My Spiritual Journey on Kauai! (appointed, credit card, home)

[DavidAMIs]

Hello all, I'm back! If any of you remember me from a couple of months back I posted a thread about my plans to head to Hawaii. Here is that thread: https://www.city-data.com/forum/hawai...s-verdict.html.

It's now 5 months later and I've bought my ticket to Kauai. I'll be arriving on the island June 15th. But the plan now is different and I need a little guidance and advice. The past few months have been deep for me. I've been doing a lot of soul searching and what I've come to realize is that I don't know anything. I still want to WWOOF and do a bit of farm work in exchange for room and board, but I think I want this trip to be more of a spiritual journey to connect with something bigger than myself. I want to humble myself and learn to embrace the things that I can't change and have no control over.

I've been feeling pretty lost lately and my enthusiasm for my job has waned considerably. I have so many plans for my life and all I've been doing is sitting around collecting a paycheck to leave on my trip and I realize that I have enough to leave now even if it is half the amount I wanted to leave with initially. I may not be able to stay as long as I'd hoped, but 6 months was the minimum that I wanted to be there for anyway. I'll be coming home the end of November for a wedding as I'm the best man. I'll be on the islands with just under $5k. I had this idea to just walk everywhere (for the most part) as part of a walking meditation. Get in touch with nature, meet some people who can teach me about life, and just do some thinking. I actually want to try and hit up Maui and MAYBE Oahu as well. In any case, could I potentially pitch a tent or set up a tarp down on Secret Beach for a couple of days?

I just need to get my life started. I'm 21 and still living at home and I don't like that. So I'm making moves as terrifying as it is. What do you guys think of this? Any positive words of wisdom?

[Kelly4Sun]

David,

Your post caught my attention, probably because I have a 21 year old daughter and also because Maui is my favorite place of all .

You sound similar to my daughter. My daughter had a 3.8 gpa all the way through school. She could of went to any college she wanted, but she chose not to go. Her father and I were very disappointed to say the least. However; she's had a dream of moving to Los Angeles to pursue a music career (just like a million other people). Anyway, she settled moving to Portland Oregon since thats only 3 hours away from home versus 18. She lived in Portland for 3 years (she hated the rain), she made a few connections but nothing major. Anyway, last summer she called us up and asked for our advice. She wanted to know what I thought about her making the big leap into moving to Los Angeles. Her father and I told her that it's her life, not ours, and that all we want is for her to be happy. She told us that moving to Los Angeles and pursuing her dream would make her happy. So, that was that! On August 5th of last summer 2010, she packed up her car and hit the road from Oregon to Los Anegels. She's still there, has a good job, made a lot of connections in the music biz, she struggles to make ends meat of course, but she loves it! She's happy thats what matters.

So..with that said, you are an adult and you need to do what makes you happy. You are young, you have a lot of time to figure it out. The funny thing about being 21 is that no mater what people tell you or say, you will end up doing what you want anyway. You will have to figure out what it is you want out of life, nobody else. You will learn from the choices you make. As long as you stay away from the drugs out there that ruin lives, you should be okay.

Sorry this was so long, it just kind of struck a cord
Best wishes to you on your journey to paradise
Keep us posted

[kukuicake]

DavidAMIS I remember your original posts and I'm glad to hear you are almost ready to get on that plane. I hope you will post your impressions and stories about your time in the islands when ever you can, I know I will look forward to reading them.

My suggestion to you would be to make work/board connections right away and put in some times doing that before you let that go for a while to just travel on your quest. This is for a few reasons:

When your money starts to run out you have somewhere to go back to, to earn a bit more and touch base with. You don't want to be in any kind of panic mode where you have no money and are looking for a job. Making connections first is all kinds of good thing. When you leave your wooffing set up you will probably have addresses, place, people, ideas all to take with you.

Wooffing when you first get there will be a springboard for ideas of where to go, what grabs you, what you want to experience in Hawaii.

I hope you have a wonderful time and are able to come back after the wedding if that's what you desire. This is the best time in life to do what you're doing!

