I {heart} Hawaii

You know how you bump into somebody once then you awkwardly bump into them again and again for the rest of the week?  Well that's been happening to me but with a saying, "It's Hawaii."  When people say this it usually connotes a negativity towards the islands.  And while some is true for example, humidity, rust on metal, the time mentality that some people have here, I feel very strongly that other ideas are incorrect.  Please know that I was never offended by any remarks a person had made, and that's not what my intentions are here, I just love them and my home so much that I want to share with everyone a couple of reasons why Hawaii is as good as they come.  I have a smile on my face as I'm saying everything you're reading just FYI. :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

First of all I want you to stop and look around where you live.  Besides the Native Alaskan's and Native American's, Hawaiian's are the only other Native ethnicity that are citizen's of America.  We must remember that they were an independent country that was overthrown.  How happy would we be as American's if another country took us over and we became the minority?  This could get messy so I'm not going deep I just want you to look through someone else's point of view.  On the other hand I firmly believe that the majority of local people LOVE haole's.  Any race can be racist.  I really believe that a lot of people who have felt attacked racially was the one being racist.  Kurt has worked at Turtle Bay for two years, lived in Hawaii for another and some of his best friends that he made were local.  On another tangent can you tell me that other places in the US don't have problem's with racism?  Hawaii is wonderful in this department because as a melting pot, the majority have learned to accept our differences and laugh when someone makes a comment.  I am Hapa.  Half Filipino half Haole and I think it's hilarious when people make jokes about Filipino's eating dog.  The skinny is we need to step back from ourselves and learn to love one another.  Even if we are being attacked we need to love our attacker that much more.

Last topic: Remember when you looked around?  Did you notice which part of Hawaii your living in?  Like any part of this country and other countries there are places that have better facilities, better restaurants, better homes, better doctors, better salons, better movie theaters etc.  Take a drive around the island and look for that certain place you don't think exists.  Because I guarantee it does you just haven't looked hard enough yet.  I'm not talking about looking for a specific store like Bath and Body Works, because you'll never find it (that is true we don't have a lot of specific things like on the mainland) but if you're looking for an authentic Italian restaurant or a great doctor, look further than your town.  Dr. Sarah Schutte was my doctor that delivered Brody and I LOVE her!  When I had Drew I vowed that I would fly back to Cedar City Utah to have my CNM deliver any subsequent babies I had.  Now I'm saying that with Dr. Schutte and I even have a friend who actually did.  My point here is that yes, Hawaii might not have specifics like dill pickle chips, sniff sniff, but look beyond a three mile radius of your house to find what you're looking for.  If you really can't find what you're looking for, than I am sorry that you drove around this gorgeous island for nothing. ;)  

You know these were just a couple of things I wanted to share with everyone because I really don't want anybody leaving here thinking it's like a third world country. (No one's ever said that by the way)  I was born and raised here so I know I'm biased, but who's not when dealing with something they love?  For those who don't know, my family and I are moving to Korea in the near future and I'm depressed with the idea of leaving paradise.  I ask Kurt every single day, "Does Korea have (insert anything you can think of here, mostly toiletries)?" And still to much of my amazement they do have it, with one huge exception.  Kurt is scared that I'm going to hate Korea, that I'll point out everything that it's not instead of seeing everything that it is.  I can't blame him for his thoughts.  That's exactly what I did when living in Cedar City but now I look back and Cedar was a really fun place to live.  Sure southern Utah doesn't have a public beach access but it does have real free mountain camping with lots of wild life and beautiful sunsets.  I'm not going to do the cultural moving cycle with Korea.  Kurt learned this in his class, it's a real thing.  First is the honeymoon stage where your excited, next is the questionable stage where you think, did I do the right thing in moving here?  Then after is the negative stage where you find the many faults in the place that you're living, following is the realization stage when you realize this is where you're supposed to be and start to have fun, and last is the acceptance stage where you accept the place in your heart. (the names of the stages are not accurate)  To be honest this post started off to show people the good side of Hawaii to get you to the realization stage faster, but now I see that this post is more for me to say goodbye to my home in Hawaii and open my arms to a new country on our map.  I better love this place up before I move, and I invite everyone to do so as well, because in all honesty I don't know if we're ever moving back.