Will Hawaii’s Next Generation Have a Reason to Stay?

so with the start of the New Year I've been thinking a lot about life in Hawaii and one of the things that I've been thinking about is how is the next generation of locals in Hawaii going to make it I mean I'm still trying to figure out how we're going to make it here in Hawaii as in me and my wife but then I think about our two sons and how hard it's going to be for them to try and make it in Hawaii if they choose to stay at all I see a lot of people raising their kids by sending them to private schools and Mainland colleges and I think that's really great but then I wonder what that all will mean for these kids like are we pushing some in the Next Generation some of whom are the best and the brightest away from Hawaii almost setting these kids up to leave so let's talk a story [Music] foreign I think it comes down to a person's goals specifically parenting goals and how we collectively want to try and guide the Next Generation I mean my parents used to tell me that all they wanted to do as they're raising me was to teach me how to take care of myself whether that was in Hawaii or on the mainland and I think that they succeeded you know I was able to live on my own on the mainland during and after college and then when I moved back I was able to buy a place and now I have my own family and it wasn't just me it was also my brother who was able to do these things as well for himself and I know that not everyone grew up the same way that I did so I wonder what local parents goals are when raising their kids and I know that there's a spectrum of parents on the parenting scale some who really don't care and others who care a lot and so I guess I'm more curious about what their goals and strategies are and what they're thinking for their kids in the long term and also as a state how are we thinking about these kids and their future in or out of Hawaii sometimes I think there's so much pressure here in Hawaii to be a parent you know gotta send my kid to private school gotta sign them up for every extracurricular activity got to make sure they take the college exam prep courses you got music lessons and sports and travel and and just all the things and there's nothing wrong with wanting to provide so much for your child I think it's what most parents want to do to give our kids better than we had and so we spent all this money and all this time and for what and and that's sort of the thing that I'm trying to think about what is the purpose of all this is it so that I feel like a good parent is it so that I'm validated by other parents when they see me doing all the things is it to feel like I did the best that I could to raise them but I think without understanding why we're doing these things and the ideal outcome that we want for our kids but also the Next Generation I think we're missing something pretty big because let's say that a parent spends all this money and does all the things so the kid gets to go to private school and and maybe they get into a great College because of that on the mainland and then maybe they get a Masters or other professional degree and then they start working on the mainland at a really good company and they make plenty of money and then they have a family and they have a perfect life away from Hawaii and meanwhile this child's parents are in Hawaii and yeah of course the parents see their adult child you know growing up on social media posts maybe some Face Time chats and maybe they even get to visit once or twice a year but then the parents are all alone in Hawaii of course they did their job and they raised a conventionally successful adult but I think about who's gonna take care of them the parents when it's time and do these successful parents ever regret their child leaving them while they see some of their peers who get to see their kids and grandkids a lot more often and of course you can stay in Hawaii and be successful too I'm not implying that if you leave that's the only way that you can be successful and so I guess it matters whether you're raising your child to be the most successful version of themselves that they can be or are you raising them to be able to live in Hawaii and I'm not sure that these are mutually exclusive nor which one is particularly more difficult considering the cost of living here I mean maximizing a child's potential into adulthood can be very challenging but raising a kid here in Hawaii to then teach them how to live in Hawaii and pay for that lifestyle I mean it's a tough Challenge and when we look at the data of those leaving the state of Hawaii it's primarily younger people between the ages of 18 and 34 with bachelor's degrees so just beyond my age and we don't know how many are actually returning to Hawaii after time away but I was one of those who returned and so was my brother I wonder though could my brother and I have been more successful elsewhere and did we settle by returning to Hawaii given our potential and the investment made by our parents and of course I can't answer that I feel like I had a great time away from Hawaii I learned a lot of things but being in Hawaii has never felt like a consolation prize I mean I have a great life it's not easy it's it's hard but to me it's worth it and I know it may not be worth it for others but for me I'm glad to be able to be here and I'm glad to be able to take care of myself and my family of course but there may be others who don't see it that way and in that sense we lose those local kids as they grow up elsewhere and they have their own families and I hope that they don't feel any resentment for not being able to live in Hawaii even if it was by choice now this discussion isn't to create a panic like we're gonna lose a Next Generation and you know who's going to make up the tax base to be able to pay for all those services and health care for the retirees so don't worry eutf members you're still going to get your full pensions and Health Care coverage so no worries in fact I think most kids who