Joining the military and going to the mainland was a good decision for me. It made me grow as a person and opportunities to see the world expanded my mind.
I left Hawaii when I was 19. Lots of time I spent with relatives. I moved back three weeks ago from ABQ via Denver. This year I'm going to my 40th class reunion. Always intersting. I'm looking after mom.
When I moved to the mainland I did have to learn how to layer clothing to be warm. I love the changing of the seasons though and the seasonal fashions.
I hear you bro. Moving to mainland is huge cultural shift. Even though I’m haole (is that okay to say now?) I grew up in Hawaii between the ages of 9 to 29. Moved to Cali in 1996. My two best friends did the same in 98 and 2009. We all now live California but it’s a big state. Trying to get together means two of us have to drive several hundred miles to visit- it’s a serious time investment! Back in the day I would drive from Wailuku to Kihei and we would hang for the weekend. Mainland changes all that. It takes work to keep those friendships going🤙🏻
Left Hawaii 3 times. First for college, then the Army. The last one was for good in 2000 when I quit my job. First thing I learned to do was find where the local Asian market was in whatever city I was in. Then find any events being held by locals in the area. Of the 8 of us best friends from small kid time, all but three now live on the mainland. Sad, but true. My dad & one sister are still there, so I go home to visit once or twice a year. Glad to have found your channel.
Mahalo for sharing. I also did a similar thing on the mainland where I tried to find a local Asian supermarket. Needed to make sure I could get good rice and maybe some Hawaii food ingredients.
Let me preface my comment by first saying that I love Hawaii! In saying that, there are those who entire world revolves around Hawaii, even when they leave the islands. I never really struggled when I left, although I had friends from Hawaii that relocated to the 'mainland' that all they could do is reflect on live here. Being able to 'raise-one's-anchor' and move on in life, no matter if it's just for a few years, means a lot to embrace one's current predicament. The 'past' got us to the 'present', but what we do in this moment helps us have a wonderful 'future'. Hawaii's great...although I wouldn't trade my mainland experience for anything!
Life is one big learning experience. No decision is written in stone or irreversible. We make calls in our life in every moment we breathe and have the right to change our minds if the calls don't pan out the way you had wanted. I believe having an opportunity to live on the mainland has helped shape both of my kids and made them more dimensional than they would have been. Local kids seem to have a talent to assimilate wherever they are.
born & raised on an oute 11:56 r island in Hawaii. graduated from UH. Left Hawaii in 1974 for Redondo Beach until 1998 for Florida and never looked back... I am blessed that my dearest best friend is from Hawaii and we met in 1954.
That was a very informative and fun video! You made some very good points, many of which are problems that we all experienced at that age well we can't go back and change things we hopefully, can pass our wisdom on to the younger generations. I remember singing the song about make new friends while you were talking and it makes so much more sense today than it did is when I was a young child. Make new friends but keep the old, for one is silver and the other is gold. If that isn't the truth, but we come to the realizatio.
I loved living in the California 16 years. We are used to the mixed plate of dealing with a variety of cultural differences it's the same. Didn't keep up with my friendships. Tried to reconnect didn't work out. Lived in London for a year. They love people from Hawaii. Months later they realize that you have a American accent. I had a incredible year definitely bucket list adventure. British haven't forgiven us for the Boston Tea Party. Tea is sacred 😅.
Hi Chris, Thank you for the vlog! Toll roads tripped me up too. I accidentally went into the cash only lane and did not have cash. So I yelled across at one of the attendants and they just waved to me to just go through with a disgusting look. But definitely relationships change, but there are some that will persist forever at least in my life I have several life-long friends and friends that I have made that have been made when I moved up here to the mainland. Those will endure as well. The friends I made in college seemed to have dropped off. But for sure will have those memories.
Ay, caramba! Some commentators so off topic and kind of can lead you down the controversial rabbit hole. I pat myself on the back that my kids instantly hung out with students from all over and have avoided gravitating to a Hawaii tribe on the mainland. At the same time they have learned to appreciate certain things about ‘Hawaii no ka oi’ when compared to certain things, food and culture on the mainland. My 19 year old son is super Shaka. He will host a bunch of mainland classmates this month in Hawaii. He will be like, ‘your mainland tribes is alright, but experience how fantastic my tribe is in Hawaii!’
It's a matter of trusting people which naturally, it takes a while but if one is shy/introverted, it's a big deal. Especially if past experiences of bullying. It might be harder if attract ability might be an additionally level. As for number 3, that isn't restricted to Hawaii. Everyone does that. Remember the old HawTel of reaching out to someone. People think nobody cares, so they drop it. Others will always be friends before and now. Come a lifetime past, all you need to let them know and it's there.
And if you look at an old-school person like me, we didn't have cell phones and the internet back when I was living on the 'mainland'. So keeping up with friends back home in Hawaii was either by writing letters, or a very expensive long distance phone call. And as for writing letters, that would take three days to a week to get to Hawaii, and if they wrote back quickly, two weeks would have elapsed since the first letter was written. Staying in touch wasn't so easy. So making 'new' friends away from Hawaii was a must unless someone wanted to be isolated.
@@EvilTheOne: For some people, writing letters is hard but I'm not one of them. Writing letters is whether people want to do it or not. Sure, it takes a couple of days to receive them but it's always an unexpected treat when you get them. It shows they care. In terms of a few decades versus a couple of centuries earlier, where it took months or years for letters to arrive, there's a big difference as to how one spends their time & money. Today, with internet email, digital phone, skype/zoom, you can talk, text or video chat easily, but does that mean everyone does it? Making the effort then or now, is what it takes.