[DavidAMIs]

Originally Posted by Kelly4Sun

David,

Your post caught my attention, probably because I have a 21 year old daughter and also because Maui is my favorite place of all .

You sound similar to my daughter. My daughter had a 3.8 gpa all the way through school. She could of went to any college she wanted, but she chose not to go. Her father and I were very disappointed to say the least. However; she's had a dream of moving to Los Angeles to pursue a music career (just like a million other people). Anyway, she settled moving to Portland Oregon since thats only 3 hours away from home versus 18. She lived in Portland for 3 years (she hated the rain), she made a few connections but nothing major.

...As long as you stay away from the drugs out there that ruin lives, you should be okay.

That's pretty crazy! That's basically what my plan is. I want to do music with my life and I actually wanted to move out west to Portland after this Hawaii stint. I actually had a 3.5 throughout high school and was admitted to college recently but turned it down to make this trip. Also, staying away from drugs is no problem. I do not drink or smoke and don't plan on it.

Originally Posted by kukuicake

DavidAMIS I remember your original posts and I'm glad to hear you are almost ready to get on that plane. I hope you will post your impressions and stories about your time in the islands when ever you can, I know I will look forward to reading them.

...I hope you have a wonderful time and are able to come back after the wedding if that's what you desire. This is the best time in life to do what you're doing!

I actually have a blog at davidamis.wordpress.com where I'll be chronicling my trip. It's kind of all over the place but that's the link if you want to follow me. Depending on how I feel I may move out west to Portland or head back to Hawaii. We'll see when the time comes.

Thank you both for the support.

[hotzcatz]

If you will be able to WWOOF and do odd jobs while WWOOFing, then you might be able to travel and keep your funds intact. Keep your expenses low while your income is low and put some money away when your income is higher.

Is there some way you can keep your funds in an account somewhere and still access them while in Hawaii? I don't think we have any mainland banks on the islands. Perhaps a bank account somewhere which has a debit card access? Or a credit card where you can make payments via phone from your mainland bank account? If the card is a no annual fee and it is paid off each month, then it wouldn't be dangerous as long as you were careful with it. If the card gets stolen, it can be replaced but if cash is stolen it's gone.

One of the more important thing to know about money matters is that money matters. Having just enough is about all you need and put some of it away each month into a ROTH IRA account of some type that gets interest. Ask your credit union or bank about a ROTH IRA account and how you can access, manage and deposit funds to it. You can even open a stock account at places such as Ameritrade and put a little money in there now and then and buy a few stocks here and there. At your age, if you put away just a little bit of money, especially just a little each month - even as little as $20 or $50 - it will grow into something substantial by the time you need it.

You want to be in charge of it, though, and not just hand it over to someone else to manage. A lot of folks lost a lot of money in their IRAs and 401Ks because they let other folks manage them. Other folks who managed their own money not only thrived but made money while the rest lost. With the internet these days, it is easy enough for folks to not only do, but learn how to do as well.

[DavidAMIs]

Last time I was in Kauai, Papaya in Kapa'a was hiring a Cashier. I have experience at Whole Foods and left on good terms so I can always try working at a health food store. Maybe Papaya will be hiring. Maybe not, either way I'll definitely be looking and asking around for work.

Also, I'm planning on opening a Schwab account. Once my final check is direct deposited into my Chase account I'm gonna transfer all the money over and close the Chase account. The benefits of a Schwab account are pretty stellar and if I ever wanted to I could easily get started with a little help in investing.

Thanks again for the tips. I will make this work!

[Kelly4Sun]

Great advice Hotcatz. That is most definitely something every young adult should do.

[DavidAMIs]

I'm back! I've been back since August. I was only on Kauai for a week before moving on to other islands and ultimately coming home. I got what I felt needed out of the experience though. If anyone is interested in the details you can check out my blog where I reflect on the journey. Thanks for all the support back then and I'll still be around. I'm actually starting school next month in North Carolina. Unfortunately, mods have deleted the link to my blog so just search Sea of Derailments on Google and check out the blogs in the Journey to the Source category, for anyone interested.