My story began when I was born on February 12th, 2010. I was born here, on the island of ‘Oahu, in Hawai’i. My parents named me Noah, after Noah from the Bible. My mom was the one who thought it was a really great name and my dad agreed and followed my mom’s wishes. Eventually, my parents ended up having arguments and they got divorced in the first year of my life. My dad was very sad and heart broken, so divorce was hard for him, but he has taken really good care of me in Hawaii by himself since then.

In 2018, we sadly had to move away from Hawai’i for a while. My dad did not have enough money to afford living here. A lot of people don’t realize how high the cost of living is here in Hawai’i. Many native Hawai’ians do not have any land and it gets harder to buy homes here every year. We went to Arizona because we had a lot of other family members there. They took good care of us and did a great job of cheering us up. One of the first things I enjoyed in Arizona is that my grandma took us to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. It was nice to be around so many family members.

Eventually, my Uncle Shankster told my dad to get a job to move back to Hawai’i, but I was just beginning to like Arizona. It was bigger than Hawai’i. There were a lot more places to eat. My favorite food is pizza, and my dad took me to a Barro’s pizza. It was awesome because I liked the flavor. Their chicken wings were good too. Sometimes, I think I miss Arizona a little more than Hawaii, because I really liked having my family there. With more family around, I had more fun over there. My family took good care of me, but it was a time of a lot of moving. My first temporary home in Arizona was in my Uncle Shankster’s house. Then I moved to Uncle Teddy’s place, and then Uncle Fuzzy's place, and then lastly Uncle Greig’s place.

I loved living with my Uncle Greig out in the desert. The landscape was really different from Hawai’i. Hawai’i is surrounded by the turquoise blue ocean, jagged green mountains with tall palm trees and brightly colored flowers. Arizona has a dry basin and range with cactus and joshua trees. I would feed ducks at a lake with my Aunt Kim in Arizona. I was interested in the many different animals surviving in that dry landscape. But it was also hard for my dad to work in the desert. Eventually, he made enough money to go back to Hawai’i.

I found that I was also happy to be back in Hawai’i, where I could sit on the beach with my dad. I returned to my elementary school and my old friends were shocked and surprised. It was nice to know they missed me. I also met my current best friend, who is Aiden. Starting my life in Hawai’i, and moving to Arizona, showed me a lot of different landscapes that America has. They are all beautiful in different ways. There are hardships and people trying to find their spaces to live everywhere. Something I’ve come to learn is that you can move around to lots of different places, but home is where your family is.

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