Fifteen days ago, I left my friends, my job, my home, my school, etc. behind, boarded a plane, and moved almost 5,000 miles away to attend school at Brigham Young University- Hawaii. Since then, I’ve realized something very important.
Before moving here, I had the attitude of “nothing matters anyways because I’m moving to Hawaii and then life will be great!”
Oh, how mistaken I was.
Don’t get me wrong, living in Hawaii IS great. I love the people here and their aloha spirit. I love saying a prayer before every class with the other students (because I especially need that prayer in my Japanese class lol). I love taking a five minute walk to the beach whenever I feel like it. I love all the friends I’ve already made. The list goes on. I love life here.
But as it turns out, my problems didn’t disappear the moment my plane touched ground in Honolulu. I know that between the Instagram pictures of turquoise waters and green mountains, it might be hard to believe that life is in fact still hard. Changing locations, however, won’t change your life. Changing your group of friends won’t change your life. Changing your name won’t change your life. Moving to Hawaii has only reinforced something in me that I’ve known all along: The only thing that can truly change your life is YOU.
Yes, I miss my family, and I miss my bed, and I miss the life I left behind. And yes, I miss the friends that have passed on in the past few months. And yes, it’s hard to wake up and navigate this new school and this little island all on my own. I still deal with those trials, and so many others I won’t explain in detail.
To ANYONE else who’s life is hard right now, in any way (which should be everyone reading), here’s what to do:
Smile. Keep moving forward.
I was going to say I wish I had some step-by-step guaranteed secret process to assure you a happy life… but then I realized that IS the secret to life. Move forward with a smile and a positive attitude and things will work out. And who knows, maybe in a few months or years I’ll have some book that goes into way more detail on how to succeed and be happy. But until then, I’m a firm believer in this one step process.
Smile.
Aloha,
Megan Eldredge
Step by Step Parenting 