Home for Good.

He didn't know how he made it though his first year of college with a 3.8 average. He barely paid attention in class, didn't put any effort into his assignments, and spent more time counting down the days until summer than he did studying for his finals. His first year away from home put a lot of things into perspective. He never considered staying home for college; he always knew he would go away. He was so confident that he didn't even apply to the University in his home town. But after a year of being a way, he realized that gaining new experiences and getting a quality education were second to feeling comfortable and safe in your own skin.

During the ending of this last quarter, he briefly made contact with some people from Hawaii and was finally able to let his guard down a little, he could laugh at jokes that only someone who grew up there would get and reminisce about life on the island. He went to their parties and totally let loose and wondered why he didn't join the Hawaii club if he missed home so much. He would find out later that he created a false sense of security and manipulated himself to think that being with these people was where he belonged. The very reason he went away was to meet different people with different ways of thinking. He felt in some ways that being born and raised in Hawaii came with deeply ingrained prejudices that he did not want to perpetuate, find would learn later that Hawaii isn't the only place haunted by it's past. But he wasn't aware of that at the time and he needed another point of view so he left; although he could never figure out why he always want to go back.

When summer finally came, he went back home a new person; the opposite of who he was when he left. He realized what was important to him and knew he had to make some major revisions in his life. When the plane touched down at the Honolulu International Airport, he felt an enormous weight lifted off his shoulders. He felt very accomplished and proud of himself for making it through a whole year away from home, he also knew that now that he was home, he was never leaving again.