Prologue
- jeremyskoler
- Sep 18, 2017
- 6 min read
Everyone told me to start the blog this summer, but I said "No! My gap year doesn't start until the school year starts!" I was wrong. At least the adventure did start before the end of summer. Unfortunately, I can't go back and write the first post from the first day of summer, so here is my prologue.
I’ve struggled so much to write this because there is no way I can share all the adventures and misadventures from the summer months in one post. So much happened and I don’t know where to start or how to fit it all together. So this is going to be more a collage of my previous attempts to write this post, hopefully many pictures and possibly just a list of some of the many things that happened to me. I am saddened to add that about half my photos from Hawai’i tragically disappeared from my phone and so I will not be able to show nearly as much as I hoped.
I spent the summer working on a cattle ranch on the Hamakua Coast of the Big Island, Hawai'i. During the college search the previous fall I had flown to Olin College of Engineering for a weekend. There I met Jeesoo Yoon, a Korean prospective student from Japan. We got to talking, after the weekend ended, and talked ourselves into leaving home for two months to work on an organic farm. After much debate we ended up applying to a bunch of Hawai'i farms through an organization called WWOOF. No one really knows what it stands for but it's something along the lines of Workers
and Organic and Farms. Basically our host, Asil Notrab, who thankfully accepted our application, offered us room and board in exchange for 25 to 30 hours of work a week on her cattle ranch and homestead.
The trip started with an unfortunate two-day stay in the Kona International Airport. Although I hadn’t planned to spent so long sitting on Hawaiian airport floors by charging outlets, it did give me time to make a friend, Ipo. It was then through a coworker of hers that Jess and I were able to hitch a ride halfway across the island at sunset in the back of a pickup truck. It was the best introduction to Hawaii we could’ve imagined.
We made ourselves at home in the abandoned hospital that served as the WWOOFer housing. After a week we were joined by a couple from Oregon and Benin Republic.
Then a bit later a guy from Spain also came to work with us. The house was crowded but it was good to be around such different people with such different beliefs and values.
Our boss Asil, loved showing us around the island, taking us to beaches, waterfalls, scenic points, friends’ homes, bakeries, community get together and dinners. We got to meet so many cool people and see so many incredible places we never would’ve found without her local insight. After a first day of her playing tour guide we jumped into repairing her waterlines, clearing paths through the jungle, repairing fences, herding cattle, patching roads, weeding the pineapple patch, planting and many other assorted tasks including killing and plucking a chicken for dinner.
In our free time we would play extensive chess matches, explore the surrounding area and watching movies. Chess was a blast and we all improved by leaps and bounds as there was always at least one game sitting on the kitchen table where we all hung out. When we pulled ourselves away from the board we were able to walk just outside the door to see the lush beauty Hawai’i is known for.
The Laupahoehoe Point (right) was only a two mile walk away down a gorgeous jungle trail. There we snorkeled, swam and climbed the massive banyan tree, which can be seen on the front page of the blog. It was impossible to capture the entire tree in one photo without losing a sense of the complex interconnected branch network that made it up. It’s just that big. Closer to home we discovered a cool stone tunnel under a bridge that open onto a 50-foot drop into a secluded ravine. Luckily the water wasn’t flowing or we would have been swept down what, during the rainy season, is a rushing waterfall. We even created our own outdoor space. Asil had us clear the brush across the road so we could have a view of the ocean. Instead of normal piles we cut the trees and branches and stacked them in a big fort!
A definite highlight was the trip to see the lava flow.
The whole day was an adventure in fact. We had taken two nights off to go camping so after awaking in our tent we drove to the southernmost point of the US. There we jumped off the bottom of the country and fell forty feet into the crystal clear water. It was sublime. We then got back in the car and headed back past our campsite to the northern side of the island. We drove down a dirt road as far as we could,
then rented bikes to continue on. Eventually the terrain got too rough and we ditched the bikes and took off on foot for an hour hike over the black lava fields. It was dusk now and with headlights on we let the glow of the lava lead us to the ever changing surface flow. It was unworldly. We stood feet from the oozing bubbling molten rock and watched as it burst and spread. The night was perfectly cloudless except for some deep dark purple clouds hovering near the volcano. Without a moon the stars lit up the whole scene so the clouds glowed against the dark starry night. A warm breeze floated off the lava clashing with the cool night air. I can’t describe it other than perfection. It is a night I will remember always.
Hawai’i was magical. Unfortunately, the laidback island lifestyle had to end. Jess and I took our last week off so we could hitchhike a loop around the island. We went to the volcano, to the green sand beach, the best snorkeling on the island, an ancient Hawaiian city of refuge and so much more. Just seeing the whole island and watching how much the environment change over a ten-minute drive was eye-opening and made me realize that there is no way I can’t go back. For there is just so much more to see and do.
One of our last nights I got bit by the only dangerous thing on the island, the poisonous centipede we had been warned about our first night. Luckily I was fine and I’m glad I got to experience it because I was super curious about how it felt and it brought our trip in a full circle back to the first conversation we had with Asil on our first night.
It was really hard to say goodbye to everyone. Not only Asil and the other WWOOFers but also Asil’s grandchildren and other family members we had grown close to. Jess and I hitchhiked back to the airport (left) and said our final tearful goodbye. Change is hard and leaving friends behind is harder. I’m glad to know, though, that I always have a home back in Laupahoehoe.
After Hawaii I spent about a week and a half staying at a friends and kind of just hanging out. Then I started my job as a carnie running a game at the Minnesota State Fair. The plan was to travel with the company and hopefully make bank so I could fund the gap year. They said I could bring my loaded bike so when I was done I could just ride off and start some other part of my gap year. I hoped to leave from our next stop, Salt Lake City and bike West.
As a worker on commission I had to compete with my coworkers to pull in customers. I quickly lost my voice and was given a whistle to replace it. It wasn’t until I lost my voice that I realized how much I actually talk to myself. It got a little lonely without it. Luckily my 9am to 1am hours kept me pretty busy so I didn’t have to focus being alone or unable to talk.
I started to fall into the unhappy routine and was able to keep the misery at bay with the thought of all the freedom money would bring. Until I was given the morning off. That gave me time to think. When I showed up for work for what I expected would be an easy shortened day I realized how miserable I actually was. All morning I’d been thinking about how to spend my gap year and how to be happy alone for the first time in my life. And I knew I was really unhappy with how my life was.
So I said screw the money and I quit. I figured if there is one time in my life when I can afford to not worry about money it really is now. I have a college I’m going to next year and that safety net of knowing I can’t mess up my future by being a little broke right now helped a lot. I know at some point (probably next summer) I’ll have to worry about money to actually afford college but for now I’m choosing my happiness over wealth. And it feels really good. So here is where my gap year begins, with me taking ownership of it and making some decisions.