In the beginning . . .

Well without sounding to vain, conceded, or stupid, I’ll try to give a brief little description of my life thus far. Kind of let you into my head, or gain a better view of my perspective or how I see things. Besides I guess I could elaborate on a few things in the rest of the web site. Granted I haven’t saved the world or found a cancer cure or anything like that (although there have been times when I did come close), but there have been things that have been noteworthy in my life.

I guess I’ll start at the beginning, the very beginning. I was born on February 22, 1980 at the Kapi’olani Medical Center. For the first few years of my life I went to Na Lei KCAA preschool in Kalihi. It was a simpler time back then. We lived in a small apartment in the Kapi’olani area near Iolani. Pretty much my biggest worry back then was missing afternoon cartoons.

After KCAA I attended St. Patrick’s in Kaimuki. Then in 1986 my sister Lindsey was born. It was a short time after this that we moved from our small apartment in Kapi’olani to the wonderful pridelands of Kuli’ou’ou. We moved in with my dad’s parents while we waited for our new home higher up in the valley to be built.

There are a few things that I vividly remember about the earlier years in my life, Christmases, camping, the flood of ’87, but there’s one thing that will always stand out in my mind. That would be my cousin Jacob. For as long as I can remember we’ve always hung out together. We had a lot of fun and a lot of good times, as much as our fathers did sometimes I think. Through high school and my few college years we haven’t hung out as much as back in the "good ole days," I will always consider him a friend.

Well after seven years at St. Patrick’s, I got the letter that every parent with Hawaiian ancestry wants to get, the acceptance letter to Kamehameha. I had gotten in. At the time I didn’t know how big of a deal it was to get into Kamehameha, actually I don’t think it was until junior or senior year that I realized how big a deal it was and how fortunate I was that I had gotten in. Anyway, so I entered Kamehameha in the 7^th grade. That was a bit of a change for me, going from a class of 40 or so to a class size of 250.

For the next few years or so life went on with the usual things that life throws at you. Then about around the time my grandfather pasted away, my cousin Jacob and I went around Kuli’ou’ou claiming it with our flags. I don’t know exactly why we did it, but it was definitely fun and we even got a few good stories out of it. On two separate occasions the fire department came to our aide cause people thought we were stuck on the mountain.

Moving on back to school, I was never really what most would consider a "popular" person. I was more middle-class, huddled in with a lot of other people in between the so-called "cool" people and the "lower" class. I didn’t participate in any sports, wasn’t in any clubs, and for the most part didn’t do all that much until my junior year. Then I decided that before I left Kamehameha that I wanted to do something, take advantage of what Kamehameha had to offer so to speak, just so that I could say that I did something other than just go to high school. Sophomore year I made the decision that I would join yearbook. Though not the most glamorous or popular club to join, it was something that I thought I could do that I would enjoy.

And I was right. Looking back on it now, yearbook had a lot of influence on me, and even today it still does. I don’t know what exactly it was; taking pictures, working with the staff, or just seeing the book itself for the first time, but I found it really rewarding. Then my senior year I was sports editor and had an even better time than my junior year. To this day I can’t really describe why I enjoyed it so much, I just did.

Well I guess if you’re going to do one thing, you might as well go all out and do it the best that you can. It was through yearbook that I discovered that I had a knack for taking pictures. It was also where I think I got the idea that I kind of wanted to be a teacher or do something like that. Working with the staff you kind of have to show them the ropes and let them know how things get done. Even after I had graduated I am still fortunate enough to actually come back and work with the staff. Working with the new staffers and actually getting to "teach" them things about yearbook like photography, darkroom procedures, and a few other finer points as well. Year after year they have always surprised me, the reason being they actually listen to what I have to say, ask me questions about stuff they don’t get, and in general treating me like a teacher even though I’m not one.

After graduation came one of the best/worst/longest summers of my life. Did a lot of cool things and had a lot of fun. But nothing could prepare me for what lay ahead. I had been accepted to my first choice Santa Clara University and would be going up there in mid-September. From the beginning it was kind of weird, but in a good way. For one thing it was amazing how quickly I got to know people and how quickly I made new friends—a new experience that I had never had in high school. The other weird thing was that, even though I was from Hawai’i, it didn’t seem like I fit in with the "Hawai’i" crowd. However, if there is one thing that I learned while at college it’s that there’s a lot of people around and making new friends is easier than you think.

Freshman year was simply the best though. The guys from my dorm . . .we had a blast. We did so much stuff; just thinking about it can always put me back into the halls of Graham 100. We did it all, staying up late one night playing Mario Kart, playing quake as a floor, had a war with Campisi, met mutha F#$@*in Rafa, made midnight runs to Benson (when they actually had good food at night), camped out for Episode 1, and tons of other stuff. In short we could do no wrong. The "Graham 100 All-Stars" is what we dubbed all the residents of Graham 100 freshmen year. The housing office couldn’t have put together a better group even if they tried. It wasn’t a perfect match, but it was a good one.

For my sophomore year and through my short junior year things didn’t quite seem as good as they had been freshmen year, but it wasn’t all-bad. We still had good times. The dynamics of our group changed a little, some of us started to drift, and all kinds of drama unfolded. On a more positive note, without realizing it I guess I became more active in the Hawai’i Club which ultimately led me to me running for secretary. Another plus was that I had an on campus job with Mailing Services, which I would eventually get the MVE award for at the end of my sophomore year. I guess, as with all things, things change and sophomore year was no different. With the end of sophomore year approaching, impending departure of some of my friends from SCU, our housing situation, and my own academic situation all becoming a concern, junior year was shaping up to be very interesting.

Unfortunately for myself I had come to the end of the road at Santa Clara. Without going into all the details, my academic performance at SCU was not the greatest and I had to make the hard decision of leaving or risk further damage to my academic record. As hard as it was to do, it needed to be done, but that didn’t mean that it was going to be any easier. Even now I still feel that I let down or disappointed a lot of people. Especially after all the good-byes were said and done, I didn’t realize how many friends I had made and what I’d be leaving behind.

Which brings us to the present . . . At this point in my life I am scared and a little uncertain of what my future will be like. I mean for the first twenty years of my life it was so much easier. I had this plan that was given to me for me to follow, and now I realize that I am the one that’s going to have to write up my own plan and follow it. In a way it feels like I just took a detour off the main highway and now I’m lost on this road.

I guess only time will tell what the future holds for me. To sum it up best I am reminded of this one scene from the Truman Show. It’s one of the parts when Jim Carey’s character, Truman, is reminiscing about that girl he liked in high school and they are in the library sitting across from one another in the carols. Truman gets up to talk to her and notices this pin that she’s wearing. There’s a close up of it, and it says, "How’s it going to end?" And Truman responds by saying, "I like your pin, I was wondering that myself."