BYUH alumnus say he wants to do whatever he can to support his future family
Once set on becoming a pilot, Au’ahi Aiu, an alumnus with a degree in business management from Kahuku, said it was no longer his main career path and his future plans involve him going to law school. He said if he could go back in time, he would like to tell his younger self to not be scared of all that is ahead but to have courage, separate the good from the bad and focus on all the good.
To focus his career path, Aiu said he changed his major from biochemistry to business between his freshman and senior year. With many decisions and changes made over the last several years of his life, Aiu said the change in what he wanted to do with his life did not happen overnight.
Deciding a path
“The very first thing was realizing flying and the military are not career paths for me because I had a good career mentor at Career Services, J Smith. He was amazing, Dare I say he was one of the best ones. His mentorship helped me realize there’s something else, and so that made me search. [This] pushed me into more of the business sector. I was taking entrepreneurship classes at the time, but then I met Paul Wilson. His background is marketing,” which Aiu said he thought sounded like a useful skill.
When sophomore year came along, Aiu said he was still unsure of what to do for his major, but decided he needed to make a decision soon, ultimately deciding to major in business. After taking a class about business law, Aiu said he was fascinated by the subject, and said it helped him realize he really liked law. This, he said, prompted him to get a legal studies certificate.
In hindsight, Aiu said he saw everything had worked out how it was supposed to, but clarified that at the moment, it did not feel that way. During the time he was trying to figure out what he wanted for his career, he said he was looking for something that would give him the most options in the future.
“It was very scary in the times in which I didn’t know what to do next, where I was unsure. For example, just before I decided on my business management major, I had to pick. That was actually pretty scary,” he explained, saying he felt he was running out of time and wanted to use his four years at BYUH to the fullest.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Aiu said he experienced strong anxiety and distress because of all the uncertainty. “It just took a lot to get to the point of where now I’m okay with it.” He said being at a Church university helped him remember to trust in God. “It took me a while to actually trust Him more and be like, ‘Okay, everything’s gonna turn out fine.’ It took me quite a while to realize I can do what I want.
“In a very real sense, I could do whatever I want. After realizing that, it just takes time to get to that ambition or goal. It’s about just picking a direction and just going for it, and just adapting wherever,” he said.
“In the grand scheme of things, my hope is to return to Heavenly Father,” he said. “I know not everyone believes in religion, … but that, for me, helps. It helps with keeping me moving forward. For me, there’s more after this than just death, but in a quite literal sense eternal progression.”
Seeing God's hand in his life
Aiu said for a while, he had a hard time listening to his Heavenly Father but needed divine help when deciding what career path to take in life. “I realize more and more he’s always there. Even when I can’t hear him, or I don’t want to hear. I’m still very human. There are definitely times when I don’t wanna listen.” In those times, Aiu said he made simple mistakes, but God found a way to make things right.
He also said he is able to see the Lord’s hand in his life through the people he meets, including his career mentors, professors and academic advisor, who he said always provided him with good advice as he figured out what he wanted to do.
Aiu said he does not know where specifically he will end up after going to law school, but he has an idea of the direction he wishes to go in. “For myself, I want to improve myself. I want to be able to understand the logic better, of just the world. I want to be a better person to see all sides of an argument or situation, and then I want to be able to have the confidence enough to essentially, either fight for myself, fight on behalf of someone else or set up the means necessary to protect them.”
He continued, “One of the things I know I want to do is facilitate process, or essentially make things go faster. I realized here I was pretty good at learning the ins and outs of bureaucracy, or the steps to get to an end. … I feel like in the same way, serving people would be to [first], helping them as fast as I can, making sure they get what they need as fast as they can. But also, [second] what they need, not necessarily what they want. If I can get them what they want, that would be great. But sometimes, getting what you want is not possible.”
Mentorship
With a mentorship from Jennifer Kajiyama Tinkman, an adjunct assistant professor in the Faculty of Business & Government, Aiu said he became even more convinced of what he wanted to do with his life.
“One of [Kajiyama Tinkman’s] emphases in class is being a lawyer allows you to be an advocate for people. So in serving people, I think that’s what I also want to do, is advocate for people. [I want] to help them find protection from the law, rather than viewing the law as something to just throw people under the bus,” he said. He added he wants to show people there were legal remedies for their problems.
He explained another part of his motivation is "internal” because he said he wants to provide for his family. “It’s definitely not an easy profession. Even now I’m still struggling to pass the LSAT [Law School Admissions Test], and that’s been terribly hard.”
Seeking balance in life
Aiu said the skills he has learned will also be applicable to the way he cares for his future family. “I also have to, in a very real sense, legally protect my family from this kind of litigious, [contentious] world, or just this world in general. So I feel like the law is one way to protect them. [I want] to provide, obviously financially, but also to be there for them. The hope is that I get to a point where I’m good enough so I can keep work at work, and when I get home, I can be with my family and be present.”
Aiu said finding the balance between his career and his family in the future is a little scary for him. “The thing here is whenever I think about it, a lot of my worries come out. … Because I don’t have all the answers right now.… I think right now the guiding factor is make sure I stay in the church, and more so stay close to God, listening to the Holy Spirit and doing everything I can to be good. I think those are my guiding principles.”
Discovering purpose
Although he is moving toward law school, Aiu said airplanes still provide great inspiration for him. “I don’t necessarily think it’s the actual career [being a pilot] that is inspiring, although it totally can be. I think a stronger inspiration and motivation is more of what it stands for. I think for me, the reason aviation and flying were so inspirational to me was that sense of freedom. Like not being tied to the ground, if you will, but always being able to return to the ground.”
For a long time, Aiu said he believed his purpose in life was to protect, and interpreted this to mean he had to learn to physically fight as a fighter pilot. He said he eventually realized, around spring 2022, that he did not need to become a fighter pilot in order to be a protector. For him, Aiu said the challenges he has faced have all been about finding his “why,” or his purpose in life.
“It doesn’t have to be perfect,” he said, referring to the “why,” but he added how someone’s “why” is related to what they fight for, and the ideal world they seek to help build.
