A palm-fringed island is no paradise when you can’t see your family

‘Being stuck here on a dreamy island in the middle of the South Pacific – going on five months now with nothing to do and no end in sight – has made me reevaluate what paradise actually is,’ Rob Small tells Sadie Whitelocks

A view that says paradise to most (Rob Small)

I am sitting here on a white sand beach in Upolu, Samoa, with turquoise waters stretching before me and palm trees blowing in the breeze, and to many people, including many of my friends, this view is paradise.

But being stuck on a dreamy island in the middle of the South Pacific – going on five months now, with nothing to do and no end in sight – has made me reevaluate what paradise actually is.

I’ve come to familiarise myself with a line from the movie The Beach about what paradise means; it’s “not where you go. It’s how you feel for a moment in your life when you’re a part of something”.