of my childhood when the internet was still a blooming resource and social media was none existent.

I grew into a home that was as cold and void of happiness as the weather that persisted most of the year. The events over my childhood eventually lead me to foster care, where I bounced around until I landed into the home of my most important woman in my life.

My foster mother set her focus onto teenage girls. She had planned to stop fostering after the last girl she was raising; it had been a stroke of luck that she had seen me clearing trash from the streets and, approaching me, we began to get to know each other before my need for a new foster home.

She opened up her home to me, unplanned but not unwelcome. She was a far firmer guardian than that of my biological parents, my parents mental state barely allowed for guidance and discipline was never consistent or effective.

She ensured I began to practice habits many girls my age had developed years before I had. It was as if taking my middle school self as an elementary leveled individual and teaching me all the habits I needed to grow.

She supported my activities and my curiosity, and most of all she encouraged my writing.

My naturally shy disposition, used to a family that did not make many friends or go out, was challenged by her outgoing personality. She volunteered, went to plays, joined groups, hiked, traveled- she has always done everything she can. She pressed this upon me, which has helped me grow into who I am today.

Most of all, as an adult who has improved their life in a number of ways over the years all thanks to her, she stays unwavering in her constant support of me and my daughters.

She supports me, all of my foster sisters, and my daughters. Her selfless personality inspire me to become a better person to this very day, and I am sure help shape my daughters to continue to grow into the powerful young women they are becoming.

If I am ever asked who is to thank for where I am today, without hesitation I state my foster mother.

The winters may be cold, and long, and dark in Alaska. But she shines a light through the year that penetrate the dark and warms the cold.