Kinda late in this...but...

I was born in Honolulu in 1979 and I grew up in a really bad part of town. Our old apartment was 2 blocks away from a run-down government housing complex so the neighborhood was overflowing with drug addicts and gangs.

When I was in the 2nd grade, my parents were having problems in their marriage so I was sent to live with my uncle and his family. So, all my stuff was packed and I shuttled off to Anderson Air Force Base on Guam. I hated Guam.

Thankfully, my parents worked things out and I moved back to Honolulu. However, when I was in the 5th grade my father got sick and I had to go off and live with my uncle again. Only this time instead of going back to Guam I moved to Petaluma, CA. Yeah. Petaluma was not a good place to be. I remember being the only Asian child in the school and many kids did not want to hang around me.

I moved back to Hawaii again in the 6th grade after my dad passed. Around this time my mom moved us out of the bad neighborhood and we finally got a house in the suburbs.

...And I've been here ever since.

As a child I spent my summers and school breaks on my grandfather's ranch in Anahola, Kauai. Right next to the ranch is the largest taro farm in Hawaii, so I learned how to grow and cultivate taro when I was very young. I used to have so much fun living out in the country. I go there once in a while, but I'm so used to living the busy life that I usually get bored after 2 or 3 days there.