Aloha Maui!
The plane starts to slow. I look out my window to the flat ground below. It is Maui. As the pilot prepares for landing my eyes scan the streets, the buildings, the symbols that mean I am home. I drink them in for reassurance and I say their names in my mouth and hold them there, savoring the flavor of what was once strange but is now familiar. "Puunenne, Kihei, Haleakala."
Each second brings us closer and I am almost crawling out the window to get next to the island, to feel the wind that ravages the palms on my skin, to let the moisture fill up my veins and calm my anxious soul.
I step off the plane and all is at peace. It's raining and cloudy but warm and inviting. I get into my car and take the back roads from the airport to Paia. Driving through cane fields I try to remember what it was like the first time I drove this stretch of road. When did I stop noticing the cane fields? When did it all become second nature that I didn't have to think of when to turn, when to change gear, when to brake?
And now my bags are packed.
I am ready to go. No, that is not true.
There is so much left unexplored. I look back at all the adventures and people and I think "Wait, I can't leave! I haven't even met Willie Nelson!"
I may not be ready to leave but Molokai is ready to have me.
My car is currently sailing across the ocean towards a little piece of land I like to call Last Chance Paradise… or better known as the island of Molokai. I sit in my room, walls blank except for a few nails. It looks like Whoville after the Grinch was done with it.
Yes folks, I am leaving my beloved Maui. After 9 months the time has come to journey onto new adventures, time to meet some new characters and conquer a few more challenges and boy do I have some coming…
But it is not without great amounts of sadness and longing do I leave my island.
I won't say goodbye to Maui. I will only say Aloha.
Official Casselle on Maui Blog will now be deported to the mysterious island of Molokai
Please check out themolokaijournals.blogspot.com for more details.
Thank you for reading,
much love,
Casselle