grow up in Hawaii will probably just end up remaining here some by choice some because they have nowhere else to go others because this Hawaii is enough for them and for those who stay they'll probably find a way to make it whether that's living with Mom and Dad until they die or renting or even buying a place somehow and so again I kind of returned to this question of should our goal either at the family level or collectively as a state be to keep the Next Generation here in Hawaii because I think if you want to do that and keep local kids here in Hawaii pretty easy just limit their education and expose them to as little of the outside world as possible which would be a lot easier without social media these days but just get them comfortable here and plant the idea that there's nothing more for them outside of what they see right in front of them a job that sustains them but maybe they don't enjoy it hours of traffic same old same old again not trying to paint a bleak picture here that's just the extreme side of the spectrum and on the other end we push our kids to excel in school and sports and extracurriculars and we take them to all kinds of practices prep them for college figure out ways to get them into those coveted and elite private schools expose them to Opportunities outside of Hawaii you know taking trips to Japan California visit colleges push them to try and get into a good school because once they do that they're on track to get a good job and make us proud but then I wonder why with someone who is that good who has that much going for them with their education and experiences want to come back to Hawaii or even stay here the whole time because we have such limited opportunities and a High Cost of Living Well family is a pretty good reason and it's the reason why I came back and I think the reason why a lot of these people who have these wonderful experiences move back to Hawaii when I came back home I felt like it was time and I was fortunate that I wasn't forced to make that tough decision as my parents were in good health and they're still in good health for some reason I had just seen them age very quickly and it made me just want to be back home I hadn't done everything I wanted to do on the mainland but I had done a lot and that time there gave me a lot of perspective and I definitely grew up a lot but I can say that the way that my parents raised us I never felt like I was pushed to do the best that I could like I did all the things that I was interested in and they supported me and I felt loved but looking back I'm sure I was much smarter and much more talented than my outputs showed but they never pushed me that hard and I think that's a good thing I think that's a good thing instead they raised us and they raised me not to be a genius or the best athlete or the most likely to succeed as defined by whatever they just raised us to be able to take care of ourselves whether here in Hawaii or abroad and they raised us to really understand right and wrong and values now I'm not saying that we're perfect I've made my share of mistakes plenty of mistakes a lot on the mainland a lot here in Hawaii but now that I see that I'm the product of that kind of parenting with those goals in mind it's something that I'm thinking about for my own kids you know not can my child get a perfect score on the SATs or I want my kid to be on the state All-Star baseball team and there's nothing wrong with those goals and the character that you build while you're pursuing those goals but all of this has given me a reason to pause and think as we continue to parent our kids and they're getting just at that age my my oldest son is just getting at that age where it's going to start to shape his character and his personality is going to become more and more defined and so I want to be aware of these things before moving forward like can we teach them both our boys to be responsible adults who can pursue what they want to and make the right choices they don't have to be a doctor or a lawyer or some high paying job just can they do those things and so what does success look like for the next Generation in Hawaii is it a stem education so that they can become programmers and scientists but then what I live here in Hawaii and do what like do we as a state have the jobs and industries to support that to support these kids as they pursue other things because tourism industry workers and food service and retail job opportunities yeah we got choco those and to do those jobs you don't really need a high level of education and you probably don't need a stem education specialty and I'm not saying that the individuals who work in those Industries are intelligent but to perform many of those tasks doesn't require much more than a high school diploma and so I think without having good paying jobs in a diverse economic ecosystem we as a state are in a way telling our kids to learn all this stuff and be successful in sciences and engineering and math and language and all these wonderful areas but we're not laying the foundation for opportunities to use that success in education in a meaningful way in Hawaii how do we attract those types of jobs and industries here how do we help the future generation stay here and give them a reason to stay here where Hawaii doesn't become like a mining town where some people feel like they're just doomed to work in the mines unless they can either catch a break or figure out a way to get out of town but instead of these coal mines we have hotels and luaus and Hospitality so thanks for watching and a lot hello hello hello hello hello hello hello [Music]

Channel: Hello From Hawaii

Views: 7,286

Keywords: living in hawaii, Life in hawaii, what is it like in Hawaii, Moving to hawaii, hello from hawaii, hawaii, oahu, honolulu, hawaii life, life on hawaii, hawaiian life, stay in hawaii, why stay in hawaii, hawaii's future generation, hawaii's next generation

Id: 3Kbt9yuISS4

Length: 12min 2sec (722 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 23 2023