“I climbed mountains, swam oceans,

and ran through forests

just to reach the moon

but when I finally found the light

it was inside of me.”

Sabina Laura

It’s no secret that Hawai’i is the most expensive state in the U.S. With a median sale price of $1,000,000 in O’ahu’s housing market, a median household income ranging from $90,000 to $95,000, and a minimum wage of $14 per hour, things can be tough for some of us.

I think it’s safe to say that the year 2023 was a major turning point chapter in my life. I shed away all fear of criticism, I took the ultimate dive into living life to the fullest and traveling solo by moving to Hawai’i all alone to an island I’ve never been to before, without hardly knowing a soul, and I accepted fully that my passions lie in writing and creating, therefore making the irrevocable decision to chase a lifetime of doing only the things I love to do, with hopes of someday making a living off of it. But of course, with so many drastic changes come many lessons and many realizations about the world we live in and the people around you. Here are twenty-five lessons I took from this tumultuous year: