Why Hawaii?
Photo by the insanely talented Lillie Elliot of Lillie Elliot Photography.
Once we started telling people about our plans, the first question we got was, “Why Hawaii?” And the second question was always, “Have you been there?” Up until mid-March, the answer to the second question was, “No, but we leave on March 31st to go there for 2 weeks to make sure we like it!” Obviously our plans, like so many others, were derailed, but that’s another story.
The answer to the first question was a little harder. I started joking that I was going to have to come up with a really good answer for that question, but I still haven’t. People seemed confused. “Do you have family in Hawaii?” Nope. “Do you know people in Hawaii?” Nope. “Do you have a job lined up?” Nope.
So why Hawaii? Because it’s such a huge change, and that’s what we were looking for. It’s warm and a tropical island, which was pretty much a requirement for Chris. It was still the United States, which was a semi-requirement for me. And it was a long way away. A huge change. The kind of change that a few years ago I would have said that I could never do.
Photo by Lillie Elliot of Lillie Elliot Photography.
Our families were obviously somewhat hesitant, while still trying to be supportive. “Why don’t you move to the beach in North Carolina. Or what about Florida? Somewhere that it’s not such a drastic change and you’re not risking so much if you don’t like it.
It took me awhile to figure out how to verbalize what appealed to us so much about Hawaii. And I finally figured out that what we liked so much about it was that it was something we didn’t think we could ever do. It was somewhere that most people would say, “that’s cool, but I could never do it.” After feeling like we were stuck in a rut for so long, we wanted to do something that some would consider insane.
And it didn’t, and still doesn’t, seem like a risk to us. Even financially, we are limiting the risk. Along with our house, we will be selling everything we own. With the exception of our clothes, toiletries, 2 chests made by our grandfathers, and maybe 2-3 other pieces of sentimental furniture (and some artwork), everything else is being sold. We’re literally starting over. That means we’re not taking on the expense of moving all of our stuff to Hawaii, which also made the move seem much more manageable.
The other reason that it just didn’t seem like that much of a risk is that we know, and have already talked about, what happens if we don’t like living there. We have committed to giving ourselves 2-3 years of being there before we make any decisions about the long-term. If, after that time period, we love living there, we’ll stay. If we don’t, then we’ll leave. To us, it really is that simple.
Photo by Lillie Elliot of Lillie Elliot Photography.
Our families wanted to know if this move was permanent, and the best way I’ve found to answer that is that the move is open-ended. We’re not moving there planning to move back after 5 years. But we’re also not committed to staying there for the rest of our lives. Something we’ve learned through this process is that we want to regularly evaluate our life and make sure it’s still working for us. Make sure it’s still what we want. I have no idea if we’ll live in Hawaii forever, but I am committed to being there as long as we’re getting what we want out of our lives. And we figure the perfect weather and gorgeous beaches won’t be too bad either.