When I moved to Hawaii in July 1974 when I was in my early 20s the plan was to live there til my dying days.  Sadly, I had to "raise the white flag" in late 2008.  I can't tell you how much I miss Hawaii and its people, but it gets harder to have a full time job plus one or two part time ones as one gets older.  I'll always treasure my years in Hawaii nei, and I was blessed to have been able to spend the best years of my life there in spite of the stressors.  The beauty and the people made it worthwhile.

It's depressing when life becomes all about working and trying to support oneself and nothing else.  That's especially true when salaries are low and the cost of living is high.  (The term, "affordable" is a joke in Hawaii where people are "busting okole" to survive.)  I remember politicians saying when I first arrived, "The cost of living in paradise."  Today many years later, they're seeing the result of settling for that line of thought as they see all of the homeless everywhere.