How Hawaii Helped Shape My Personal Identity by Abigail I Livermore

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The first day of my trip, we hiked up Diamond Head State Park. As you can see, I was busy taking pictures and videos of the beautiful view.

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On day 4, we traveled to a new island, Maui. When we arrived at our new hotel, I decided to go down to the beach and check out the view. This is when I attempted to take a video, and my phone fell into the water.

Arriving in Hawaii

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This was one of the first days without my phone. We had a 3-mile hike/canoe ride and along the way I had the chance to try native edible flowers growing by the trail.

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In this picture you can see me conversating with our tour guide, versus in the background two of my group members taking a selfie. I was fully present in the moment.

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This is one of the locals that still have an impact on me to this day. By talking to him, I learned the importance of a slow and happy lifestyle, information about the island of Kauai, and my personal favorite a local legend of treasure being buried somewhere along the trail. You can learn many different stories and opinions if you just put yourself out there and communicate.

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About a week and a half through the trip, I had even started to form a friend group with people from across the United States. Pictured are friends I had made from Florida, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

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On this day I got to volunteer for a sea turtle rescue group. I was interacting, I was learning and paying attention, I was fully engaged in the opportunity.

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Pictured is a few different foods I got to try at a traditional Hawaiian luau. While I am usually a picky eater, in Hawaii I decided to go out of my comfort zone and try anything once. I tried anything that was offered to me, including taro, bread fruit, and coconut bread.

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Throughout my trip, I decided to make it my mission to try as many exotic fruits as I possibly could. This picture was taken at a fruit farm, where the locals offered us many different fruits directly off the trees.

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Here is one of the locals I met at the fruit farm, he gave me a lot of different things to try. Those bananas in the back were my favorite!

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On this day we got to visit the black sand beach and got to swim in the ocean while it rained. This memory feels right out of a movie for me. Because of living in the moment, two years later I am still able to vividly remember these memories as if they were yesterday.

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Pictured here is a song that I learned a traditional Hawaiian dance to. While in Hawaii I really tried to learn as much as I could about their culture and welcomed it with open arms.

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As I included in my narrative, most of the car rides were spent with me staring out the window at the views, pictured here!

ailivermore — 2024-09-26 20:03:44 UTC

I hope this picture puts into perspective of just how many people have their phones out in any situation. Not pictured here is me in the background observing the animals not through the screen of a phone.

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I hope you enjoyed looking through these pictures, and have learned just how important it is to live in the moment, go out of your comfort zone, and make memories!