My Experience

For me personally having grown up in Hawaii and then making the transition to come to the mainland was most definitely a culture shock at first. However, living in the mainland for a year has allowed me to fully immerse myself in the culture and understand and learn the differences of both and just the overall way of life and how it is different. I have been able to find pros and cons of each and through this I am blessed to have had the opportunity to grow as a person and open my horizons to a whole new level. I hope to give you a general idea through this of the pros and cons of each place and the culture and overall way of life to allow you to draw your own conclusions.

The biggest and most obvious pro of living in Hawaii is the overall beauty and how gorgeous it is overall all around the Island. Another pro is the beach and when you connect with the ocean it will always feel like home. The diversity as well in Hawaii amongst food, people and overall cultures is beautiful how they all blend and, in a way, take ethe best parts of each to make something precious which makes Hawaii so beautiful. On top of all of this is that the dynamic within the household is special and the importance of family and how important they are is probably my personal most important thing about the culture overall. It is the idea of always doing your hardest to honor and do right in the name of your family. However, in Hawaii it may sometimes seem like there could never be a downside, however if someone just takes more time to look more deeply, they will see there's trouble even in paradise. The biggest and most overarching problem in Hawaii is the cost of living from housing to transportation to groceries. The prices overall compared to living in the mainland is insane. The price I spend in Hawaii is nearly double what I would normally spend compared to what I would normally spend in the mainland. The second biggest problem is the government in Hawaii and how slow they take to accomplish certain tasks especially in the realm of constructing new buildings. An example of this is there was a building by my old school when I was in kindergarten that began construction. It was a tall riser for old folks. This building's construction was not completed until after I graduated high school at a different school. In my mind it is ridiculous how long these projects tend to take. The final biggest issue with Hawaii is the people and how close-minded people tend to be. This in my mind is why many struggle with coming to the mainland because of Hawaii stereotypes of the white man and how they will just always treat pacific islanders badly. From my personal experience more often times than not they are intrigued with the culture and want to learn about it. We as islanders just need to open unto them more to allow them to experience the beauty of our culture.

In the mainland having lived a year I have had the wonderful opportunity to experience things I would have never experience in my 18 of living in Hawaii. For starters I have had to experience all four seasons for the first time in my life. Getting to see the beauty of fall into seeing snow fall for the first time was an incredible experience to then seeing everything regrow in the spring was mind bobbling to me and how these many different experiences can be so interesting to me. Another pro of the mainland like I touched on in the paragraph above is that the cost to live in the mainland is a massive improvement compared to Hawaii. A gallon of milk for example is half the price of Hawaii even when it is up marked. Another pro of the mainland is the people and how kind overall they have been. I have found that every person that I have had the opportunity to talk to all seem to want the best out of me and strive for me to be at my best. While the pros are many there are a few cons to living in the mainland. The first thing for me personally when I first got here was definitely the culture shock and how different people were and how their different background made us so different in overall personality. An example of this is back in Hawaii I normally call most people aunty or uncle because this is normal in Hawaii. However, when I first came up to Washington and went to Walmart with another Hawaii guy we called the worker aunty, and she looked at us like we might be dumb. It was things like this that caught me off guard. Another con coming from the islands is having to adjust to the weather and how my allergies were very much affected by this every time. Living in the cold as well for the first time is a definite adjustment. The final con is the constant fast paced living and how everything in the mainland seems to move constantly nonstop. Its adjustment coming from Hawaii being more relaxed that you have to pretty much advocate for yourself by your actions.