Photo by Mark M.

Ten years ago, I could have never imagined a holiday without being around my immediate family. Being from a small Midwestern town, everyone is expected to come home during the fast paced November and December months. Thanksgiving Eve became known as the biggest night of the year, impromptu reunions filled every restaurant and bar in Canton, Ohio. Yet, once I moved 3000 miles away from home to California, I could not afford plane tickets for each holiday season.

One of the most amazing holidays I had was Thanksgiving the year I lived in Hawaii. I had been living there for several months and made one friend, Teresa, an implant from London. Making friends as an adult is tough, and I was thankful I had her, but we generally commiserated together on our failed attempts of developing a social circle. Echo, a mutual acquaintance, invited us to a local turkey dinner. It was to my surprise upon arrival that we were surrounded by a dozen individuals. I learned most were from the mainland. Most were expats who had relocated within the past year or several months. We had the commonality of being strangers in a new environment and being metaphorical adult orphans, with no local ohana (“family” in Hawaiian) to turn to. The dinner was potluck, and held by Elsie, a fellow world wanderer, and co-leader of a local dining group. The group was called Dinner Girl Boys Hawaii (DGBH), and members gathered biweekly to try new restaurants or return to favorite restaurants. The goal of joining this club was to meet new people, whether they were locals looking to expand their friendship circles or newbies looking for different ways to fit in.

Guests stayed past dinner. We shared stories, played Cranium, relaxed in a Jacuzzi. Numbers were exchanged; tentative plans were made for future events. Little did I know that my Hawaiian Thanksgiving would create the niche Teresa and I had been searching for. Throughout my year stay in Hawaii, I kept the bare skeleton of this Thanksgiving group as my locally formed family. We had future nights out together downtown, birthday parties, farewell parties, and of course the upcoming holidays were booked with these same folks. Throughout the years, I have kept in contact with most of these friends from that holiday dinner. I know when I return to Hawaii, I always will have my Ohana to greet me with open arms and a lei.