It was a cold Thanksgiving Thursday in November of 2010, a day where the orange and yellow leaves were wet from the rain and piled up on the ground. My boyfriend Adrian and I were on our way to Maui to celebrate my twenty-second birthday. I had always wanted to go to Maui to experience the true “aloha spirit” that people would talk about on TV. Visiting Maui changed my entire perspective on life, and my life as well.
As I stepped out of the plane, I quickly fell in love with the weather. It was nowhere near as ugly as the weather back home. Palm trees swayed back and forth with elegance in the warm breeze. The sun’s rays gently kissed my soft, brown skin. I took a deep breath of that fresh Maui air, closed my eyes, and immediately, I was in paradise. Embracing Maui’s weather made me forget I was just at the airport where there was nothing exciting to see.
While we were waiting for our hotel, Adrian decided we should explore the local businesses on the island. We walked into a scuba shop and were immediately greeted with a strong Hawaiian accent. There were racks of scuba equipment in front of us so we could not see who the greeter was.
“ALOHA! What’re you two locals doing here in Lahaina?”
“Locals? We’re from San Jose, California!” we responded to the still unidentified voice. We walked toward the back of the shop and saw a short, husky man dressed very relaxed and casual. He was sitting on a blue counter where all the flippers underneath were neatly organized by size.
“O’! You two look like locals, especially you,” he pointed at me, “because of your hair and your skin tone. By da’ way, I’m Kevin.” He shook Adrian’s hand and then mine. I expected his handshake to be very firm, but it was very sweet and gentle, not unlike one that you would expect a long time acquaintance to give. Adrian started asking about equipment rentals, but we did not get much out of Kevin. Half an hour had passed and we were still at the shop talking up a storm. We talked about what college his daughter was attending, where Adrian and I live, the weather back home, what places to visit during our vacation, and how I could pass as a local. We laughed and joked around. It was great. Kevin did not speak one word about scuba equipment. His laid back demeanor set the tone for the rest of our trip and the island in general; relaxation.
4:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning, I had left the doors to our patio open all night just to hear waves crashing on the shore. It felt as though I was sleeping at the beach with my body laid out on the soft sand. I could feel the warm tropical ocean in bluish and greenish shades sweeping the sand underneath me. Fifteen minutes later, Adrian and I had finally woken up. We started getting ready for our drive up the road to Hana.
Hana is a place unlike back home. I remember reading something online about this place being isolated from the rest of the island and referred to as “The Land That Time Forgot.” I now truly understood why; to my right, billboards and sky scrapers were replaced with indigenous trees and forests. To my left, rather than a sea of traffic, there was simply the Pacific Ocean. The residents in Hana looked so happy, relaxed, and satisfied with their life. I could see in their faces and their eyes that this place they call home is all that they need. No high tech cell phones, internet, fancy furniture or expensive brand named clothing. Somehow, they had managed to preserve the Hawaiian culture and its natural beauty. And somehow, it was not only the humans, but their pets as well who enjoyed the lifestyle of this undeveloped land. At one point we came across what we thought to be a dead dog laying in the middle of the road. It gave us a good scare, but, to our relief, it lazily stood up, looked around with its tail wagging ever so rapidly, and shuffled away. There was something about this place… the people here are so widely outnumbered by the thousands of naturally inhabiting species of this island. They are so diligent about preserving this ratio and I cannot help but feel a little jealous.
We reached the end of our Hana trip in time to grab dinner at a restaurant called Mama’s Fish House. As we stepped out of the car we noticed that we were a bit underdressed. I had mud on my tennis shoes, black leggings with light dirt marks smeared on one leg, and a sweater with the neckline cut off exposing my left shoulder. Adrian had on basketball shorts, a little bit of mud on his left calf and tennis shoes, and a gym shirt that had the words “DPS NUTRITION.” We looked at each other and started to laugh. Luckily, the hostess at the front let Adrian borrow a clean shirt and seated us at the bar. Our bartender and server for the night was a bald, Caucasian man named Mark. He kind of reminded me of the wrestler from WWE, Stone Cold Steve Austin, but a lot less bulky and a lot more pleasant looking. He took our orders and immediately started up a conversation. We mentioned that we were from San Jose, California and he did not look confused at all for he knew exactly what we were talking about. It turned out that he was originally from Pleasanton, California. Our food arrived ten minutes after and as we started eating Mark began telling us the story about his move to Maui.
“I moved here about twenty years ago. Before that I went to visit Honolulu. I didn’t like it because I thought it was a very poor imitation of San Francisco. I flew to Maui, fell in love with the place, and decided I wanted to stay here for good. I went back home, sold most of my stuff, moved to Maui, and here I am… happy and loving every bit it.” He paused for a few seconds, “I’ll be right back.” As he walked over to the end of the bar to help a lady, I looked at Adrian with my eyes starting to get watery. No tears had fallen, but I was truly touched by Mark’s story. How could someone choose to give up everything they have and start from nothing? I thought to myself that I could never build up the courage to do the same, however, it really made me realize that in life, you really have to live for the moment, and happiness comes before all else.
I know now what the people on TV were talking about. The people I have seen and met have shown me the true “aloha spirit.” They had accepted us into their culture with warmth and kindness and they did not feel like strangers at all, but friends. The island of Maui is about the simpler things in life and while I may not share the same lifestyle back home in California, I sure took a lot of what I learned back with me to apply to my own lifestyle. I found myself spending the eight hours I had on the plane ride back home contemplating what exactly I can take away from this trip, this experience; life truly is what you make of it.
