You know about me. I love Hawaii. Everything about Hawaii.
Sometimes people ask me what is my hobby, I almost want to say it’s “Hawaii.”
What makes Hawaii special?
You know, beautiful beaches, palm trees, sunsets, pretty topical flowers everywhere…
It is a PARADIES.
No one hates it.
I want to write about what experience made me fall in love with Hawaii and it became a very important place on earth for me.
I was born in Germany and moved to Japan when I was 7. My interests in overseas were already built up a long time ago.
My dream was living in overseas again and master English. Whenever I had opportunities, I applied to a summer school when I was in high school.
I went to England for my first summer school and the USA for my second summer school.
Going to study abroad in college became one of my goals eventually.
There was a lot of English learning study abroad programs like going to language schools or ESL in my college, but my mother kept telling me she doesn’t have money (lol) for me to learn English in English spoken countries, because I can learn it in Japan.
Well, it made sense.
(I have a mother who passionate about education very much and I will write about her soon.)
So my challenge right after I started college was getting a high score on TOEFL.
I studied a lot but I enjoyed it because that’s what I wanted to get.
It didn’t matter to me where I go, to be honest, as long as the place was English spoken country, one year program, and I could study in English.
And there was only one choice left for me after all.
It was HAWAII!!!!
I wasn’t interested in Hawaii at all before.
To be honest, I didn’t really like it.
My image of Hawaii was all Japanese people go and I thought palm trees looked stupid (I am sorry I love palm trees now.)
When I arrived at Honolulu International Airport (it was 2011), I remembered I felt calm and relaxed even though it was my first time.
It seemed like I knew that place for so long.
You know the first impression is always important.
That was the time I found there was a beautiful island in the middle of the Pacific.
Same size as Osaka prefecture in Japan, but the culture, people, and nature over there attract people from all over the world, including me.
I enjoyed the warm atmosphere and big sky.
Every morning, from the big window at my place, I woke up with a sunrise. After school, when I saw the sunset, I found myself genuinely appreciating the nature and the day I had.
I felt I was surrounded by big things beyond human power and that made me very comfortable.
Let me quote phrases from my favorite book in Japanese by Banana Yoshimoto.
“The destiny was calling me to Hawaii.” – P. 107
“Don’t say like ‘I don’t have any friends there.’ or ‘Someday, I will go there for my honeymoon.’ or ‘I want a trip there as once in a lifetime one.’ If you want to go there, let’s buy tickets and be on that island the next morning. You will know it is pretty easier than you think. Even you don’t like it or it is raining over there when you arrive, your story with Hawaii starts right there.” – P.110
– from Yumemiru Hawaii
I didn’t expect I fell in love with Hawaii this much.
It was exactly like “the destiny was calling me to Hawaii.”
And my story with Hawaii has started like this somehow.
Let’s start your own story with Hawaii.
This was the story of how I found my favorite place on earth.
xxx