Life In The Days

It’s really hard for me to stop thinking about my grandfather. Whenever I’m alone I recall all the stories he told me about how he grew up all alone in Pohnpei far from his home island, brothers and sisters and especially his parents. My grandfather was the first one in his family to graduate from high school and get his Bachelor’s Degree. During his high school years, he wore only one pair of clothes for a week and would hand wash his clothes after his classes on the weekends. For breakfast he would eat a type of food that is made out of bread but is really dry and has no taste. Sometimes he would skip lunch to get his assignments done. For two years he was living by himself until a miracle happened to him. One of his classmates took him as a brother and brought him to his family. My grandfather learned their language fast and spoke it well like he was born there. After his graduation he then moved back to the Marshall Islands and started out fresh. His first career was a teacher at Marshall Islands Christian High School down at Rongrong, one of the small islands near Majuro, the capital city of the Marshall Islands. A year later after his oldest sibling’s funeral, he and his girlfriend moved to Boston to attend college and achieve something more than his high school diploma. After getting his degree he and his beautiful girl friend moved to Hawaii and have been living there ever since. What I like about my grandfather is that he doesn’t complain or get mad easily about anything. The only reason why I’m still in school is because my grandfather’s stories keep me motivated. My grandfather use to say “whenever you are quitting on something you’ve already started, then you are quitting on me”, and so I keep on moving with all I can.

Abashai Langrine