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I wanted to do at least a semester studying abroad when I was in undergraduate college in 2019. I had always wanted to go to Hawaii, so when I saw that my university parterned with NSE (National Student Exchange) a program that helps organize opportunities for students to enroll at another school across the U.S., I was so excited. I went to an information session for NSE and learned that the University of Hawai’i Hilo on the Big Island of Hawai’i was a school that my university partnered with. But, UH Hilo was obviously in high demand and the top choice for most students who were interested in the program, and the spot for Hawai’i was already taken. I was bummed, but it was expected. I added my name to the waitlist in which I would be notified if the student who was planning to go to Hawai’i dropped out.

Some time passed, and I got an email that same year from Laura Malito, the coordinator for NSE at my school (and one of the kindest people that I’ve ever met), that the student dropped out because of complications with travel, and I was next in line! I was so excited and couldn’t believe that it was true. I responded to the email nearly as soon as I read it to tell her that I wanted to take the opportunity and learn more about how to get started.

I researched all about the islands and learned that the Big Island of Hawai’i contained two volcanoes, one of which called Mauna Kea was larger than Mt. Everest from its base below sea level to its peak. The town of Hilo was a smaller, quaint and quiet town known for its beautiful untouched nature and small arts community. It was on the left side of the island on one side of a long and steep stretch of road that drove between Hilo side and Kona (a busier, touristy town) side of the island. The volcanoes were in the middle.

My coordinator Laura and I met a few times and went over information about how my class schedule would be at University of Hawai’i Hilo and if I had any elective room in my program evaluation to take courses to count towards my program. Luckily I had the credit allowance. We looked over possible courses for me to take, dorming options, and any tuition cost differences. The tuition cost for the semester would be just around the same price, too. I would be taking a few native Hawaiian courses, Hawaiian Ethnozoology course and a Hawaiian Language and Culture course.

I was pretty confused during the process because I thought of Hawai’i as a foreign country and I had no idea what to expect. I wasn’t nervous, but there were many moving pieces and I wanted to make sure that I didn’t mess anything up and somehow not end up with a place to stay on the campus or with credits that wouldn’t count towards my program. The process itself was actually sort of confusing because there wasn’t much communication from the coordinator on UH Hilo’s side. I sort of felt like I was going in blind, but me being the dangerously curious and freespirited person that I am, I was ready to take on any challenge that would come my way.

Since I would be going to Hawai’i the Spring semester, I moved all of my things out of my dorm that year at the end of the Fall semester. At the time, I was living in a pod-style dorm that had 4 bedrooms that I shared with 5 other people. The dorm building was called Hampton. We all had so much fun living there together. They all said that they were going to miss me a lot once I left. I wouldn’t see them until the summer after that year of college had ended.

My family and I booked my flights that were quite expensive. Packing was kind of hard. To be honest I didn’t know what I was going to need there. It turned out that I didn’t end up needing much because I basically lived on beaches wearing the same 5 articles of clothing the whole time that I was there. But I packed a suitcase of summer clothing and a few warmer clothing items. My mom aggressively packed an entire slew of emergency items that she thought that I might need, per usual. I shooed away many of her attempts at protection because Noelle is of course a free bird that mustn’t allow herself to accept such offerings.

The night before I left for Hawai’i I went over my friend Ocean’s house who lived in town right down the street. She had several questionable people over (per usual). They were acting strange and one of them left to go downtown for some reason. Some time had passed, and Ocean, one of the questionable friend’s named Sebastian and I got a phone call from the other questionable friend. I believe his name was Jake. He had gotten arrested at a gas station nearby and was on some sort of pills. Ocean and Sebastian started panicking and wanted to go to the police station which was right down the road to go and bail him out. I had taken a shot of vodka an hour prior, Ocean might have taken Xanax, and I think that Sebastian was on some sort of pills. Sebastian was going to drive. Me being my incredibly naive self at the time didn’t think anything of this. It was just right down the street, right?

We drove to the police station with the windows down. This night for me felt like the night before a field trip in elementary school. I was living it up, carefree and just happy to be doing something random and wild. We got to the police station and Sebastian got out of the car to go inside to talk to the police. Our mission was to bail Jake out. Sebastian was inside for a while as Ocean and I sat in his car waiting for him to come back out. Eventually a police officer came outside up to the car window and started questioning us. He asked if we had been drinking. I said no. He could tell that I wasn’t being truthful but acted like he didn’t to freak me out and hopefully get me to admit that I consumed any amount of alcohol that night. He questioned Ocean too. Then he went back inside and brought Sebastian out. They made him do a walking sobriety test and he failed. They brought him inside and told Ocean and I that they would be detaining him. We called our friend Elizabeth who I think came to pick us up and bring us back to Ocean’s house.

We got back to Ocean’s and we sat there feeling lucky that we didn’t get caught for anything. Eventually, we got a call from Sebastian at the police station that his car was searched and the officer found Xanax in the side of his car. He already had a DUI, and taking the charge for possession apparently would add quite a few consequences to his situation. He begged Ocean to lie and say that the Xanax were hers so that he could get off a little cleaner. She actually debated agreeing to it until I convinced her not to. Crazy business.

My flight was at 8am. I went home to my parents’ at 4am to get my bags, finish up some last-minute packing and hit the road to the airport. The night was so uncharacteristic and random and I remember feeling very lucky that I didn’t get in deep shit right before I was about to go on my semester-long field trip to Hawai’i.