To my students,

I want you to understand something early, because it is going to matter long after you leave this school:

It is not cool not to try.

Acting like you do not care may protect you from feeling embarrassed for a moment. It may make it easier to laugh off a bad grade, a missed assignment, a hard practice, or something you did not understand right away.

But eventually, not trying becomes a habit.

And the habits you build now will follow you into everything else.

One thing I believe strongly is this:

How you do anything is how you do everything.

That does not mean you have to be perfect. It does not mean one bad day defines you. Everybody has days where they are tired, frustrated, distracted, or struggling.

It means your patterns matter.

If you regularly choose not to study, it becomes easier to quit when something gets hard. If you regularly give up when you are confused, that habit can follow you into college, work, relationships, parenting, sports, and every goal you say you care about.

The opposite is true too.

When you practice showing up, finishing your work, asking questions, accepting feedback, and trying again after you mess up, you are building skills that carry into the rest of your life.

Hard work is a skill.

Discipline is a skill.

Confidence is a skill.

They are not things only certain people are born with. They are built through repetition.

Think about basketball.

Nobody becomes a great player by only shooting when everyone is watching. You become better by putting up shots when you are tired. By working on your left hand even when it is uncomfortable. By running hard in drills nobody posts online. By learning to box out, communicate, close out, make the extra pass, and stay locked in even when you are not the one scoring.

The player who does not try in practice will not suddenly become disciplined in the fourth quarter of a close game.

The player who skips the little things will eventually get exposed by the little things.

School works the same way.

You cannot ignore your reading, stop doing your assignments, avoid asking for help, and then expect to be prepared when the test, the job interview, the college class, or the opportunity finally comes.

The work you avoid now does not disappear. It waits for you later, usually when the stakes are higher.

And I want to say something directly to students who already know they want to fish.

Fishing is real work. It is skilled work. It can be a good life, a strong career, and an important way to support your family and community. There is nothing wrong with wanting to fish. I fish. I respect the people who make their living on the water.

But wanting to fish is not a reason to stop taking school seriously.

Fishing still requires discipline. It requires being on time when you are tired. It requires listening when someone is teaching you something. It requires staying focused when the weather is bad, the set is hard, the boat is rolling, or you have been awake too long. It requires knowing how to take care of gear, communicate with a crew, solve problems, handle money, understand regulations, read weather, and make smart decisions when things are not going your way.

The same student who refuses to do the small things at school will struggle with the small things on a boat too.

Nobody wants the deckhand who will not pay attention, will not finish a job, will not take correction, or thinks trying hard is uncool. Nobody wants the teammate who disappears when the work gets hard.

And even if fishing is what you want to do forever, education still gives you more control over your future.

Fishing seasons can be strong or weak. Prices can change. Weather can shut things down. Boats can break. Fish can not show up. Injuries happen. Life happens.

You need something to fall back on, but more than that, you need something to build on.

An education can help you become a better fisherman, skipper, owner, mechanic, fisheries technician, processor manager, marine electrician, teacher, biologist, entrepreneur, or leader in your community.

It helps you read contracts before you sign them. It helps you understand settlements, taxes, permits, regulations, loans, insurance, boat systems, fishery data, and business decisions. It helps you speak for yourself when somebody else is making decisions that affect your life.

Education is not about making you leave home or making you think fishing is beneath you.

Education is about making sure nobody can limit your choices.

You do not all have to go to a four-year college. Success can look like trade school, fishing, welding, aviation, health care, the military, construction, maritime work, business, teaching, raising a family, or coming back home to build something important for your community.

But whatever path you choose, you need options.

Education gives you options.

For students from rural Alaska and Alaska Native communities, preparation matters even more.

Not because we are less capable.

Because we often have to travel farther, adjust faster, and prove ourselves in places that do not always understand where we come from.

Some students from our region leave home for college, training, or a new job and find out how hard that transition can be. It is not always the classes that get them. Sometimes it is homesickness. Sometimes it is being far from family. Sometimes it is not knowing how to ask for help. Sometimes it is culture shock. Sometimes it is realizing that other students had more chances to travel, compete, speak up, use technology, or be away from home before they ever got there.

That is why traveling, playing sports, joining activities, going to tournaments, meeting new people, and putting yourself in unfamiliar situations matters.

Sports are not only about winning games.

They teach you how to travel, how to represent your community, how to be on time, how to be part of a team, how to handle pressure, how to lose without quitting, and how to walk into a place where you do not know everyone and still belong there.

Every trip helps prepare you for a bigger world.

Every tournament, activity, practice, presentation, and challenge gives you another rep at becoming comfortable outside your comfort zone.

You do not have to leave home forever to become successful.

But you should be prepared enough that you can go anywhere, compete with anyone, and know you belong in the room.

I have done it. I know what it feels like to come from a small rural community and try to figure out college, work, travel, responsibility, and who you are going to become. I know it can feel like students from bigger places got a head start.

But where you come from is not a weakness.

Your background gives you strength, perspective, resilience, and a connection to community that many people spend their whole lives looking for.

What matters is whether you are willing to build on it.

I believe in every student in this school.

I do not care whether you are the best athlete, the quietest student in class, the student who has struggled before, the student who thinks school is not for them, or the student who has not figured out their future yet.

I believe you can grow.

But I cannot want it more than you do.

I will help you. I will explain things again. I will push you. I will be honest with you. I will hold you accountable because I believe you are capable of more than the bare minimum.

All I ask is that you try.

Show up.

Do the small things.

Ask for help.

Finish what you start.

Take pride in your work even when nobody is clapping for you.

Because the person you are becoming is built in those moments.

Not just in the big games. Not just on the boat when the fishing is good. Not just in graduation photos. Not just when life gets exciting.

It is built in the everyday decisions.

How you do anything is how you do everything.

Make your habits something you can be proud of.

— Colten Mack