Red Volkswagen || h.s.

it's time to go

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sometimes walking out is the one thing that will find you the right thing

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BROOKLYN'S POV

TWO WEEKS LATER

First days of school always made me sort of jittery for normal reasons. I was never one for icebreakers.

Then again, I've never had a first day of school where I had to put sunscreen on or wear a bathing suit under my clothes just in case.

I thought it would be a lot hotter than it is today. It's actually really nice. I'm used to pretty scorching temperatures in South Carolina, but in Hawaii it's not as hot and feels more bearable. I'm not sweating the second I step outside like at home.

This is my fourth day here. It's nice. I came here with two suitcases packed to the absolute brim with clothes and other random things, got here to the living complex, got my room assignment, unpacked, shopped for other things I needed but couldn't haul from South Carolina, and that pretty much took all of my time up until now.

I've been hauled up in this tiny, one hundred and fifty square foot room on the second floor of this complex at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, rotating from the bed in the corner to the floor as I build something or tape the back of a picture to hang it up on the wall. The biggest hassle was stringing the fairy lights on the ceiling, but I managed. They're pretty low ceilings.

There's nine more rooms in this hallway alone, and then three other hallways that connect to one absolutely massive common space and kitchen in the middle of the building. So there's forty people on this floor alone, and multiply that by the six floors, and that's two hundred and forty people in the building alone. 

That's basically the entire population of Westlake.

Culture shock is strong.

It's refreshing though, honestly– the atmosphere. It's similar in that it's not fast paced like Charleston is but it's still active enough so you never run out of things to do. I think I'll get used to it as time passes.

Because I've been so hauled up in my room, I haven't really met many people. I've seen a few stragglers in the late hours of the night in the kitchen, but I've never had the courage to interact with them past an acknowledging smile or a quick introduction.

But today I have no choice if I want to meet people or not, because it's the first official day of the reason I'm here in Hawaii in the first place. I have somewhere to be in about twenty minutes, and it's about a ten minute walk, so I'm getting ready to go right now.

I got the email that contained my schedule, basically, back before I left Westlake. It's not like typical college schedule but I still have people I'm learning from and different areas of subjects that I'm focusing on. No textbooks, but the discipline is still apparent.

Today is basically the equivalent of an orientation day, and then tomorrow I have 'class' on sustainable practices. Wednesday is aquatic animal psychology and training in the morning and marine psychology and ecology in the afternoon, and Friday I have habitat management. There's specific locations around the campus for each one, which I'm pretty sure I'll find out where they are today.

I'm excited. This will be good. Good for me. All I know is that I don't hate it yet, so I take that as a win. I definitely miss everyone back home, but I know they'll be waiting for me when I come back in a few months.