PUNAHOU SCHOOL

When I was 13, my parents' decided on Punahou school for me. After all, we knew Dr. Fox and elementary school was over..7th grade at Punahou, a school to become renown in 2009 when one of its students became President of the United States.

Punahou was wonderful. The campus was so beautiful with ancient trees, stone buildings from the 1800's, a lilly pond along with a huge track field framed with night blooming cereus covering lava rock walls that enclosed the entire campus. When those cereous were blooming, there was nothing more beautiful.

The classes were difficult...a lot of homework but nothing like what I had to do in the Philippines. My parents gave up a lot of pleasures for my education, but I think we all decided it was so well worth all of the struggles. They loved my boyfriend and his friends. They hung every piece of artwork I did on the living room wall. They were so very supportive. They were always available.

I wouldn't say I was in "the" popular group, but I was "friends" with all of them. Most of my classmates were from very wealthy families but I never really felt any inequality...That was what was so nice about Punahou. It was a conglomerate of students from all walks of life. Some were on scholarship, some were children of staff members that were there for free and some were from hugely wealthy families.

I always seemed to have a BEST FRIEND..not a group of friends. I was always friendly with those less accepted than myself.
My very first crush was a Filapino-Hawaiian football player, 2 years older than me. He was one of the star football players. We had such innocent fun. Football parties, proms, flower leis, holding hands. No one knew about drugs or felt the need for alcohol then...it just wasn't around. The only fear, in these days was the big "PG" Pregnancy..so if you were going to "do it" you'd better not get pregnant or even tell anyone. Abortion was not legal. Single motherhood was a socially unacceptable situation. Only going to a home and giving up baby, was the choice...so "intercourse" was a very big decison and boys had to have "rubbers"...are you kidding..birth control pills had not been invented!!! So...kisses were not French..they were "English"...what evah. My boyfriend and I were too afraid to "go all the way", as we called it.