Happy New Year all, or as we say in my native tongue, Hauoli (HOW-O-LEE) Makahiki (MAH-KAH-HEE-KEE) Hou (HO)! Each year, I trek home to the motherland to visit my ohana (family) and spend the holidays with them. Our family is not like any other family I know. I mean, we gather and eat together like other families, but our family is…. sorta nuts. And I mean that in a good way.
Our clan is a melting pot of primarily Hawaiian, Filipino, and Haole faces and we come from all areas of the world. No matter what happens, we all know that during the year, we are subliminally getting ready for “Ohana-Palooza” by mid-December. My ohana from New Jersey comes into town first and calls a luxury compound by the beach, “home” for several weeks. It serves as headquarters for all of the activities, if you will. That means cooking, swimming, bike riding, lounging, and for playing several rounds of board games from Scrabble (uhhh, no… “Bave” and “Zowe” are not real words), Catch Phrase (do yourself a favor-don’t do the music version and if you are, then consume wine), and Pictionary (this is where we discover that some of us are cute, but can’t draw).
During the days and nights of this gathering, there are keikis (children) crying, little boys screaming in the swimming pool, adults consuming amazing amounts of tasty wine, young parents having minor disagreements, lots of driving back and forth into Kona-town for supplies, lots of picture taking, but always… lots and lots of laughter. One of my most favorite things in life is the fact that when we are together during this very special time, we make all efforts to get our arses down to the beach in the afternoon in order to experience the sunset together.
What does this have to do with p.r. and marketing communications you ask? Well, in my opinion, it has everything to do with it. My entire career has always been about being on a deadline, turning in something on time, executing an event by a certain date, etc. I have always been a prisoner of a calendar. That’s what p.r. and marketing is… working 3 to 6 months ahead of time in order to get that piece of news in the newspaper, magazine, webzine, radio, or TV. What this time with my family does is help to keep me in check. It reminds me that no matter what goes on in L.A. or whatever other city that I work in, that where I’m from, and who I am as a person, stems from the lava rock that is my home, my foundation.
You can’t continue to go forward until you stop, and sit, to reflect on the past. To effectively stay creative to produce new work, you need to rest and recharge, or in our case, play under the Hawaiian sun. The year 2008 was an amazing time of growth for me, both personally and professionally. I can hardly wait to see what 2009 brings.
What have you learned in 2008 and what are you most looking forward to accomplishing in the New Year?
Aloha, Trace.
