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• We sold our home in Honolulu and used the money to buy 4.5 acres of land with no house.
• We'd always dreamt of owning land, but the reality of no plumbing or house is hard at times.
• I'm not sure I'd do it again given the chance, but for now I'm motivated to keep going.

Owning land and being immersed in nature was always our dream, which we'd talked about since our early dating days.

I met my husband when I was 30. We moved into a small studio one month after meeting, and married six years later.

Our pattern has been a series of slow and fast. We were engaged for two years, but we spontaneously planned our wedding in two and a half weeks.

So it wasn't too surprising when, after living in our small plantation-style home in Honolulu for 11 years, we decided on a whim to sell it and use the profits to fund our long-sought dream.

We traded our house for land

We bought 4.67 acres of raw land on a rural, dusty, and very hot part of the island, in Waianae.

Our new home, which we moved to in August 2023, came with a massive warehouse that the previous owner had used for salvaged boats.

There was a water line, but no plumbing, no power, and definitely no house. The land was covered in invasive trees and weeds, but we could see the potential.

We told ourselves the move was an adventure, and it is—one that I'm not sure I'd do over, given the chance.

It's been one of the hardest things we've ever done

We live off-grid with our two young boys, ages 5 and 8, who attend a public Hawaiian charter school that runs from preK to high school.

Our kitchen sits under a giant tent between two shipping containers. We sleep in what's essentially a metal box with windows.

We shower and use the bathroom in a makeshift space inside the warehouse. A friend once joked, "You guys have really long outdoor hallways."

At night, it's just us, crickets, and the stars. It's romantic, until it's not.

The dream was sparkly. The reality is gritty.

This new life is a rough dance between ambition, uncertainty, and a serious lack of skills.

While the idea of self-sufficiency felt liberating, the trade-offs are a hard reality check. Our electricity comes from old solar panels that often need repairs.

The chickens I once romanticized poop on everything.

The weeds? They're relentless. I'll clear a section one weekend, only to find it overrun again the next.

We haul out our own trash. We haul in propane. Dust storms coat everything in a layer of coral-colored silt.

The heat, which averages 86 degrees Fahrenheit and 30% humidity year-round, is merciless. We have shade and occasional breezes to keep us cool, but no air conditioning.

At first, finding solutions through the chaos felt like growth. However, the charm wears off fast when you're making dinner in the rain and your dirt-floor kitchen turns to mud.

We got swept up in the potential of it all without stopping to think practically

All the money from our house sale went into buying the land, which means there's little left for development.

My husband is clever and capable, but the skills needed to turn our dream of healing the soil and building a house into reality are more than we planned for.

Before, in our previous home, necessary fixes were small, like building a fence and repairing the garbage disposal whenever it was on the fritz. Now, my husband is learning how to drive and repair a backhoe and replace solar panels.

As for me, I feel useless many days. I still can't start the generator or wood chipper without his help. And that's assuming it's a day we're not both working our regular jobs just to get by and save for future projects.

Despite the hardship, there have been many good moments

I cherish the moments when the boys are running wild with the chickens or picking fruit from trees we planted.

I get excited when the garden overflows and we can share the abundance with friends and neighbors.

Even two years into this life, I still get giddy collecting eggs every morning.

We live under an open sky and are surrounded by raw beauty (if you can look past the to-do list and piles of weeds).

These moments remind me of what we came for.

However, I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss city water, trash pickup, or being close to friends. There are days I wonder: What the hell did we do?

So is it worth it? Ask me in 5 years

The truth is, I don't know if it has been worth it.

We're still in the messy middle. There's no tidy ending to our story. We're tired, yet proud that we've made it this far.

We traded ease for challenge, predictability for possibility. I miss our old house, but I'm committed to our new dream.

Even if we eventually call it a phase—our "Remember when we tried to homestead in our 40s?" moment—it's a life we reached for, not one that just happened to us.

For now, that feels like enough to keep going.

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• Education organizations raised the alarm on Trump's plans to dismantle the Department of Education.
• They told Sen. Elizabeth Warren that student-loan borrowers could see higher balances and fewer options for relief.
• It comes after the Supreme Court ruled the department can move forward with firing nearly 1,400 of its staffers.

From higher student-loan balances to lower college attendance, education groups have a list of concerns with President Donald Trump's plans to dismantle the Department of Education.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren released a report on Thursday — exclusively viewed by Business Insider — compiling responses she received from 11 national organizations regarding the impact of Trump's education plans on students and borrowers.

