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Even though Hawaii is a dream destination for many people around the globe, my steadfast trepidation was getting the better of me as I sat in the Lindbergh Terminal of the MSP International airport, awaiting a flight to Kahului, Maui. I had taken a semester off from college and was to move with my childhood friend Charlie to the island known to Hawaiians as "The Valley Isle", to work at an international travelers hostel called the Banana Bungalow. I had never even heard of a hostel before this, and so this leap into the unknown was a 50 foot cliff jump off a waterfall where at the bottom I would have to either sink or swim. As fate would have it though, this turned out to be one of the best decisions I've ever made. I worked 16 hours a week as a receptionist at the hostel in exchange for free stay, and soon met a Washington state expat named Kevin who ran his own boat fiberglassing business on the island, and put me to work for him sporadically at the tune of $20 an hour. This turned out to be my favorite of the various odd jobs I worked around the island during my stay there. With my basic needs on Maslow's hierarchy being all taken care of, I started to feel a lot more at ease with this drastic move that we made, and began to love the vibe of carefree effervescence I was receiving from the people of the hostel. During my 6 month stay, I met likeminded travelers from over 50 different countries and territories, including many places I would have never expected such as Zimbabwe, Iran, The Marshall Islands and even some Chilean boys from Easter Island. These cultural exchanges and meetings gave me a broadened appreciation for everything International, especially the vibes in the hostel where it was a beautiful hodgepodge of different ethnicities, languages and cultures. I loved meeting these people while I was checking them in and subsequently talking to them about where they were from and where their travels had taken them and if they were going anywhere else after their stay at the hostel. One of the main amenities offered by the hostel to the guests is daily free tours around the island, which depending on the day of the week might be a jungle tour through Iao Valley, a tour to the isolated community of Hana on the east side of the island, beach, snorkeling and happy hour excursions to Lahaina, Kihei and Paia, an 8 mile sunset hike through the volcanic crater of Haleakala, or my personal favorite, Sundays at Makena State Park, located in the south central region of the island and home to for my money the most awe inspiring sunsets in the world. Granted I haven't seen them all yet, but these holistic hues of purplish red and orange mashing together in the cosmos would leave even the most distracted person standing in the tide of the ocean in the most pure admiration, akin to a young boy seeing Wrigley field for the first time or something cheesy and sentimental like that. This experience wasn't all rosy tinted, and there were quite a few learning experiences to traverse, but I knew everything was worth it from that first Sunday when I stood and finally felt like I belonged and was a part of something something, looking at the sunset in Maui.