I’ve gone halfway around the world.

If you had told me a year ago I would be writing at my grandfather’s desk on the Island of Oahu, I would have asked what you were drinking. These days, I might ask the same question, and perhaps even ask where you got it. This is simply to reflect on the fact that I have been in Hawaii fewer than 200 days, and yet it feels as though several different lifetimes have both started and ended.

I’ll admit, I felt great peace in leaving my job in education. I was beyond tired, and I think I personally kept the Wawa at exit 10 on NJ 295 open with my sometimes twice daily coffee purchases. I knew there was a problem when I would come home and the twins would say, “Daddy’s home-it’s bedtime!” and head upstairs. That is assuming I got home before they were put to bed.

Much like anything else in life, my job as a high school Assistant Principal and Athletic Director was great when it was good, and subsequently hard when it was hard. There were long stretches of days that the wife and I would not see one another, and equal to that if not beyond were the days that I would not see the twins, and their baby sister.

Incidentally: I’ve called her the “baby” here. She’s not a baby anymore…so, I’ll now refer to her by one of her nicknames around the house-she more often than not is “the bear” so that is what she will be in this space.

I liked my work at the last school, and I was good at it, I think. With Spring sports about to kick off in NJ, I am definitely jonesing for the rush that came with a new season, and the joy that a new season offered-we had some great kids and great coaches, and I do not think the sports aspect of my job was a genuine source of unhappiness…save for the ridiculous hours. I digress a bit I think.

I spent the last week alone with the twins. The wife took the bear to visit her sister back in PA, and I was left to be superdad to the twins. We had a lot of fun, and it was a very different experience being just with the two of them.

We did a lot-we went to the Zoo, explored a new playgroup, did story time at the library, took a ride on the Pineapple Express train, went to the discovery center, cleaned the house with the Flyers game on, and visited a few restaurants, and parks all over the island.

We had fun.

I worked hard to see that they had fun, but they taught me something this week. I tried to not overdo the activities, and we achieved a nice balance I think. The evening were always low key, and we listened to music, as we always do, and a few nights, we ended the evenings looking at family pictures and or movies. One night, we spent walking about the house, with the twins, the girl at the lead, pointing at the myriad pictures we have up here, and her asking who they were, or, in the case of most of our family, pointing and identifying them unsolicited. The boy knows Sam Cooke and Bruce Springsteen on hearing them, and they both know our family photos just as well.

The boy can name most of Bruce’s band as well, which is a little scary, but that is another entry I think. The first time he said “Clarence plays the Saxophone, Max plays the drums…” I had a moment…but we encourage knowledge in our home, regardless of genre.

I took the twins to Pali Lookout (“Nuuanu Pali”) this week. Pali is a tremendously sheer cliff, where, as the story goes, King Kamehameha I fought the final battle (The Battle of Nuuanu) in his campaign to unite the Islands of Hawaii in 1795, and defeated his rivals by driving them over the cliff at Pali. It remains a very wild and windy spot, and one that is very impressive to stand upon.

The Pail trail road was open this week, when we went, which meant either it was open, or someone took the sign that said “road closed” and threw it away. Either is possible. Either way, I took a long hike with the kids down the Pali trail. It was a lot of fun, and as the Girl said, “it’s a little mysterious.”

We filled our days with fun, and our nights were filled with music. I was impressed and humbled a bit when the girl didn’t want to go to bed the other night until “daddy played the guitar” for her.

Whatever else I will say about living here in Hawaii, and there is a LOT I can say about the experience of living here, I will say this:

-I am now a full time parent. I was barely a part time parent back in Jersey.
-I am a better parent than I was. Beyond the simple fact of showing up, I am more creative and engaged in their daily lives than I have ever been.
-Our family has regular and significant time together.
-I watched 2 Flyers games live on TV this week.
-My kids Have a good sense of humor, and know who the Eagles, Phillies, and Flyers are (screw the Sixers).
-They can look at family photos, some of which are 100 years old and recognize those in them.

I’ve done just fine, I think, and I mention this not to pat myself on the back, but more to remind myself that regardless of the challenges that we have faced here, and there have been some, the positives of our life here outweigh them. More time together. A simpler life. Streamlined expenses. Time as a family and a chance to be together is more important than anything else, and we have that now. This move to Hawaii was always planned as a short-term thing, and that hasn’t changed. That said, I’ve had to force myself to remember what’s important here, in lieu of waiting for the next move at times. I’m not going to waste our time here waiting to come home.

Do I miss Jersey? Of course-more than I thought I would. Will I be excited when we get the chance to move back to the East? Yeah, I will.

But I’m going to milk this experience for all it’s worth, for all of us.