The fate of student-loan borrowers was among the groups' top concerns. The Supreme Court recently ruled that the Department of Education's plan to lay off nearly 1,400 of its employees can proceed, meaning that the Federal Student Aid office — which the report said administers over $120 billion in grants and student loans annually — would lose staff.

The American Council on Education told Warren that "delayed funding, especially in the instances of student financial aid, can result in the inability of students to enroll for classes and persist through to completion in a timely fashion, causing them to take on more student loan debt to complete their degrees."

Delays in receiving federal student aid could also lead some students to turn to private lenders; the NEA said that private student loans often have riskier terms and can lead to predatory lending. They might be the only route students have if they cannot receive federal student loans promptly.

This report comes amid a summer of changes for student-loan borrowers and education overall. The administration announced in April that it was restarting collections on defaulted student loans after a five-year pause. Interest charges resumed on 8 million borrowers' balances on August 1 after a year on pause, and Trump's spending bill, which he signed into law on July 4, codified significant changes to the repayment system.

Specifically, the bill included a $200,000 lifetime cap on borrowing for professional students, like those seeking medical or law school. Average tuition is higher than that cap, and education analysts previously told BI that the cap could either turn students to private lending or lead them to forgo their advanced degrees altogether.

The spending law also eliminated existing income-driven repayment plans, include the SAVE plan, and replaced them with two options: a standard repayment plan and a new Repayment Assistance Plan, which allows borrowers to make payments based on their income with forgiveness after 30 years.

Some of the organizations said in the report that the new repayment plans could leave borrowers with higher monthly payments, and minimal staffing at Federal Student Aid will exacerbate the challenges of attaining affordable payments.

In addition to repayment changes, the report also highlighted Trump's intent to transfer the facilitation of student loans from the Department of Education to another federal agency. While that hasn't yet happened, advocacy group Student Borrower Protection Center told Warren that moving "the student loan program at a time when borrowers are facing such significant borrower distress risks exacerbating the confusion and instability borrowers are already experiencing and risks even more borrowers falling through the cracks."

Trump's efforts to dismantle the Department of Education have been in action for months. In February, the administration cut more than $900 million in research contracts, which department employees previously told BI would stifle data collection and jeopardize funding for low-income schools.

Linda McMahon, Trump's education secretary, has previously acknowledged that she cannot eliminate the Department of Education without congressional approval. She has supported slashing the department's workforce, though, saying in a statement following the Supreme Court's ruling that the cuts will move forward "to promote efficiency and accountability and to ensure resources are directed where they matter most — to students, parents, and teachers."

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• US student applications to UK universities hit a record high amid political unrest at home.
• UCAS reported 7,930 US applicants for fall 2025 — the highest number since tracking began in 2006.
• A surge in international university interest comes amid Trump's crackdown on elite colleges.

A record number of American students are turning to British universities amid mounting political pressure on higher education in the US.

New figures released Thursday by UCAS, the UK's university admission service, show that 7,930 students from the US applied for UK undergraduate courses for fall 2025 — a 13.9% increase from the previous year and the highest total since records began in 2006.

The rise comes as UK universities experience a broad surge in applications, with this year's total number of applicants reaching 665,070, up 1.3% year-on-year, with UK 18-year-olds also hitting a record high of 328,390 applicants.

International applications rose 2.2% overall, with significant increases from China, Nigeria, Ireland, and, notably, the US.

The jump in American interest coincides with a growing sense of instability in US higher education.

Since returning to office, President Donald Trump has launched an unprecedented crackdown on universities, freezing billions in federal funding and threatening elite institutions like Harvard and Columbia with sweeping restrictions.

His administration has cited concerns over antisemitism, diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, and campus activism.

Harvard alone has sued the federal government after $8.9 billion in grants and contracts were frozen when it refused Trump's demands, including scaling back DEI initiatives and limiting admissions of international students.

The White House has also threatened to revoke the school's tax-exempt status and launched reviews into dozens of other universities, including Princeton, Columbia, and Cornell.

While some universities, like Columbia, have conceded to Trump's conditions to restore funding, others, including Harvard, have opted to fight back in court.

Some international universities have seized the moment by launching fast-track admissions, extending application deadlines, and dangling "unconditional offers" — even promoting proximity to tropical getaways — in a bid to lure US and international students away from American institutions.

