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You are absolutely correct in that while Hawaii is great, so are other places. Travel, not only the US, but internationally and you"ll be amazed at the wonderful places in the world.
A lot of threads and posts on this site seem to have a love it or hate kind of theme to them, so I thought I'd add a "it's okay" theme thread to it. lol
I don't hate Hawaii, but I don't love it either. I just like it.
Do you think moving to hawaii and living here is something you should do only if you're highly motivated and love Hawaii? I've been pretty lukewarm about the whole thing (although during the first month I loved it). It's really pretty out here, but the novelty has been wearing off after a few months, and, when it comes down to it, it's really just another place to live.
I guess I kind of came out here with stars in my eyes, but, in my defense, I was given the opportunity to live out here for the summer for a ridiculously low cost. I just graduated college last year with two impractical degrees and I really didn't have much tying me down and I had money saved up, so I jumped at an opportunity to give Hawaii a trial run (I moved from Utah).
I've gone surfing a bunch, went skydiving, gone hiking, enjoyed how friendly people are, and overall seen some cool things. I've also seen or taken into account some of the more negative aspects of it, such as all the theft, the high cost for substandard housing/apartments, poor job market, little opportunity, beaches full of homeless people, slight racial tension, and so on.
I think the thing that really gets me is I'm afraid of getting stuck on this island living paycheck to paycheck just to be able to say I live in Hawaii. Consequently, I can't really bring myself to buy a car or a bike or anything that I can't just throw in my suitcase.
I'm still reluctant to go though, since this is kind of a once in a lifetime opportunity, but then, I don't really want to live here just to say I live here. I could continue living here with a pretty good deal in rent, but honestly I guess I just don't see the big deal. I guess I feel this unspoken pressure that I'm supposed to love Hawaii and think it's the greatest thing ever, but that's not how I feel about it. And while I could stay and get a good deal in rent, I could get a better one in the state I previously lived in.
I don't know. I've been going back and forth about this for the past month, and it seems to me that if I'm doing that, then I already have my answer. Am I wrong?
You sound exactly like me before I moved away. Honolulu is a place of extremes, the good things (weather, beaches, diversity) are really good and the bad things (cost, traffic, theft) are really bad. I could have stayed there, worked some ass-kissing service sector job and been a slave to my mortgage for the rest of my life but been able to surf, golf, hike, and bike 365 days a year... or I could go somewhere not quite as nice (in terms of weather and scenery) but been able to pay off my house in 15years, take road trips to tons of different cities, enjoy the seasons, and not be told to "go back where I came from" when I expressed a dissenting opinion.
I understand completely what you mean about the unspoken pressure that you should love the place. It has been marketed very well and the thought of Hawaii as "paradise" is part of the American psyche. People who have never even been there before still feel the need to comment "why did you move here?" when they find out where I came from. But we live our lives day to day, not on postcards.
There were days when I was sitting out on my longboard, looking at diamond head in the background, listening to the Hawaiian music from Duke's, and surrounded by little japanese girls in bikini's... and I would say to myself "what more could I want out of life?" LOL.
Then there were other days when I would ride the bus home from work, get eyed out for half the trip, walk up to my 1950's single wall construction, cockroach infested house that I paid $1800 a month for, listen to my neighbors flush their toilet (because I could hear it clearly from my living room) and find that my garage had been broken into AGAIN and I would say to myself... "why am I still here?"
I chose to leave, honestly I don't regret it at all (although my wife misses her family and doesn't like being the "haole" out here). I don't need all of the kisses on the cheek, overtly friendly, "aloha" kind of kindness to enjoy people... I appreciate it but it just isnt my thing. My neighbors now are just as nice, just as helpful, and I am fine with shaking their hand.
It sounds to me like you have made up your mind that you don't want to stay there forever... whether or not NOW is the time to leave is a different question. I say finish out the summer, see what prospects turn up, DONT BUY A CAR, and enjoy it for what it is until it has run its course. You can reasses at that point, teh job market isn't that great in most other places either right now so unless you have something waiting in another city you may not be any better off leaving.
I'll add that I have lived many places... Chicago, Denver, LA, Seattle, Boston and New York to name some of them. And in every one of those places were people who were thrilled to have moved there, and people who were dying to leave. And each one of those places had tradeoffs. Some things were good, some were not so good. And each place has a different mix. So it comes down to what works best for you, for your life, for your ambitions and hopes and dreams. If Hawai'i was a perfect paradise, nobody would ever leave. But it's not, and even native born people leave for good all the time. I've run into them living in every one of the places I listed above.
You really have to take stock of what is most important to you, and then figure out where the best place to find it is.
We moved around (lived in Oahu) A LOT in my life and I have never really felt like any place I lived was "the" place for me. There are a lot of things that I miss about Hawaii, so I go back every year, but do not think that I could ever live there again. Never say never, I know......My brother wants to move back very badly. He currently lives in Denver and hates it. I left Denver, cause I hated it. I now live in Seattle and I am ready to move someplace new. Still looking for that perfect fit for me. If there is such a thing!
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