Growing up, I kept hearing people say “from here to Honolulu” whenever something was really, really far away. I remember it from when I was little, and I always wanted to understand what Honolulu even was, and why everyone kept bringing it up.
Why Hawaii
When I was in Australia and realized I wanted to keep making dreams happen and traveling the world, which was always my biggest love and something I never did enough of, I opened the map. I saw I was about ten hours’ flight from Hawaii, and it also fit perfectly with two dreams on my list: renting a red Mustang and renting a Harley-Davidson.
So I booked a ticket to Kauai. I picked it because I had a friend there, which meant free housing. Not many people know this island, but after traveling Maui, the Big Island, Oahu and Kauai, I can say it: Kauai is hands down the best of the four.
The Hawaiian islands, in a nutshell
For anyone wondering: Hawaii is a US state with 137 islands and islets, but when people talk about Hawaii they mostly mean eight main islands. Most travelers visit four of them. Oahu is home to Honolulu, Hawaii’s capital (so there you go, childhood mystery solved). There’s Maui, and there’s the Big Island, which really is the biggest of them all. And there’s Kauai, nicknamed “the Garden Isle,” the oldest of the main islands, about five million years old. You can get to Lanai and Molokai, but I didn’t make it this time. And there are two you can barely get to at all: Niihau, “the Forbidden Isle,” privately owned since 1864 and open only by invitation from its owners, and Kahoolawe, once a military bombing range and considered sacred by Native Hawaiians. Today you can only go there with a special permit, for restoration, cultural and educational purposes.
Kauai, the island that taught me to slow down
From the moment I landed, the energy was just insane. The clean air, the green, the ocean, the people. I’ll truly never forget the moment I landed.
What’s special about Kauai is that the pace there is very, very slow, and mine had always been crazy, crazy fast. Kauai taught me to slow down. I learned what it means to breathe, what “your thoughts create your reality” means, and I started looking inward a lot more.
I traveled everywhere I possibly could, and still barely scratched the surface. I went snorkeling, hiked to places like Queen’s Bath, and lounged on most of the beaches, each with a different vibe. But mostly I enjoyed taking a breath and learning to stop.
(Just so you know: Queen’s Bath is a natural rock pool on the shore, and the ocean there can be very dangerous. Kauai authorities close the access gate through the winter because of ocean conditions, so check before you go.)
The rat race
On Kauai I met someone who became a kind of little sister to me. She taught me how important it is to think positive, and how important it is to call in the things we want. But wait, what do I even want for myself? Who am I?
For years, all I did was work in sales. During my degree I worked a million jobs at once: part-time at a sales call center, as a fitness and running coach, and in court security. One thing I knew for sure: I couldn’t stand my job. Sales may have brought in a lot of money, but also a lot of tightness in my chest, never-ending hours and begging for time off, which at best got me a long weekend. And this for someone whose favorite thing in the world is traveling, and not to the obvious places. Suddenly I understood what the rat race really is.
I wrote, and wrote, and didn’t stop
So I started practicing mindful writing. And before I knew it, I was writing and writing and couldn’t stop, and without even meaning to, I realized how many dreams I really had. How many places I wanted to see, how many experiences I wanted to have, and how many challenges I wanted to take on. From four little dreams on a page I suddenly had a real list, which over the years grew into today’s list, with more than 80 dreams.
A red Mustang and a Harley-Davidson
So I booked a flight to the Big Island and rented a red Mustang convertible. From there I went on to travel Maui, and finally got to Oahu, where I rented a Harley-Davidson. One of the things I wanted most!
A Harley was always a dream of mine. A few years earlier, on my first visit to the US, I toured the Harley factory in Kansas City, on the Missouri side. And I’m sure that one day I’ll buy one of my own.
On Oahu I also got to Pearl Harbor, and it was really cool. For anyone who doesn’t remember from history class, that’s where Japan attacked the US Navy on December 7, 1941, and after the attack the United States entered World War II. Today there’s a memorial built over the battleship USS Arizona, which sank in the attack, and the ship is still the final resting place of more than nine hundred of her crew.
Heading home, with the first buds
After that I took a quick trip to Los Angeles, went back to Hawaii from there, and then realized that after eight months of travel it was time to go home.
Only this time I came back with crazy insights, and a slightly better understanding of who I am and what I want. But that was only the first buds.
