Hawaii is a place of significance in my life; as a teenager after graduating from high school, age 18, lived there for nine months. Some of the experiences and decisions made there influenced the course of my life.
In Hawaii I spent a lot of time tying to find a job by reading want ads. There were three columns of available nursing jobs and they paid about ten times more than minimum wage.
During a visit to a friend who gave birth at a local hospital in Wailuku, Maui, looked around at the nurses and thought "I could do this." The hospital was quiet and they weren't dealing with food. I had spent time working in restaurants and didn't want to do that for the rest of my life.
The seed was planted.
