Life’s Not Always Sunshine and Rainbows
Hale'iwa Beach Park
“Man, I’m so jealous! Why are you frustrated? You live in LITERAL paradise!”
"Paradise is an ideal or idyllic place or state. A place or region of surpassing beauty or delight, or of supreme bliss. A state or condition of supreme bliss or happiness; the enjoyment of this."
Google and The Oxford English Dictionary
Supreme bliss, and an ideal place or state…. There have been very enjoyable and amazing parts and I know that we will experience many more in the years to come. But that’s not a term I would use to describe as our life in Hawaii so far.
The mountains and secluded beaches of Hawaii? Sure, those are paradise, 100%. So peaceful and calming, so easy to forget about cares and worries. But when you aren’t vacationing, and actually live here you really have to go out of your way to get to those places. Just because you live in a state with beautiful nature it doesn’t necessarily make it paradise.
Generally, I try to post and talk about happy and fun things. I think it’s important to put out positivity into the world to attract more of it. But the reality is I think sometimes people need to see the dirty bits, they need to know that your life isn’t perfect either. And let me tell you our life here is by no means perfect.
So, to show you that living in Hawaii, and our life in general, is not all sweet-smelling roses please take note of just some difficulties that we have been through so far.
When we first arrived and didn’t have a place to call home, we spent over six months’ worth of NC mortgage payments for housing in Waikiki for only two months.
Our home needs upgrading and has tons of repairs that need to be done, which the more we dig into the more complicated and expensive they are becoming.
We had absolutely no communication from the moving company with our belongings. So much anxiety thinking all of our stuff had been lost somewhere.
It is difficult to get things here; shipping is outrageous from most places. There’s only one craft store, very few furniture stores (that aren’t designated for the incredibly wealthy) and even Wal-Mart and Target generally have a very small selection.
When we got our new appliances, we paid for Home Depot to install them so we wouldn’t have to worry about it. The water line to the fridge started leaking but it was the old hose, so we figured it just needed to be replaced. Replaced and it was still leaking, finally fixed it with a patch. But come to find out weeks later the other end was leaking too and couldn’t be patched. Now we have purchased another better-quality line that hopefully will fix the problem so we can actually use the ice maker and water dispenser in our fridge.
Shortly after moving into our condo I updated the address with my online job. A week or so later they contacted me and told me that my position was terminated because“their payroll doesn’t work in Hawaii.” For a job posting that was listed as anywhere in the US. My already having an online job was one of the biggest reasons that we took this leap of faith and moved and now it’s gone.
To be completely open with you I have been struggling a lot with anxiety and depression since we have arrived here. Especially after losing my job. Being away from friends, family, and everything familiar without knowing when we’ll be able to visit makes it more difficult. It seems like nothing works the first time, communication here in general is terrible, and everything requires at least a dozen more steps to complete than it should.
So, for all of you teasing me for “living in paradise” and still having complaints, day to day life is just as basic and full of complications and frustrations as living anywhere else. I am making it a point to find something positive in everyday because I know that this part of our journey is only temporary. All I can do is take it one day at a time.
Rainbow off of our lanai
Life is not all sunshine and rainbows, even if in Hawaii that’s what the weather gives you every day.
I appreciate your support and am so thankful to have you here!
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