Meet Scott & Sylwia from Oahu, Hawaii

Scott was born in Rochester, NY and raised in Schenectady, NY. After graduating high school, at 18 years old, he enlisted in the United States army. His first assignment was in Germany. Sylwia was born and raised in Poland. At 15 years old, her parents moved her to Germany for better opportunities. Thirty three years ago, the couple met while attending a party with mutual friends in Germany. Sylwia said, “Actually, when we met, I wasn’t very nice. I told him that I wasn’t interested in having an American boyfriend. At the end of the evening, we both went our separate ways. A week later, we ended up attending birthday party together. From there, we became good friends.” Scott said, “At the time, I was in no place to have a relationship with Slywia. I was seeing someone back home in the United States. We were young. On leave for the holidays, I would return home to the United States. One particular holiday when I returned home, the person I was seeing broke up with me. There were no hard feelings and it was an amicable separation. I already knew where my heart was. After that, I pursued Sylwia and our friendship blossomed into a beautiful relationship.” Sylwia said, “I was in college at the time to become a medical assistant. When Scott finished his service in Germany, he was sent to serve in Texas and I could not follow him. Having long-distance relationship is incredibly hard. It was even more difficult back then when cell phones weren’t as popular as they are now. Much of our correspondence was through handwritten letters. Sometimes we would buy long distance calling cards and set up specific times to call each other from phone booths.” When Sylwia graduated college, she came to the United States to spend the summer in Texas with Scott. At the end of summer, she returned home to Germany and began working as a medical assistant. She worked for a few months and then decided she had two choices in life that she could make. She said, “I knew I could continue living and working in Germany and live a happy life, but I also knew in the back of my mind that I would always wonder what “would’ve been”if I didn’t take the chance to move overseas to be with Scott. So. that’s what I did. I left everything that knew behind for the man that I loved.” The couple has been married for 30 years and have two children together. Their 26-year-old son, Zachary, works for the US Government in Hawaii. Their 22-year-old daughter, Maya, just graduated from Syracuse University with her degree in social work. During their marriage, they have lived in Texas, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Maryland, Japan, Germany (multiple times), and they are currently living in Hawaii. They said, “Home is where your heart is. To us, home is each other and family. We are currently working on becoming assigned to Italy. After that, who knows where we will go, but we are open to any opportunity. Life is for experiencing. Moving from country to country and place to place is definitely not something that is easy. There are cultural differences and language barriers. Being a foreigner in a new place, whether it be a new state or new country, is challenging. The challenge is worth it. Books are a great form of education but they are no comparison to the education of experience.” They believe that their relationship works so well because they are very opposite. Scott is very aggressive and organized. Sylwia is more of a go-with-the flow kind of person. She can connect with anyone she speaks with. They believe that communication is everything. Sylwia and Scott honor each other’s individuality and independence. While they love spending time together, they also do things separately. Saturdays are usually that day for them. Sylwia loves to go hiking and be in nature and Scott loves to go golfing. The one thing they want to tell the world is, “Don’t be afraid to live life. Don’t hold back. Take chances. What you are not changing you are choosing.” Thank you so much for visiting!