@@tracyalan7201 I certainly hope that you don't think that I was making some type of observation on your's or anyone else's comments. All I was saying is that time changed since the very early 80's, when there was no modern technology (i.e. internet and cell phones). I was just commenting on how different it was to remain in contact with one's friends as Chris spoke about in Big Mistake #3. My thought since my last comment post is that good friends will always be there, even if time has elapsed since living away from where we grew up. Yes, we might not intend to return, as I didn't plan on returning either, although my friends were here to welcome me back to the islands.
No mistakes, no regrets, you are today because of the decisions you made and the experiences you had. So don't think, I wish I had done this instead of that because you may have a different life today with a different set of family. It is also a progression in relationships with friends, they have grown up busy with their jobs and raising families. It's when you are retired and the kids are gone, when you reconnect with people you used to know because now you have the free time to socialize and reminisce the past.
I guess what separates those may be capable and those who return are those who can switch out this “assumption, humble, go with the flow” behavior locals have because when I was there to visit I didn’t realize how vocal, direct, and dense I needed to be to let them get my point across. Here in Hawaii we should “just know” what you mean or we are just so lenient to let things go. Or is it just me?
I bought the heavyweight jeans denim short jacket lined with the sheep wool and had to wear lumberjack flannel long sleeve shirt with long underwear undershirt and long legged underpants and two pairs of socks with Sears leather workman boots on. And I still was cold. Still 17 for 4 months in 1st year College. Riding in a friend's car, trying to act warm, not cold to the others, on the highway: "Does this highway never end in one direction?" 😂 Soon: "can we like, stop & get a hot cuppa coffee?" My friends: 😂😂😂👉🥶 "Oh, man!, you're such a coconut!"
My friends who lived in Hawaii , the issue is that there is no work, just tourist. Stuff. Everything is imported. The only way to live out there is if you have parents to live with.. other words, it’s just a dream.. 😅
Mainland people are more excepting to people from Hawai’i than Hawai’i people excepting mainland people because their considered transients kinda sad and I lived Hawai’i for over 30 years too but will never be considered a local lol
@@HelloFromHawaii or become famous like the rock or mamoa then Hawaii embraces you and won’t matter if you born here as long as you lived here for a few years too kind of bandwagon if you ask me
Jesus……how old were you in Oregon when life was a mystery for you??? But WHY would you move back into a grand parent’s home?????? DID THEY ASK YOU????? OR ARE YOU THE LEECH?????
Hey man, you got to tone it down. Looks like you got a lot of negative comments on this channel but he is just sharing his experiences. Please chill out with the caps
Like I mentioned, I was a freshman in college and had yet to change my perspective on what the mainland was. But that event helped me change my thinking, which is why I mentioned it.
I appreciate ALL of your advice Brother! (I’m on Oahu as I type this, but leaving today and I had hoped to bump into you to say thanks in person before I left… Next Time!) Aloha to you, Literally from Hawai’i! Shawn😁🤙🏾
I received a bunch of leis from family and friends upon leaving for the mainland. If you wish, give them away to the wonderful women seated around you in the aircraft, as some of them have just finished their Hawaiian vacation...that'll be a warm memory for them, as well as you. That was over 40 years ago, and I still remember that moment. Enjoy your 'new' life!
After moving to the mainland i was able to have HOMES ON ALL 3 COASTS, send my kids to mainland UNIVERSITYS and make lifelong friends and networks. BEST DECISION EVER. NO regrets! Only JOY and GRATITUDE!
The benefits of "breaking bread", or in this case "chawan furikake" are inestimable. Sharing food is a basic human trait that is the complete opposite of making war. When I went to school in Montana I made kimchi in the lounge at the end of my dorm floor. My friends loved it. I was the only kid from Hawaii at the U of M so I just hung out with all kinds of people. Everyone was so welcoming and friendly. They took me up to Glacier Park to camp out, skiing, and even ice skating on a frozen pond. I never felt exotic or different. There were a couple of Native American students and one Inuit guy who looked Japanese. The cultural similarities between Native Americans and Asian Pacific Islanders are really amazing. Oh...and slipping on icy sidewalks and landing on my butt was loads of fun!
Not moving with the right cookbooks. Mom wasn't about to give them up. It took some time to get a copy of "Popo's Kitchen" and "Honpa Hongwanji Buddhist Temple Cookbook".
Aloha Chris! If you could I’m curious. Could you make a video about Haunani-Kay Trask? Because while I’m from the Mainland. Admittedly* she mostly seemed hostile. I hate what happened to Hawaii. But she was generalizing every American Haole just because of how things turned out. Doesn’t that seem a bit far? NATIVE or NOT? Mahalo! Chris.
@@HelloFromHawaii I was just curious of it. Because I’m from the mainland but I found myself going down a Hawaii rabbit hole. I’m definitely not moving there anytime soon. But upon listening to some of her old interviews a fair amount it seemed a bit racist. I get that The US & Hawaii had a rough patch. But it might also explain some of the racial tensions sometimes in said state.
@theanimationcriticaylorri1264 Yes indeed, the way the kingdom of Hawai'i was usurped by white Americans is wholly to blame for how some locals view white Americans. However outright hostility is mostly displayed by teens vs teens. Sometimes teens vs adults if a group of them catches one man alone. Curiously, or not, the hostility does not extend to white female Americans. At least that's how it was in the '70s through '90s.
