As we grow up, not many of us will notice the struggles, sacrifices and effort our parents put into our upbringing.

But for Peter Salanoa from Malololelei, he has noticed the struggles. Being only 18-years-old, Peter has already set a life goal to repay his parents for everything they have done for him.

“Life in Samoa is not easy,” he told the Village Voice.

“That’s why I said I want a good future; I want to be able to pay them back for all the struggles they went through. I know it’s going to take a very long time before I am able to pay them back because they worked so hard.

“That’s my own opinion; I don’t about others who say that life is easy; to me it’s not easy at all.”

With many other youths dreaming of different worldly pleasures, Peter’s dream is simple; he just wants to help his loved ones.

“My ultimate goal in life is to get a good future,” he said.

“I want a good future so that I can do my part in the family and to take care of them when the time comes. I also want to contribute to my church because I am a Bahai youth and I want to do my part.

“I know that the key to a good future is hard work. My majors in school are tourism and hospitality. I wanted to be a police man at first but after observing the tourism industry, I want to end up working at the Sheraton.”

When asked about issues for youths in Samoa, Peter says the only one he can think of is school violence. He says the best way to stay out of that nonsense is to stay away from town.

“Samoa does have its own share of problems like school violence,” he said.

“But issues like that starts from individual children.”

“With so many fights going on lately, I know for a fact that it’s not the fault of the school, it’s the fault of the students within that school. They don’t show respect.”

“I attend Martin Hautus School so we don’t get into much trouble because we stay away from town but I was bullied by a lot of students from Avele.”

“So I think the cause is when one school students beat up someone from another school then they get into a big fight.”