Parallels

There's safety in familiarity, being around people and places we've grown to know, following a path that we've travelled before. I guess that's one reason I moved back to Samoa after ten years in New Zealand. It was a safe move for me, I was going home and while moving back to the States could also be viewed as a move back home since I was born here, it doesn't really feel like it. Maybe that's why most of my extended family still live in New Zealand and to a lesser extent Australia; it's in the comfort zone and it's become a safe place to be.

However, I can gain some comfort from the parallels I see in how I was brought up as a kid and how Madison will be raised now in the States. My parents moved back to the States from Samoa and raised us three kids for the first third of our lives (for me it's more like a fourth now yikes!) in the States and I can safely say from experience that the school systems in the US are superior to what's available in Samoa. It should give Maddy a head start in life, something every parent wants for their kids.

The difference for Madison will be that while we spoke English first before picking up Samoan, his first language is Samoan so he might struggle a li'l bit communicating with other kids here in the US. Then again, he might not because he's such a clever little boy and I shouldn't put it beyond him, I'm sure he's smarter at this age than I was at the same age.