How I Spent My First Semester of College in Oahu, Hawaii

Crazy, right?

By Katherine FernandezPublished 6 years ago • 4 min read

Here's a picture of my friends and I (I am in the white shorts) in Lanikai Beach.

Being the first student in my high school to actually travel across the globe from New Jersey, USA to Honolulu, Hawaii, USA was unimaginable. I kept thinking to myself, 'How can an 18-year-old high school graduate just pick up her things and leave her family for one whole semester?' Trust me, my parents were more concerned for my mental state and whether I had gone completely insane. But I did it! Here is how:

In the process of submitting college applications, I applied to universities close to home such as NYU, Rutgers, Pace U, etc. One day I decided to go do something different from all the other students in my high school. I stumbled across Grand Canyon University's website and decided to apply. When I got accepted into GCU's pre-medical program with almost a full-ride, I was completely shocked.

I had promised myself in my sophomore year of high school that I wasn't going to spend my years after graduating stuck in the same town I grew up in. It did not matter if it meant living in New York City as long as I was away from that town. It is not that I don't like the town where I grew up but it's the fact that in my perspective, it feels like a mouse trap for those people to stay in the same place after graduation. Like c'mon, get on with your life! Do something different! Go and take the world!

Anyways, GCU offered me the flight program to go visit them in Phoenix, Arizona. My parents were obviously looking at me as if I had three heads. At the time, I was still 17 years old and they still had the right to decide basically everything in my life until I reached 18 years old. My parents gave me the opportunity to travel to Arizona with people I didn't know at all to go see this school. Insane! But...

Two days before my flight, my dad decided to change his mind and called GCU and told them I was not attending the program nor the flight. I was completely furious because I thought how can he mess with my future like this?! At this point, I decided to apply even farther than Arizona.

I looked into universities in California, Washington State, etc., until I found the University of Hawaii and Hawaii Pacific University. Unfortunately, I passed the application deadline for UH but still applied to HPU. Two weeks later, I received an email from HPU of my acceptance letter and also receiving the largest amount of scholarship money they offered.

I submitted my deposit, packed my bags, and saw the look on my father's face when I told him I was going to Hawaii. Obviously, no parent wants their child to move to the other side of the world at 18 years old by themselves, but I managed.

I met wonderful lifetime friends that I went to the beaches with, partied hardcore, and had multiple times of headaches and hangovers the next day. Going to Hawaii was the absolute best decision I ever made. I found who I was, partially because in this thing we call life, as human beings, we require to constantly grow and step out of our comfort zone to live the life we want to manifest.

Hawaii was the place I came out of my shell, laughed, cried, and had the most amazing time of my life. Reflecting back on how I lived on my own in another state, I cannot believe that I made it out of the environment of the town I grew up in. I saw and experienced life the way it should be without no regrets. Money comes and goes all the time. Don't spend 40 years of your life in a career you do not like nor have the passion for just to retire and say, "This is when I'm going to travel!" No. Whoever said that is a complete idiot. #Sorrynotsorry. Go and live your life! The number of people who told me that going to Hawaii was a stupid idea is insane but they are still stuck in the same place I left them in one year ago.