"Uh... did you just say you're moving to HAWAII!?"

Here’s a fun little experiment that you kids can try at home. Just for fun, tell people that you’re moving to Hawaii and then just sit back and observe the reaction. I’ve had occasion to deliver such news a number of times over the past few months. Responses were often preceded by a long pause. Some people looked at me with confusion as if I had just told them I had booked a one-way ticket to Narnia.

Of course, Hawaii isn’t Narnia. People know that it is a REAL place. Many have even visited. Many people have visited Disneyland, too but you still don’t hear about anyone taking up residence in a condo on the slopes of Space Mountain. Hawaii is a VACATION destination. Maybe you get a timeshare if you really like it, but you don’t just MOVE there. Some people became excited when I told them my plan. The woman from PG&E who helped me when I called to cut off the electricity at my old apartment became down right CHATTY with all sorts of questions about how this move had come about and what I was going to be doing there. I don’t think you’d get that kind of response if you told people you were relocating to Los Angeles or Memphis. Maybe someone reading this can try THAT as an experiment and we can compare notes about the reactions we got.

Turns out people move here all time and not all of them are professional surfers or independently wealthy. Lots of ordinary people like me just pack up their things and come to the most remote islands in the world. It’s not something I ever really imagined doing but here I am. So far so good.