Changing Seasons

Before I moved to Hawaii people would tell me the reasons why they could never be happy here. Quite a few people said that they would suffer from island fever, many said that they would miss their family and friends and a couple people said that they would miss the changing of the seasons.

The strongest reason for me to stay on the mainland was because I would miss my family and friends. Island fever didn't seem like it would be an issue for me. After living in some cold places, with a low tolerance for the cold, I definitely didn't think that the changing of the seasons would bother me one bit. 

Once I started working here, I noticed a big difference in the work ethic in Hawaii. I heard that people were more laid back here and I honestly thought that it would help me not be so uptight. Some people would come into work when they wanted to, others would push their work off on me, some of the salaried workers would take two hour lunches every day so they could exercise and still leave work at 4:30. 

The result of all of this being laid back hasn't been good. The auditors are constantly frustrated that problem issues are not resolved by the next year, the school is behind on a few things that could get them into legal trouble and the biggest issue is that if they are not on top of some of these problems, they could lose federal funding. That could be devastating to the school and would cost the church millions. 

There has been talk of closing the school down all together. The previous school president was brought in because he was a business man and they needed someone to save the school money, otherwise the church was considering closing it. Apparently he became the bad guy because he said no to a lot of costly projects. What a lot of the locals don't realize is that they should really thank him for saving their jobs. The new school president that was brought in is trying to smooth things over since many of the locals don't seem to like the business approach. They seem to think that the school should be run more like a charity than a business. 

So what does any of this have to do with the changing of the seasons? Well I have a friend here from Canada that knows the ins and outs of this school better than anyone I know. She started to work here about the same time I did, but her parents have been here for years trying to save the school money. They came over as missionaries and stayed as donors and now her mom is taking classes here so they can stay with a student visa while her father continues to try to save the school money that is constantly thrown away. 

Her family and I seem to see things eye to eye on this school. Her father has a theory that when people have to deal with the changing of the seasons, they learn to work hard and prepare for the future. If our ancestors were not prepared for some of the harshest winters they would not have survived and we would not be here. It almost makes me appreciate the winter again. ;) I probably would have left this place by now if it wasn't for a good friend I can commiserate with. 

I do not doubt that some day this school will be closed. I would feel sad for all of the Asian students who come here and find their spouses and raise adorable families but with all the things the church is doing with the Pathway program, it doesn't make as much sense to keep a costly school like this going. I was taking to the new HR director last week. She is well aware of the problems facing the school and she has asked her superiors a few times, "Why don't you just shut us down?" Time will tell, maybe the Lord has plans for this place that I do not understand but it has been quite a learning experience in the mean time.