ABSTRACT
Everyone always comments on how difficult it must have been to move from the balmy climate of Hawaii, where I was born, to the frozen winters of Alaska, where my family moved when I was seven and where I graduated from high school. I always respond that making the adjustment was not a problem at all—children can take all kinds of changes in their stride. No one has ever stopped to ask me about the more difficult adjustment I had to make—losing my membership in a majority group and becoming a member of a minority. Going through that culture shock was much more challenging than adjusting to simple temperature changes.
