COMMENTARY
High school reunion inspires alum to return home

By Randy Fishel
Special to The Advertiser

When I decided to attend my 30th year high school reunion in 1994, it had been 18 years since I'd been home to Hawai'i.

It had been that long since I'd spoken to my old friend Jack as well, so it was with some trepidation that I asked him for a place to stay.

His response was immediate. "No problem, brah," he said without hesitating.

Driving down from Jack's Maunalani Heights hideaway, I got miserably lost. By the time I located Kalakaua Avenue, unfamiliar and awesome buildings that I had never before seen greeted me, like the stunning Waikiki Landmark.

Luckily, I found Royal Hawaiian Avenue and finally the old pink hotel where Roosevelt's Class of 1964 was holding its event. The agonies and the ecstasies of that trip would haunt me for the next several years.

Gone again

Back on the Mainland, the battle raged. My heart, most of which was still in Waikiki, contested daily with my head.

Fighting valiantly to rationalize career and conscience with the carefree longings of an old surfer, my head lost.

Near the end of 1999, I sold everything I owned, quit my reasonably secure job as an editor of a popular national lifestyle magazine, and bought a one-way ticket to Honolulu.

Optimist or fool, the decision had been made.

Many times during the next few years, I doubted both my decision and my sanity.

Thinking I'd take the Islands by storm with my degrees, experience, drive and what a very small amount of kama'aina capital — being a local boy from Roosevelt — might buy, I'd forgotten one primary rule: "Hawaiian time" isn't a catch phrase, it's a philosophy.

Goals can be achieved, things may happen but they will happen "by and by." No rushing allowed.

Another Reunion

In what seems like the blink of an eye, 10 years have passed since our last reunion.

During the past few years, I have worked as a dishwasher at a Manoa restaurant, rented motorcycles to tourists in Waikiki, detailed cars and taught writing part time at several of the private colleges and universities here on O'ahu.

Recently, my daughter had her first child. And on Sept. 5, I attended my 40th reunion at Roosevelt.

As my reunion approached, I had to ask myself, "Has it all been worth it?"

To answer, I had only to be at the grounds of the Royal Palace in the late afternoon, where the loudest sounds you hear are those that the cats make as they run across fallen leaves under the banyan trees, in relentless pursuit of elusive birds.

Or remember that time, a week before payday when I was a little short, when I was given credit at my favorite plate lunch place, then was able to thank them in Korean because they took the time to teach me some of their language.

Or to be a bit late, run for that last bus and have the driver stop a little farther down the street because he knows I'm a regular and how far I have to go.

Or to have a great day surfing Queen's when the waves are perfection, the crowd is manageable and most of my friends are out.

But most of all, it's been worth it for one simple reason: I'm home.