It’s going to be amazing. It’s going to change your life. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. You won’t regret it. It’s going to be fine. It’s going to go by so fast. You’ll miss it when you’re gone.
It’s something you don’t understand until you experience it. What I thought were empty words, just couldn’t be filled until Dublin. It’s a rollercoaster of steep hills and then sudden drops where your stomach falls through you. Every day is filled with new experiences, accomplishments, failures, embarrassments and insights. A month with the same people in small living arrangements, classroom settings, and weekend trips has led me to build relationships, while also find out new things about myself. A weekend in Mullagh solidified for me the unexpected opportunities that life can give you to change – for better or for worse. But I’d like to think Mullagh brought the benefits of change to each one of us in some small way. It might have been the chance to stand up on stage and perform a skit that you had created ten minutes prior, or being in front of the townspeople of Mullagh performing an Irish folklore, or it could have been listening to Liams inspirational story about how his life was changed after returning to school. Those two days were an exercise in self-confidence and acceptance and a way to open up our minds and bodies in a totally different way than we have since coming to Dublin. Two days of hanging out and goofing off, while at the same time learning so much about drama, the theatre, and each other. As Chris put it perfectly during our goodbye circle full of clapping and inspirational speeches, we are walking away no less exhausted but somehow more relaxed. This trip solidified a certain frame of mind for me. To never livee in the cement walls of a city again….BUT to also take every opportunity you can, no matter how small, and give it everything you got. My time in Dublin has been giving me so many amazing opportunities to grow and to learn, and the trouble is I want to take them all. Of course some things are going to fall to the background, but I will take as many as I can get. I now know that I like going to the theatre and that I can make some sense of Joyce. It’s about the new experiences, as well as building on the person you were when you started this trip. All except for two people on this trip I did not know at all, and after a month of sharing with, caring for, and embarrassing each other, I am happy to say I can call each one a friend. I will continue to learn more about myself, the lovely people I am sharing many a bus rides with, as well as Ireland.