This is my Grandma. In her lifetime she has seen radios to color tv, cassettes to CDs and now computers and internet. A touch screen? Mind blown. Video chatting on a cellphone? Amazing.  The light in her eyes when she is introduced to something new is the best. In my lifetime I’ve become accustomed to change and expect advancement. We are always looking for the next best thing.  Grandma is good with what she got, but put and iPad in front of her playing YouTube videos of her favorite Japanese singer and she’s all in.  I don’t think she ever thought any of this was possible, but now I’ve got pictures to prove it. Evolution at its finest.

In the 21st century, it’s hard to hide. We can “check-in” to show people where we are and “snap” live video of what is going on there. Some people try hard to stay current with social media while others try hard to stay away from it all. While sometimes I wish I can run and hide from  social media that often makes me aware of things I really don’t care about, I can’t stay away.  The reality of my work calls for the need to keep up to stay current. I need to see what others are doing and designing as inspiration and knowledge for my own work. The internet and apps are the modern day magazines. The only difference is that these newsstands have millions of digital pages you can flip through at the push of a button. It’s quite easy to learn about something new and yourself too.

While I go between wanting to run under a rock and just put it all on the line, I want to be present. Not only present by keeping up with the changing digital norms, but present for others to see what I am all about. You found yourself on this blog (thanks for reading this far!) and maybe clicked through some of my previous work.  I made the decision to be public and present whenever possible if comfortable. Instagram, public. Facebook, private. Personal website, public and pretty personal. Twitter, public. Snapchat, private. I choose what I say but remain honest with what is said. I’ll call this being publicly private.

I don’t mind that people know where I’ve been or what I am about. This helps someone decide if they want to work with me, if they have the same values, or if we have the same taste. These things are important in forming relationships and for the purpose of this website, future client or employer relationships. My photos tell a story of my daily life, but not every part of my life. I like that people can get a sense of who I am but I also constantly remind myself that the internet doesn’t die or disappear. The things I post and say last F O R E V S and that’s a fact. I know I am getting older because I think about this in a way I wouldn’t have if I was a teen.  I want to be a person I will approve of 10 years from now and the person I want my family to know and see.

So while I am in a constant push and pull of how involved I want to get in my social media presence, I will always be present. It helps keep me in check and is a pretty nice way for people to check-in.

May signals beginnings and endings. I graduated three times (over seven years) in May and I also made big decisions twice about where my life would go next (San Diego and New York City). While college was a given, I chose grad school. I chose the responsibility, the move and the debt too. But with both college and grad school I remember having the same feelings. I was nervous, maybe a little scared and excited. These feelings signaled the beginning of something new that ended up putting me in places where I learned more about myself than anywhere I had already been.

With high school grads making decisions about their first step after high school, the question “why go away to school?” has come up a few times. I could tell them about the times I laughed, cried, and did things my mom will never understand, but I’m not. They’ll experience it themselves, in their own way and I’ll keep my answer short: You’ll never know until you try. I tried and look where it got me: Just a coconut girl in a high fashioned world.

I’m back under the coconuts but who says that’s the only place I can be. Time to feel nervous, maybe a little scared and excited again.

Four eyes, Dumbo, Bucky.  Not naming my favorite cartoon characters, but three nicknames given to me during my childhood thanks to my older and wiser siblings, of course. I remember my mom taking this picture with her 35mm film camera and little did I did know that this picture would say so much years later. That little garage door I got soon turned into two really crooked front teeth fighting for space in my tiny mouth. Those glasses that seemed temporary also became the only way I could ever read the board in school or anything in life. And it did take awhile for my ears to grow into my head, or have they?

My time at home has allowed me to come across a lot of pictures like this. The ones that were taken with real film and are printed in boxes and albums scattered throughout our house. Pictures that show our family at our best and even our worst (for example, see above photo). I’m thankful my mom took the time to take and keep these pictures. We all started somewhere and it is important to remember I started here.

Maui was just named the #1 island in the world. Not just the United States, not just the Pacific Ocean, but THE WORLD. I would say I’m more than lucky to call this place home. I had the best winter breaks in college and I spent my summers where some people only dream of going. After years of living away from Maui, I can truly say I’ve learned to stop and smell the roses. Well in this case, the hibiscus, but those don’t actually have a smell, just ants. If you want to see what the view from the top looks like, come visit Maui because it will be worth every penny.

When I was little my Grandma and Grandpa would drive me A L L around Maui. We used to live upcountry until I was about three, so going the 30 minutes “downtown” was a far drive. My babysitters would take me even farther to the hotels and resorts in Wailea just to people watch. I guess gas was cheap back then and I was easily amused. They would also go the opposite direction, higher up the mountain to Kula and even as far as Keokea.  There we would stop at Grandma’s Coffee House. Grandma’s, Fong Store and Ching’s Gas are still there, all in a row as they always have been.

On our way back from Hana last weekend, we stopped there too. The menu has changed since I was a regular but the charm remains the same. Now that I’m a regular back on Maui, we’ll have to make an effort to come up here. I would like to see places like this stay because it really is what makes Maui, Maui. (And the food is pretty good too!)

A picture is worth a thousand words but this one probably includes a thousands things. Sitting in my room wondering, “Where the F did all this stuff come from?” The years (21 to be exact) of living in this room has amounted into a good amount of stuff. What kind of stuff? A LOT of it. Since my relocation back to the 96732, my room has been going through an identity crisis. Things are getting moved out, shifted around and thrown away (FOREVER). I’ve brought back my *newer* things from New York to live with my older things from my past. I’ve always shared this room with my sister, so I’m moving her things around too.  The years I lived away (8 years) from home made this space a time capsule. A place to drop things in between visits with no urgency to deal with any of it. My style has evolved and this space shows it. We are in a transitional phase together and we got some work to do.

There is nothing like a visit to Hana to remind me of all that we have on Maui. The drive itself is an experience. The ocean is bluer than blue, the plants are every shade of green possible. You feel like you are alone and surrounded by all that you need at the same time. Time after time this place still leaves me speechless.  I could describe it more to you but really it is a place that you have to see yourself to believe.

The computer and the fruits that run this world.

She’ll never have her own Instagram (animals don’t have smart phones!) but she will always have a #hashtag.

Just at the beach with friends yo.

You saw it as an Insta first and here, second. Now go find it for yourself in Wailuku. Third time’s the charm.