Am I ready for this?

On monday July 27th 2009 I officially became a driver in the beautiful state of Hawaii! Well not really... but I did get my permit, and hey everything starts somewhere right? At first I thought that I would have a lot more freedom being able to drive and what not but two days really changed my perspective on things. I've driven a total of two times on a highway which were more than enough for me to see how much responsibility I have just assumed. Being 15 and a half really isn't hard, I wake up whenever I please I eat when my stomach tells me to but now I have other peoples lives in my palms. And so I asked myself "Am I ready for this?" this took me a while to come up with an answer for this but I feel that no one's ever completely ready for anything we just prepare ourselves as best as we feel we can, and hope for the best. I feel that I will be able to one day become a respectable driver, and learn the rules of the road without having to make any large mistakes. Because a nervous driver is a safe driver!

Na Pua No'eau Summer Institute

I've been gone for two weeks, I was attending a summer program aimed at enriching Hawaiian children in their culture. I had a fantastic time it was a very compelling experience. The goal of the program was to help high-school students answer the questions like "who are you", what do you want to do, and who do you want to be, by amercing them in a mixture of culture and academics. I with along with another 49 students from all across Ka pae aina o Hawaii were given the chance to get to know each other quite intimately, because it was a residential camp. We were broken up into five groups based on our unique interests each group had 10-13 kids. I entered myself into the "Ho'owaiwai Kalaikaiaola O Hawaii" or Hawaiian ecology group. The focus of my group ranged from watersheds, to lo'i (irrigated gardens) to loko i'a (fish ponds) we were even given the opportunity to paint a mural. during the evenings our counselors would bring in people of all professions one night it was a designer, the next a souse chef, also slam poets, traditional tattoo artists, choreographers, people of all backgrounds and professions. This time spent there gave a clearer vision of what i would like to become as an adult, it let me asses what is important to me in life, and what I don't need to waste anymore energy on. I became very close with my fellow peers, and I dearly miss them. I will defiantly be attending this program next year, and if you have a son/daughter going into high-school who is of Hawaiian decent please enter them into this program. It's called Napua No'eau Summer institute. It has deeply moved me in ways that I've never felt before.

Mahalo!