Mahalo

When I graduated UCLA back in 2008, I didn't get a chance to decompress and absorb the fruits of my labor. One week after the graduation ceremonies, I had a one way ticket to DC, where a full-time internship was waiting.Fast forward two years, two jobs and many side projects in the mix, I had a chance to just breathe, even if only for a brief 7 days.

The Plan:
I'd often imagined heading to the isles of Hawaii, vaguely planning but never taking flight. It's quiet possible that I would have abandoned such a trip had my sister not taken the initiative to look up flights, hotels and the like. Thanks Lupita!!! Quiet frankly, I would have continued accumulating vacation days without them being put to good use. So with my sister taking the lead and my parents celebrating their 37th wedding anniversary, my siblings and myself decided what better gift for our parents then purchasing flights and hotel stay to Oahu!

Watch below:



So with flights and hotel booked, we were bound for Hawaii!

Paradise

Every chance I get, I allow my mind to set sail, affording it some time to create, recreate and refine a whimsical place where nothing has enough strength to topple my good mood. Any form of friction, is quickly disbanded by a swift kick to the source that creates resistance. I watch as the source disbands into dust particles and I once again sit in what seems like an everlasting state of peace.



I try to visit every so often, sometimes in the form of a daydream or in my sleep; unfortunately, it just so happens that it comes to an end when my eyes open and I'm slapped with responsibilities of adulthood.



For seven days last week, I woke up to find myself in a place very similar to the paradise I've spent several years constructing in my mind. On the coast, sunshine overlooking crystal blue waters and sand so soft that you wouldn't mind it's presence in between your toes. And Inland, a lush of green rain forest with clouds and some drizzle. I had never seen a more perfect division coexisting so peacefully.

A break

When I’m supposed to be walking I have an overwhelming urge to run and when I run, I tend to run faster then I should. For some reason, I find myself constantly having to be active, I just can’t sit still and relax. In a sense, this over activity has become second nature. More or less, I’ve convinced myself that idle time is wasted time.

I’ve tried to pinpoint when this started but I can’t find the origin. Even as a young kid, I’ve always been juggling several things at once and that mentality hasn’t changed- not in junior high, not in high school, not in college nor in my post graduate career. Maybe it’s a fear of being considered average; simply put, no one remembers “average people.” It’s not a bad thing to be average, some people are okay with mediocrity and that’s fine for them but I’m not one of “those people.”

However, you reach a point when you have to say when and I guess for me it comes now, and it comes in the form of a Hawaiian vacation. Away goes the laptop and all of life’s obligations, --at least for a week or so.