Username;; Credit
Name;; Koa ("Fighter" in Hawaiian)
Gender;; Male
Journal Entry;;
Aloha, or greetings. My name is Koa, which means fighter in my native language. Before you lies one of my prized possessions that I have never really shown to anyone before. My journal. Within its pages is a story of my Kuleana, my right of passage, from being a boy to a man. “Loaa ia oukou heluhelu iho” (enjoy your read) (61)
June 1st
"The day I earned my mark
June 1st, a day I shall never forget as long as I live. Today was the day of my Kuleana, and it couldn’t have been any better. Today, was the day I earned my tribal markings. No longer am I a bare kit, I am now and adult. An adult that has their place within my mighty tribe. The look my Makuakāne (Dad) gave me was nothing like I had seen before… Finally. I had finally gotten that long awaited smile that I’ve never gotten from him before. It all started at 8:00am in my lovely home state known as Hawaii. My Makuahine (Mom) and I were out by the seaside gathering breakfast for my Kūpuna (grandparents) as they are too old to walk far distances. I’ve had plenty of great gathering experiences with my mother as a kit, but I’d rather not go into detail about it all as I would run out of room on the page. The only thing on my mind at the time was what was supposed to come later, The Kuleana. I nearly dropped 5 coconuts onto Makuahine!!
I apologize for jumping around, but I’m sure no one is going to read this, so I have permission to. My day continued on like any other, but it was around 6:00pm which was an hour away from the ceremony, and boy was I nervous! My stomach turned and the butterflies began to hatch from their cocoons and buzz around. As my father and I have never really had a good experience, I went to Kupunakāne (grandfather) to get some advice from him as his memory isn't the best, my conquest turned into a story about how he lost his teeth in some made up war of the sponges and fish. It’s best just to listen even though he gets off topic, but I love him so and it kinda helped me forget.
The last thing I remember was the actual ceremony itself. There I was, on the sandy beach of Kaanapali, Maui. There I was, standing in the ring with fire surrounding every corner. Kalon Kuleanas are quite different to those of a human. The point is to escape, whatever method you use, chooses the marks you wear. I honestly didn’t know what to do. The entire thing became a blur. The next thing I knew, the crowd was going wild. The crowd was cheering, the fire was reduced to ashes, and my family. They were all crying with joy, even grandpa, who swore he lost the ability. Then my father. He-he smiled at me. Why? Because I wear the marks of a warrior.
Word count: 500/500
( Minimum 100 words Max 500, one piece of art optional)Res~
