From Independent to Selfless

Eight months ago when I arrived in American Samoa I was very independent. I had been living on my own and cooking my own meals all summer long. After finishing college it was a complete wake up call. It was also refreshing and rewarding to be doing things on my own without the help of other people. I wanted to live on my own to prepare myself for moving to the island. I knew once I arrived here I wouldn’t be able to rely on my parents for much besides support. Being six thousand miles away means that they can’t just come over and fix my problems I would have to face it alone. I was excited for this adventure to see how it would all pan out being independent.

            The first couple of weeks here we spent in orientation getting to know the culture as much as we could. I remember one thing that we were told was to always ask for help from locals and to never face anything alone. I remember that going in one ear and out the other. I was thinking I can do this my self. I want to accomplish this year by myself without the help of other people.

            Over the course of these eight months I have learned so much about giving to others and not doing things on my own. I remember in the beginning I would always make food for just myself and my students could not understand why we didn’t all buy our food together and makes meals. For us we wanted to be independent and prove to ourselves we can do this alone. Now on Saturday nights and Sunday noon I am often busy in the kitchen preparing a big meal for Dana, Lusi, and I to eat. I used to be so worried that they were going to eat all my food but now I just make the food and trust that I buy enough groceries to make it through the week. It gives me a sense of happiness knowing that I am helping someone else and making their day a little easier.

            The Samoan was is to give all you got to others when they need it so that when you need something that person will be able to help you. They don’t care about money or how much something costs if a friend needs something you just give it to them without thinking twice about it. People have been bring us food all year long. I have received so many meals from people on the island. They just want to help us out and make sure that we are doing okay. Never fails that everytime we come back with groceries we have a whole bunch of people carrying our stuff. Most of the time I don’t even have to carry anything because they have enough people carrying it already. Multiple times I have been sitting at the bus stop waiting for a bus and a local goes hop in we can take you where you need to go. These people don’t care about themselves they just care about each other and making sure the people they care about are okay.

            That is what I love about this place. I know that if I ever get in trouble that these people will have my back. I have also learned to get/do things for other people just because it feels good and it makes the other person feel appreciated. I know that when I go home it will be hard to go back and not have these people around constantly being selfless and helping others.