Fighting Tears While Strolling the Streets of Waikīkī

I am terrible with paperwork, terrible as in I usually ignore it hoping it will go away. I can tell you it never does.

My daughter was accepted into the university exchange program and was given her first selection at one of the universities in Hawaii. She was elated, and I was relieved she wasn’t awarded her second choice in Australia.

Vancouver is a long way away from the land down under.

Hawaii was much closer.

However, the excitement and sunshine celebrations were quickly clouded over by the overwhelming and dark ominous amounts of paperwork.

There is so much paperwork.

We tackled immigration, health insurance, meal plans, accommodations, health clearance, TB testing and immunization records. That’s just what I can recall. I’m sure I’m missing something.

As my daughter, a straight A+ student, was in the midst of exams and finishing up her semester, I hesitantly took over the paperwork debacle.

Yes, I’m a helicopter parent… but I must be doing something right!

My stress level was at its maximum, I’m sure I was aging a year during each week of hell. I am the worst with paperwork, everything I do tends to be wrong, and I’m forced to redo hours of tedious work.

Needless to say, every submission I made required at least one redo. Yes, I’m quite inept, but at least I can admit it.

After narrowly making the nail-biting deadlines we finally had the green light and were ready to fly.

I was so focused on the chaos of all the details of my daughter’s exchange program that I didn’t realize my passport had expired.

I discovered this….the night before our flight.

The worst and most embarrassing part of this is my several years of working in the airline industry.

I used to wonder how someone could arrive at the airport with an expired passport, or even to arrive and have forgotten it at home. I was always arrogantly shocked when it happened to others.

Yes, karma… I heard you.

I put a rush on my passport and met up with my daughter and her dad just in time for the big move-into-dorm day.

She’s a 4th-year university student so she’ll be spending only one semester abroad, and home to graduate. GRADUATE… where did those years go?

Our emotions were mixed with excitement, anxiety and overwhelming heat exhaustion. Did I mention we’re from Vancouver?

We found her dorm and entered her stiflingly hot room to be home for the next 4 months and I could sense the regret she felt… I told her to give it a chance, a home-decor trip to Target and a few fans.

I knew she would be fine, but she was doubtful, she just wanted to go home.

I reminded her that nothing is ever permanent and if Hawaii… became absolutely unbearable she could always come home, but it was only 4 months.

She owed it to herself to give it a try.

Her dad dropped a few hundred dollars at Target, and we took an Uber ride back to her dorm. Her roommate wouldn’t arrive until the next day so she wanted to spend one last night with us at the hotel.. we had a wonderful dinner and her dad left the next day for home.

The next day she met her roommate… a lovely girl just like her, and an entire group of international students. She was set and suddenly had a newfound excitement for the upcoming semester, and I had some new free time on my hands in Waikiki.

As I walked along the well-manicured gardens and avenues, past The International Village I suddenly couldn’t hold back the tears. I was lucky to have full large dark sunglasses on so it wasn’t too obvious, but it was my release of pride, joy and nostalgia for my little girl.

The last time we were here she was just 8 years old getting her ears pierced for the first time, and always holding my hand everywhere we went.

This has been a turning point for her, and I couldn’t be happier. She’s busy each day with group activities after class. She’s already planning to backpack through Europe on her gap year between her grad and post-grad studies. After all, she will now have friends to visit in Spain, Portugal, Sweden and wherever else!

I’ve since returned home, and we talk every ‘other’ day now… if I’m lucky. She’s acclimatized to the heat of Hawaii, living abroad, and living life as an adult. Congratulations to my little love…

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This post was previously published on medium.com.