The other week I found myself on a trip to Hawaii for the first time. Now I know the reputation Hawaii gets from all the movies and other media, so I tried to go into to it without any real expectations of either the people or the places. Upon arriving there I found that no film could ever do it justice, the beauty of Hawaii has to be seen to be believed. However, Hawaii is so much more than a land of beaches, volcanoes, and rainforests; it’s also home to some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet.

Pop culture loves to point out how relaxed and easygoing island life is and how nice and carefree islanders are. To someone who’s never been there it sounds like a load of bull, after all how can there be a place that relaxing when the rest of the world is so stressful. But once you get there you realize that pop culture undersold just how nice people are on the island.

For my family and me this started as soon as our plane touched down in Honolulu. When we were debating what to do with ourselves while we waited for our inter-island, flight the woman sitting behind us offered several options of things to do around the city as well as advice on how to use the city bus system. This could very well be case of a veteran tourist giving advice to a few first timers, but after spending more time on the island I don’t think that is the case.

The most obvious place I noticed the effect of island life was driving. Driving might seems a strange way to judge people, but when you grow up in the auto ruled land that is LA it’s how you learn to read people. In Hawaii the people never seem to be hustling to get anywhere, no one comes speeding down the road, no one cuts you off, and there’s no rush hour traffic (granted there is only one freeway in the whole state). This good driving character was especially noticeable when I would go running along the side of the road. Normally when I go running at home people are indifferent to me as I run by the roadside, but there is always that one jerk who decides to rev his engine really loud when he goes past you and scare the living daylights out of you. In Hawaii this never happened no matter how many dozens of people passed me by. In fact, some of them would even wave or give me the ‘hang loose’ sign as they passed.

Wherever we’d go on the island we would find the nicest people whether it was a shop, restaurant, or a national park. You can say it is just people being mindful of tourists and tying to keep up the charade, but it’s to all encompassing to be just that. Frankly, after awhile the ‘aloha spirit’ began to affect even us and we found ourselves approaching our time there with the same laidback attitude as a local.

Upon coming back to the hustle and bustle of the mainland I find that I miss the aloha spirit. I miss those feelings of relaxation and friendliness that animate everyone around you and shape your day. Perhaps we could all learn to be more relaxed in our daily lives and a little friendlier in our dealings with each other. Who knows? Maybe we could end up with our own little slice of paradise.