Ten village kids hanging out in the Anchorage airport, on their way to a week’s visit to Washington DC and New York City. They stand in front of the great windows in the terminal as the Chugach mountains stand beyond the glass as a backdrop. These kids, who spend their lives hanging idly around the village are here in the larger world, but acting much as they do in the village. Someone is listening to an iPod on some portable speakers. A circle of six of them are playing hackey sack and laughing a little too loudly while three more sit in on the backs of  a bank of chairs, and another wanders aimlessly nearby. They are the same here as in they are in the village, but also different. They are smiling more. More lighthearted. Happier. The difficulties of life in the village have been left behind. Here they can be nothing but the kids they are, acting like the adults they want to be.