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• French air traffic control strikes disrupted over a million passengers across Europe in early July.
• Workers and the French government are at an impasse, and further strikes are possible.
• If you're traveling to Europe this summer, be aware that you could face delays or cancellations.

Strikes by French air traffic controllers affected over a million people's travel plans this month — and may be set to continue.

Citing understaffing and poor management from a government agency, France's second-largest ATC union, UNSA-ICNA, went on strike on July 3 and 4.

Each day, an average of around 3,700 flights were delayed and 1,400 were canceled, according to a report from Eurocontrol, the central organisation for air traffic management on the continent.

It is estimated that this cost airlines around 120 million euros, or $140 million.

The effects spread beyond France, given the international nature of aviation, and the fact that many neighbors frequently fly over the country.

"An ATC strike in France has the potential to impact a third of flights across the continent, showing the disproportionate impact that disruptions in one busy country can have on the European network as a whole," Eurocontrol wrote in its report.

It added that Spain was the worst affected, followed by France and the UK.

What does this mean if you have travel plans in Europe

While the unions haven't announced any further action, it's possible there may be more strikes.

France's transport minister, Philippe Tabarot, called the demands "unacceptable" and expressed annoyance that strikes were targeted in the busy summer vacation travel period.

UNSA-ICNA wants pay rises in line with inflation following a 2023 agreement, more staffing, and better working conditions.

Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary said in a statement last Friday: "What's stopping French air traffic controllers from closing the EU skies again next week or the week after with more of these unjustified recreational strikes?"

The Irish budget airline, Europe's biggest, canceled 170 flights affecting 30,000 passengers.

This all means you should be wary if you're flying to France this summer, or have another journey flying over the country, known as an overflight.

If your plan is to travel between two European countries, the continent at least has a strong rail network as an alternative. The Eurostar also links the UK and France.

However, European Union legislation about compensation for flight delays absolves airlines when there are "extraordinary circumstances," which include strikes outside their control.

Nonetheless, airlines are still obligated to get passengers to their destination on the next available flight.

With no deal on the horizon, disruption could occur again.

O'Leary has called on EU President Ursula von der Leyen to quit if she can't guarantee protections for overflights during ATC strikes and maintain full staffing during the first wave of departures each day.

Meanwhile, British budget airline easyJet saw its stock price fall more than 5% Thursday morning after declaring a £15 million ($20 million) hit due to the strike. That was despite higher profits, although fuel costs also went up.

"We are extremely unhappy with the strike action by the French ATC in early July, which, as well as presenting unacceptable challenges for customers and crew, also created unexpected and significant costs for all airlines," said CEO Kenton Jarvis.

Were you affected by French air traffic control strikes? Have you experienced a European flightmare this summer? Contact this reporter at [email protected]

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Olena Perez, 34, told Newsweek she feels "overwhelmed by the love" but also saddened by the negative comments on her video.

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President Trump's push to switch the sweetener in Coke to cane sugar could cost thousands of U.S. jobs, an influential corn industry group said.

Why it matters: A can of soda just became a minor political crisis, adding to a White House pile that includes the Jeffrey Epstein controversy, drama at the Federal Reserve, and a near-boiling trade war.

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Catch up quick: Trump, in a Truth Social post Wednesday night, said Coca-Cola Co. had agreed to use real cane sugar in its products, which he added was "just better!"

• The company later issued a statement that did not confirm it was switching its entire Coke product line to cane sugar, saying only it would have "more details on new innovative offerings" soon.

Yes, but: That was enough for the Corn Refiners Association to warn Wednesday of huge consequences.

• "Replacing high fructose corn syrup with cane sugar would cost thousands of American food manufacturing jobs, depress farm income, and boost imports of foreign sugar, all with no nutritional benefit," the group's president and CEO, John Bode, said in a statement on its website.
• Bode's group is the trade association representing companies that make sweeteners, oils and other products from corn.

The intrigue: If Coke really did shift entirely to cane sugar from high fructose corn syrup, it could represent an economic hit to Iowa (the country's largest corn producer), while serving as a boon to Florida (the top cane sugar producer).

• It would also weigh heavily on the corn industry.

By the numbers: Shares in Archer Daniels Midland, a leading corn processor, fell almost 6% in pre-market trading Thursday, a potential hit to investors of around $1.5 billion.

• Shares in Ingredion, another major corn refiner, were down almost 7% pre-market.

The bottom line: Coke's product roadmap was always of high interest to farmers and investors.

• Now, it'll be near the top of the D.C. agenda, too.