In the article called "Surfer Girls", Susan Orlean tells of a few days she spent with a group of adolescent girls (ages 12-15) who live in a remote impoverished part of Maui, Hawaii. They live hours away from the nearest city in homes where phones are scarce. They are being raised by mostly single mothers and most of them are home schooled. What do they do for fun? They surf! They are good at it and a few of them might be able to compete at it at a national level.

As I read the story, I had mixed feelings. I thought about how lucky they were to lead such carefree lives in paradise. I started to think about visiting my grandparents when I was a growing up. They lived in a remote house in northern Wisconsin. The closest town had 150 people and was 5 miles away. When we were kids it was great. We would spend whole summers there and all we had to do was play all day. Some of my fondest memories growing up are of the summers we spent at Grandma's house.

When I got older, the visits got shorter. A weekend or a week at the most. There didn't seem to be enough to do any more. I liked to visit but I never would have wanted to grow up there. I had acquired a taste for things that I couldn't find there. For instance I liked to be in plays, play in the band, and sing in the choir. So many of the things I did growing up would not had happened there. I might have felt differently had I learned to fish or hunt.

The girls in this article surfed. They surfed and they surfed and they surfed. I wondered if they were happy. I wondered what their plans for the future might be. Could they go to college? What kind of work would they be qualified for? Why did they swear so much? I decided that I didn't like them very much. Actually I felt sorry for them. I admired them for there surfing skills but it seemed such an unimportant part of what should make up a life. It should not be the center of your universe.

I wondered if any of them ever learned how to read music or speak a foreign language. Would any of them care to? Could they if they wanted to? What will happen when they get to old to surf? When they leave home how will they feel when they think back? Are they being prepared to move forward? For now they are young and have plenty of time to worry about the future. I wish them luck. I think they will need it.

-- Anonymous, May 05, 1999